4 Year Update - Are Solar Panels for Home Still Worth It? 

So what do you think? Do you want solar for your home? To start comparing quotes and simplify insurance-buying, check out Policygenius: policygenius.com/undecided. Thanks to Policygenius for sponsoring this video! If you liked this, check out What you need to know before getting a Tesla Powerwall ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-L6_2X_7Yy1E.html

I’ve had solar for almost 10 years. I live in Phoenix where the electricity bills are HUGE due to the extreme high temps. Summary - I’ve never had a bill over $15 a month, all of which are fees. This includes one electric car that we charge at home. By far getting solar was the BEST financial decision I made when I first bought my house. And now with gas at $5 a gallon…I’m killing it. Everything has already paid for itself - it’s all investment income at this point.

One benefit from solar panels that no one seems to talk about is, in summer the actual panels block the sun from heating up the roof, therefore reduced cooling needed. Both my son and I have noticed this difference, which here in West Australia is important. Cheers

Another thing you need to take into account in the summer. The sun is beating down on your panels NOT your roof !! There is a 2 inch or so air gap in there, so it keeps your attic air much cooler, meaning a lot less power needed to keep your house cool.

As to how long solar panels work reliably: my godfather was one of the first guys in germany who got a Photovoltaik system in 1991. Siemens 55W monocrystaline panels. They still work today and deliver around 75% of their rated power despite NEVER having been cleaned in these 31 years. And yes, we are talking about superold panels, todays will perform much better in 30 years.

Captain here. Been in the industry for a long while now (10+ years). Your warranty only applies as long as the company that installs them is still in business. Many of these companies purposely go out of business and rebrand for this exact reason. Whether this is universal or some exceptions, you have to absolutely make sure the company you are going with has been in business for many years. An easy way to tell if you are going to get scammed is if the deal is too good to be true. Do your research into these companies before you commit to anything.

When I first moved to Georgia I told my realtor I wanted a house with no trees because I wanted to install solar. The first five houses he showed me were in the woods. I repeated what I wanted and he said "No one uses solar anymore". I got a new realtor who found me a house free of trees. I installed solar the first year and have loved it. It fluctuates a little but I typically produce 70% of my electricity needs. The previous owner said her electric bills averaged $210. In four years with solar my highest bill has been $47 and lowest $9.

Half way through 2019 in Brisbane, Australia. A 42 panel, 13.2kW solar system, with a 12 kWh battery back up for sun power at night, a Heat-pump for cheap hot water, and an i-MiEV EV to drive around in, free from the sun. We no longer pay $2000 a year for power. We no longer spend $2500 a year for gas to drive a car around. We actually get paid $2000 a year from the power company for the excess energy we export to the grid. A $6500 positive benefit per year, from our $16 500 AUD Solar / battery system. That's a pretty quick pay back. It's a win, win, win!

I know a guy here in middle Tennessee who is a retired engineer from Arnold Engineering & Development Center / Arnold AFB, who built his own solar panel for his house over 30 years ago. It's still going strong.

We have had solar for twelve years here in Australia 🇦🇺, and my panels (despite being very expensive by today’s standards) have paid for themselves many times over. It was the best investment ever.

I actually designed, got permitted, and built my own 5 Kw ground-mount system. The hardest part of that was digging the holes for the concrete foundation, but renting a mini-excavator from Home Depot took care of that. My only hired help was having a concrete pump contractor come in, but that was not bad because I held the hose and filled the forms. This stuff is pretty simple, and there is a lot of information available on RU-vid. Our result? The electric company has owed me money every year since I put it in.

I've DYI-ed a 3.3 kWh off-grid system complete with LiFePO4 batteries in 2020 and was so impressed with it's performance that I decided to up to 20 kWh this year. Still in the process of installing, but the system already includes an off-grid inverter, since I am keeping my existing 30 kWh batteries, with an on-grid inverter also being added. The upgrade is worth about 15k US and should pay for itself in about 5.5-6 years, if all goes well. But that's not the main point, because as you said, being energy-independent is amazing.

We’ve decided to go with a 12.4KWatt system. We were glad to hear that the 26% tax credit increases last week to 30% for the next 10 years. It couldn’t have come at a better time. Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge of going Solar.

This is so validating. I work for a solar installer and you literally hit on *every* point I discuss when I’m talking about the value of solar. Thank you!

