Well, after a long, long (way too long, actually) "think" on whether or not to take the plunge, the numbers were clearly in favor of going. While I'm sure that every month and year I would have waited would have returned even better ROI, saving $40k over the life of the system (20 years), plus a short-term recovery of the intitial investment (5 years) made it make enough sense for me.
Here are some pics of the initial installation. We're not operational yet, but should be within the month. Unfortunately, we have one of those STUPID PG&E Smart Meters, so I don't get the joyu of watching the wheel on my electricity meter roll backward, but alas, it will be nice when we start getting much smaller bills from PG&E every month.
The Solar City truck arrives, bright and early before the hot Morgan Hill sun gets into full blaze.
Cool ladder brace to hold it to the roof so they can't fall backward. Silly me, I just use one of the kids...
More safety features. Each guy on the roof was tethered so he couldn't fall off. Pretty cool toys these guys have!
All the support infrastructure is in place. Time to beef up the roof a bit from the underside.
Minor bracing was required due to the construction-era of our house, but this was still part of the "free" install from Solar City.
Twenty panels are up and connected. Time to get them wired to the invertor.
Well, stage one is now complete. Actually more like stage eleventeen, after all the paperwork, evals, inspections, etc. However, all the "stuff" is here. Now a few more things to take care of and we'll be operational.
Come on back next month for an update on progress.
Ciao! DMac out...
Nice post Doug!! I've never actually seen solar panels installed before... Very cool.
Posted by: Russ | July 23, 2011 at 01:31 PM
First of all, even though it's a little bit late, welcome back! That system is definitely going to save you a lot of money in the long run. It's a good thing that you decided to take the plunge and have solar power systems installed for your home.
Posted by: Max Boughner | August 24, 2011 at 12:26 PM