5 Years with Solar Panels - Is It Still Worth It?

A portion of this video is  brought to you by Hello Fresh. I’ve been living with solar panels for  almost 5 years now here in Massachusetts, and I thought it was time to take a look  at how it’s been going. There’s been some twists and turns with solar production and  how it’s fared going through the cold and snow.

I also added a Tesla Powerwall into  the mix after a couple of years. There are definitely some things I wish I knew before  getting solar and a battery installed. How has it performed and do I still think  getting solar panels was a good idea?

I’m Matt Ferrell … welcome to Undecided. If you haven’t seen my previous videos on my  solar panel installation, I’ll include links in the description so you can check them out.  For this one I’m going to focus on a few things: the basics of what I have installed on  my current home and why; the costs; the production and how it’s been going; what adding  a battery meant for the overall performance; and what I wish I had known before getting  into this.

I think everyone has had that, “oh man … I wish I knew that before I  did this” feeling from time to time. To get right into it, my wife and I had  solar panels installed in the fall of 2018, so we’re not quite at 5 years yet. However,  there’s a reason I'm doing this video now instead of waiting.

We’re building a highly  energy efficient house right now that’s going to have solar and home batteries as  part of the mix. If you’re interested, I’ll include links to videos about that  in the description. I’ve been doing a lot of research on evaluating our current  system vs.

what we’re planning to get, so this stuff is very much in the front of my mind  right now. The second reason is that there’s a lot of shifting solar panel incentives around  the country and with spring not too far away, I know a lot of people may be looking for  some guidance and reviews. And on that note: I’ve got a big announcement I’m really excited  to share with you at the end, so stay tuned.

Anyway, on my current house I have a 9. 49  kW solar panel array that’s made up of 26 LG solar panels with Enphase microinverters.  Unfortunately, LG has exited the solar panel game, so you can’t get these panels  anymore (they’re excellent panels).

My house is surrounded by trees on the western  side. Our roof also doesn’t face the ideal direction, which would be having a southern facing  roof. In our case our roof is basically split east and west, so we chose to have solar panels placed  on both sides.

That way we’re able to capture more sunlight over the course of the day vs. mainly in  the morning or mainly in the afternoon. Between the less than optimal orientation and mid to  late afternoon shade from trees our house isn’t an ideal setup, but it doesn’t mean that solar  isn’t a good path (I’ll get into why in a bit).

Before getting into the costs and performance  there's something else that's been less than optimal for me . . .

and that's my diet . . .

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Thanks to HelloFresh  and all of you for supporting the channel. As for the cost, back in 2018 when we had just the  solar panels installed (no Tesla Powerwall yet), it cost $29,609 before incentives. That’s  about $3.

22 per watt. At that time we had the 30% Federal solar tax credit available,  which means being able to claim $8,882 off of our 2018 tax burden. This kind of incentive isn’t  being pulled from a pool of taxpayer money.

It’s pretty much the same thing as the child tax credit  families can claim on their taxes. It reduces your tax burden for that year, which probably means  you overpaid your taxes from auto withholdings from your paycheck. That could mean a refund,  but it all depends on how much you had withheld and how much you owe.

You might see the full 30%  in a check or only a portion of it. It’s kind of confusing, but in our case we did end up seeing  the full amount and sent that directly to the solar panel loan we took out. That knocked  our “out of pocket” costs down to $20,727.

On top of that we got into the Solar  Renewable Energy Credit (SREC) system in Massachusetts right before they changed  it to a new program called SMART. We get a check for $126. 22 a month from the SREC  payouts, which expires after 10 years.

I won’t go into all the details of SREC, I’ve got  other videos that deal with that linked below, but the newer programs you’ll often see don’t  pay out as much. Even though they pay out less, the newer programs like SMART payout in a more  measured way that helps to avoid double dipping. I guess you could say it’s trying to live up  to its name.

In any case, we’ve received about $6,563 of our SREC payments so far, which means  that out of pocket cost drops down to $14,164. But that leads into how production has fared. If you saw my 4 years with solar video last  year, you’ll know that 2021 was an oddball year.

Our solar production was down by about  11. 4% from the year before and 3% from 2019. 2021 was the worst year to date.

It just barely  missed the baseline production number our solar installer had predicted for that year  (6,479. 6 kWh vs. 6,549 kWh - about 1% off), but the mystery as to why came down to  an usually wet summer in Massachusetts in 2021.