We installed a solar grid in late 2019 and the production has been tremendous. We have a payoff period of 4-1/2 years and that still appears to be the case. And the transferable guarantee on the grid is 25 years. That in itself increased the value of our home. Combining that with the high cost of electricity in Southern California and one arrives at the obvious conclusion that solar is one of the best investments a homeowner can make. So, Go Solar! IMHO

I am 10 years in on our 2012 13.2 kWh solar PV system and have been certified as being a net-zero energy building in 2016 by the International Living Future Institute and our panels were fully paid off after 7 years with Net metering incentives in Washington State. We also have two Powerwall-2 batteries to supplement our system and we have been exceptionally satisfied with our solar+battery system and would do it again in a heartbeat. We also charge our two EVs off our roof and have been net zero for last 10 years producing more electricity than we use for our all electric home.

I installed my own solar system. We have had below $100 in electric bill, and last year they owed us. It has been one of the best investiments I've ever made.

As a long time solar consultant, you did an amazing job explaining this. Thanks for helping people see the value of solar!

I installed panels on my 172 degrees to south roof that is angled at 37degrees here in Brooklyn, with no trees either. This is almost perfect alignment for solar panels and the reps were all astounded at how perfect it was with a 96% efficiency rating and since were so perfect we only needed 17 panels to get to 100+% of usage. Since they were turned on in April I haven't seen any electric usage from the grid, most goes the other way. The payback period for me is around 5 years after the NYS incentives. I also own a model 3 and now charge exclusively at home rather than at the supercharger. It was really a no-brainer to go ahead with the project once it was all presented and verified by an outside expert that I know. My neighbors all want to do it but they all face the issue of where their roofs face, none are like mine.

Absolutely worth it. 6 years of solar. Best decision.My bill was 35$ this month

We live totally off grid in Hawaii. We live in a rainforest, so we don’t get many sunny days. Our solar has powered our home nearly 100%, except mid winter when we have multiple weeks of rain with little to no sun. Then we recharge the batteries for an hour in the morning and another in the evening with our generator. Without including the initial set up, our annual use is limited to the gasoline usage for the generator, at today’s rate, close to $6 per gallon, we spend about $30 a year. Include the initial expense, panels, batteries, inverter, etc., it,works out, after 4 years, monthly cost is about $166. But that’s also paying off the entire system. If we move it out to 10 years, it goes to $69 per month. I am very happy with my solar.

My experience with solar panels goes back to the early 1980's when I installed panels that utilized water coils embedded in them. The sun heated the water which circulated to the basement that coiled through a hot water heater and into a tempering tank filled with water to exchange any additional heat before returning to the roof panel. I received a government grant and used the system for about 9 years. I calculated that I did not lose money, but the savings after expenses were minimal. The headaches were tremendous! Pop-off valves, sensors malfunctioning, water leaks, antifreeze issues, insufficient hot water, equipment upkeep and other problems gave me a bad taste in my mouth for solar. I am sure the technology is much better toady.

With energy cost doubling and gas specifically tripling, your decision was amazingly good!

I really enjoy watching your progress with solar; very informative. We are on our second year of solar and are very happy with production. That being said, you will notice a difference in production due to weather trends. This is to be expected. We've had a very wet, very cold spring in comparison to last year, and it shows in the numbers. Do we still believe it is worth it? You bet! We are adding 4 more panels to our west side of house.

Thanks for the Very Detailed video. I live in Mass and currently i am looking into solar panels, we just had the inspection done last week, and I am more excited about Solar after watching your unbiased video... Its nice to see all the facts you present, you really do your homework, Great Work on the the educational video.

I live in a row house outside of Baltimore and got solar panels installed back in 2017. As such, I have a smaller system than yours, but I get more sunlight. They've been great so far. Each year they've produced more electricity than they were estimated to make and basically pay for themselves. I'll have mine paid off in 2026 as well and look forward to making some money off of them.

We pur Solar panels on our first home, and sold last year, I live in the PNW so solar isnt too common (yet) so I did not see a market value increase over similar homes without solar. However, the energy savings was amazing especially with an EV. I we installed a larger system on our new home only a few months after we moved in. The long term energy savings will also tie in well with our planned upgrade to include a battery system with the goal of minimal reliance on the power grid, and minimize disruptions to power since we are fairly rural and outages from falling trees occur. Overall, the cost has been well worth it, even without the tax credits in my opinon.

