Saturday, August 23, 2014

Solar City

While I was picking up a few things in Home Depot this morning, I passed a kiosk for Solar City with a sign out front announcing that they now work with our power utility!

The basic concept of Solar City is that they will sell, install and maintain solar panels at your house, and after a tax credit, it's all "at no cost to you!" They make their money due to net-metering - any profits made by selling surplus electricity back to the utility go directly to Solar City.

One of the things Brianna and I were looking for in a house was a south-facing roof, so we would have the possibility of solar power in the future. And we did wind up buying a house with a south-facing roof.

Solar City's offer sounds too good to be true, so I'm going to have to read their terms carefully before pursuing this further. And I have to acknowledge to myself that because Solar City was founded by Elon Musk, it has a celebrity-endorsement factor that could make me trust it when I shouldn't.

But it's all very interesting. I'll be looking at this closely.

6 comments:

  1. Check with your HOA :)
    Dad.

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  2. Check with your power company as well. At the PUD, we offer some unbelievable incentives and the customer will then receive the net metering proceeds themselves (instead of Solar City!). I have seen some credits on "bills" that are unbelievable!! If your HOA will let you do it, and your power company has some incentives, it is WELL worth it. LOVE your blog and can't wait to see you guys next weekend. Aunt Janelle

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    1. That's a really good point! We checked when we bought the house, and the utility did not support solar, period. But if they are working with Solar City now, the odds are good they have other solar programs as well!

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  3. I think Solar City is a GREAT idea if your PUD won't play along. One thing though....I understand you are actually signing a long-term lease with them, that may cause some "nerviousness" with anyone buying your home down the road. Just food for thought.

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    1. According to the sales rep at the kiosk, the standard agreement is THIRTY YEARS, although you can apparently pay it off early. Our _mortgage_ is only 15 years.

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