It was the third warmest  summer and third wettest on record, so it was very cloudy and overcast, which knocked  summer production lower than the previous years. How did things look in 2022? Well, it  was the best year we’ve ever had.

By the numbers looking only at full calendar  years: 2019 had 6. 7 MWh of production, 2020 had 7. 2 MWh, 2021 had 6.

5 MWh, and  2022 had 7. 4 MWh. Looking at month by month, you can see how much better July through  October was versus that period in 2021.

But those are kind of meaningless numbers  without some context. How much energy did we use and how much did this save us  in electricity costs so far? Where I live we get a 1:1 net metering credit off our  electric bill.

If we use 100 kWh from the grid, but we export 70 kWh of excess solar production  into the grid, we only have to pay for 30 kWh. This scenario is definitely not the norm across  the US. Some areas only credit back wholesale electricity costs and other areas don’t credit  anything back at all.

In my case it’s a pretty nice setup and arrangement with the utility,  but if you’re considering this for yourself, you’ll need to look into how net metering  works for your area. EnergySage has great details on every state in the US (I’ll  link to that in the description too). We’ve been saving somewhere around  $1,500 a year in electricity costs, but we’ve seen that tick up significantly in  the past year or two.

On average US electricity prices have risen about 14% or about $0. 02 per  kWh per year over a 10 year span (2010-2020), but this past year or two has been dramatic. In  2020 we were paying an average of about $0.

22 per kWh, in 2021 $0. 24, in 2022 $0. 30, and now  in 2023 it’s $0.

37 per kWh. That’s about a 40% increase between 2020 and 2023. The end result  is that my solar panels are saving me more money per year than we originally estimated based on  that average increase of $0.

02 per kWh per year. Just as an example to show you how dramatic it  could be, if you took the total amount my house used (grid or solar) from 2022, it was 12. 6  MWh (we average around 1 MWh/month … and yes, I know that sounds like a lot).

At $0. 22  kWh that would cost us about $230/month. With a rate of $0.

37, where we are now,  it would average us a bill of $390/month. To put that into real savings we saw. 2021 fell  a little below our normal $1,500 savings because of the lower production, but we still  saw about $1,416 in savings.

For 2022, with an average of $0. 30 per kWh, we saved  about $2,285. At this point, almost 5 years in, we’ve saved just shy of $7,000 on our electric  bill, so if you knock that cost off of our out of pocket costs, we’re down to $7,164 left.

Between  SREC payments of $1,514/year and an electric bill savings that could be as high as $2,800 at the  current rates, our solar panel setup will work itself off in less than 2 more years. That’s  one year faster than we were anticipating. But what about the battery?

We did add a Tesla  Powerwall I earned through the Tesla referral program a couple of years ago, so the only out of  pocket expense I had was the installation costs. Because of that I’m not going to break down what  a true cost of savings would have been, but I am participating in a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) in my  area. That’s when your home batteries can be used by the local utility for peak shaving during times  of high demand on the grid.

It’s exactly what the name implies … a massive, distributed battery  system. For me that means during the summer months my battery could be used between 30-60 times  during small windows in the evening. Energy use spikes when everyone gets home from work, cranks  up the AC, and cooks dinner.

The benefit is that I get paid for the utility’s use of my battery.  I’ve got a full video that breaks this down, which I’ll link to in the description. But last  year I got a check for $772 and this year I got a check for $736.

For me this program will only last  five years, so if that keeps up it should total somewhere just below $4,000. That can do a pretty  good job offsetting the cost of a home battery. If we also had time-of-use rates, we could use  the battery to save money that way too.

A VPP plus time-of-use rates could equal a pretty  big savings that could really blunt the total cost of a battery like that Powerwall. You  might be looking at $12,000-$15,000 or so to install one Powerwall in my area. So  obviously for me if I had paid full price for the Powerwall, the VPP program by  itself wouldn’t cover the full battery, but it does help.

A battery is also more like  a backup generator, which helps with quality of life … so the ROI has a very different  calculation. It comes in handy when there’s a power outage in the winter because a downed  tree limb took out the power for half the day. So what is it that I wish I had known?

Well,  there’s two things that jump right out for me from my experience. First is the importance  of hiring the right people to install panels and battery. I used Energysage to find  my solar installer and had a fantastic experience.

