Has anyone bought a solar system for their home?

[wnied]

Hey Everyone,

I've come into money recently, and am looking at making two home improvements. The first is a solar panel system for my roof, to power my house and sell any extra power back to the power company. The second is to purchase a stationary natural gas powered generator that kicks on when the power goes out.

Anyone have either of these that could explain how they work and recommend what best to look for?

Thanks in advance.
wnied

 

[boomerang]

Based on the reading I've done, stay away from any lease arrangements on solar. Stories abound about homeowners unable to sell their homes with these on their roofs. If you want it, purchase it. Do not listen to people that are very enamored of their solar systems and have not had to deal with trying to sell their home with the remaining balance of the cost of the system having to be tacked onto the price. Lenders don't like these systems and are not willing to lend dollars towards them either. Do your homework.

As far as a standby NG generator, sizing is probably your biggest decision. Do you want to be able to run everything? The determining factor on that is going to be central AC. If you want to run that, you're going to need a big one and that can put you at the tipping point of whether to go with air cooled or liquid cooled. There will be a big increase in price with the liquid cooled models as well as additional maintenance requirements.

 

[Brovane]

Hey Everyone,

I've come into money recently, and am looking at making two home improvements. The first is a solar panel system for my roof, to power my house and sell any extra power back to the power company. The second is to purchase a stationary natural gas powered generator that kicks on when the power goes out.

Anyone have either of these that could explain how they work and recommend what best to look for?

Thanks in advance.
wnied

I just purchased a solar system. What do you want to know?

Do you know how much power you use in a year in kwh? Do you know the Azimuth of your roof(direction it is facing)? If you have a smart phone you can D/L a program that will tell you this or you can also use Google Maps. How much shading does your roof get during the day? ( IE any nearby trees etc).