It was so good I’m sticking with  the same installer for my new house. However, when it came to the installer for my Tesla  Powerwall, it was a completely different experience. The waitlist for Tesla to install my  Powerwall was a very long time, so I opted to go with a third party to do the installation.

Tesla  recommended an installer, which is who I went with … I mean … Tesla was recommending them, so  I put my trust in that. To say the experience was bad would be an understatement. The quality of the  work was highly questionable and when I mentioned that I was going to be talking about the negative  experience in a video, they threatened to sue me.

After that happened I did some digging into  them and found a trail of questionable work and tactics, so I really wish I hadn’t taken the  recommendation at face value. My bad. Thankfully all of the issues I had have been resolved  by a different company, so all is good.

The second thing I wish I had known beforehand  was how solar panels behave with snow and rain. I’m not talking about snow covering the  panels and blocking energy production, but what happens with that snow. Solar panels  are a bit like having a metal roof.

It’s a slick surface that water and snow will slide  off of very quickly. In the case of snow, you can end up with terrifying snow avalanches  sliding off your roof all at once. You’re talking about tons of snow falling 10, 20, or 30 feet  depending on how high up your roof is.

The reason this happens is that the snow that makes  contact with the glass surface starts to melt relatively quickly. As soon as a fine layer of  water builds up between the panel and snow pack, it’s like greasing the skids … and down it all  comes. You can also have issues with rain.

If your panels are installed near the edge of the  roof, you have to remember that the sheets of rain that flow towards your gutters are picking up more  speed on the glass surface vs. an asphalt shingle, as well as the fact the water raised up an  additional 3-5 inches from the roof surface. Depending on how close the panels are to the  edge roof, the water may just shoot over the gutter.

Not the end of the world, but something  to consider. In my case that wasn’t a problem, but the snow issue was concerning. I got a  roof rake with a long extension pole.

Anytime there’s more than 4 inches of snow on the roof,  I’ll go out there and do a controlled removal. The last thing I want is someone coming out  the backdoor or garage to get hit. Overall, I don’t think that’s a showstopper by any stretch,  but if I had known ahead of time I may have talked to my installer about adding snow guards in  certain locations to prevent the avalanche.

As I mentioned, I’m going to  be moving in a few months, which means that I’ll be selling my house.  It’s shown that solar panels can increase the resale value of your home because it  produces its own electricity. In my area, here in Massachussetts, solar panels are  pretty popular, so I expect that to play out in my case.

But I am looking forward  to sharing how that actually plays out. That brings me to the big announcement I mentioned  at the beginning. This one actually makes me a bit nervous.

I’ve never done anything like this  before. A lot of you have reached out to me for help and guidance on getting solar panels for your  home. Asking me to review quotes, give feedback, tips, and questions to ask installers.

And that’s  exactly why I created the “Achieve Energy Security With Solar” guide! It can be overwhelming because  you don’t know what you don’t know. I’ve been there.

I want you to feel confident about what  you actually need for your home and personal goals. After going through this guide, you’ll be  able to figure out how much solar energy you need, what kind of equipment might make sense for your  house, and how to vet a qualified solar installer. This will even help you decide if solar actually  is the right move for you or not.

I’m launching this guide today, which is still in beta, at a  discounted price for a limited time. Go to the URL in the description for more details and  to become a founding member. As part of this initial offer I’m going to be holding a group Zoom  call to answer questions you may have after going through the guide.

I’m really excited to help as  many of you as I can to go through this process, and to evolve the guide over time. Once  you buy the guide, you’ll get any updates I make to it for free. Check the link in  the description if you want to learn more.

So at the end of the day am  I happy with going solar? That’s a big yes. It’s achieved all the goals  my wife and I had hoped for.

No, it didn’t cover 100% of our electricity use, but that was never  our goal. We wanted to reduce our electric bill, take some control over how our electricity was  getting generated, and have a system that could carry us through a blackout … all in a financially  responsible way. All the boxes were ticked for us.

So what do you think? Do you want solar for  your house? If you have solar, what are the things you wish you had known beforehand?

Jump  into the comments and let me know. And be sure to check out my follow up podcast Still TBD where  we'll be discussing some of your feedback. Thanks to all of my patrons, who get ad free versions  of every video.

And welcome to new Supporter+ members Jay and Betty Crater, Steve Hall, and  Gary Reardon. Your support helps to produce these videos. And thanks to all of you for watching  and commenting.

I’ll see you in the next one.