I'm getting close to 20 years now with my little grid-tie system. Its still going strong despite the age of the panels and the older technology. 18 x SHARP NE-165U1's... 165W panels were all the rage ~20 years ago. They've lost a little oomph since then but still giving me 14 kWh/day roughly (don't quote me), at least in summer. Over that period of time, the entirety of the maintenance has been to replace the grid-tie inverter exactly once. I might wash the panels down once a year, but mostly I just leave them to the elements. Still, in today's terms, I have a tiny system. It barely ticks past 2000W at mid-day these days (when it was new it could push 2500W). I really want to do redo the whole thing plus add a ton of LFP batteries. The only thing stopping me is that the roof will need replacement in another 5-10 years anyway and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to redo all the panels (and add more) only to have to rip them up and redo them again a few years from now. I'm hoping 'solar roof tiles' will be more mature by then. I'm not enamored with the current generation. I envy people with big back yards who don't have to mess with putting panels on roofs :-). -Matt

This was a really cool video! I moved to phoenix about 5 years ago and the first two years were in a house without solar. Our electricity bill in the summer months was murder. when we went house hunting we were able to get a home that had 1 year old solar panels. and the house was bigger because some in-laws needed to move in with us. Then, Covid lock down, so school and working from home. Despite all of that, with solar panels our energy bill was a fraction of what it was before, some months not costing a thing. Now back when i lived in Nebraska I would have had a hard time justifying it, but out in the desert, these things are required. Your video has shown me that if I ever move back to the northern states, maybe solar would still be a good investment.

It was interesting seeing real numbers. I have always wondered how anybody could save money from solar panels. We are paying 60-80$ a month for electricity. Half of that is fixed costs. $285 a month is insane. Suddenly it makes sense that a solar system could pay for itself.

I would love solar for my home. I recently stayed at a beautiful bed and breakfast in Boone, NC that operated almost entirely off the grid with solar power. Very impressive. Love this update Matt, very helpful. Lots of angles to consider on this kind of investment. Good luck on your new home!

We have 36 panels, haven’t paid an electric bill in two years. At true-up, the power company had to pay us. We’re in a very sunny part of California and summer bills averaged about $650/month. Solar has been great for us!

We used to live in Colorado and had solar panels installed. We loved them! My husband drove and Leaf and we thought it was a no brainer. We moved to France in 2017 for a two year contract and rented our house. It was quick to rent and our renter loved the panels. We ended up extending the contract in France so we sold our home in 2019. It sold in 2 days at full asking and new owners said the panels were the reason for our house over their next choice. We now own a home in SW France but cannot put in solar panels. We live too close to a church and the panels “offend the angels.” Not kidding…oh well!

I don't regret installing solar at all. My system is 5.2Kw. I haven't paid a dime to the power company in the last 5 years and I have a several hundred dollar credit on my bill which more than pays the monthly grid tie-in fee.of ~$10/mo. My system powers everything including air conditioning and an all electric swim spa. I recently had a 14.4Kw back-up battery installed in anticipation of power outages in California this summer.

Thank you Matt. I see so many detractors on my solar videos. They do not take into account the myriad of factors that affect solar production and cost.

I've had panels for a good 12 years now. They haven't dropped at all in efficiency. We have detailed logs. Plus, we live in the UK, a country not famous for it's sunny days. They've done pretty amazing considering.

I live in NJ and am in the 9th year of having solar panels (my capacity is 8KW) and passed the payback period in my 6th year of ownership. The main difference with the system described here is my exposure is due south and there are no trees that overshadow my roof at any time. I have been tracking my electric generation and usage since the beginning and have not seen a noticeable decline in my production rates. In my case, as long as I receive SRECs, I have a net credit from the rebates (approx. $700 per year). In NJ, the value of solar panels is not to be included in the assessed valuation of the property. Overall, this has been an excellent experience.

We've been looking at this in FL but the utilities here and their lobbyists are making it unfeasible very quickly. That coupled with the expiring federal rebate for panels is really putting the brakes on for panels in our area. Then there's the question of high winds during hurricanes and insurance companies refusing yo pay out for toof damage, citing the panels or installer as at fault. In our area, insurance companies have begun dropping people with rooves more than 10 years old so now, if we put panels up, every 10 years, we'd have to pay to have them removed, our roof replaced and then pay again to reinstall the panels. Many utilities have either reduced or removed net metering as well. Insurance, utilities and their lobbyists are killing the solar industry here and quick.

I live in CT and had similar problems - east to west roof, lots of trees on ALL sides, and a roof that would need replacing in 15 years which would mean removing the solar panels, replacing the roof, and then reinstalling them - or replacing them first before installing them. Because of my location the estimated payback was 33 years - longer than the life of the solar panels. If I wanted to cut down at least a dozen trees, the payback was reduced to 25 years except the cost of cutting the trees down raised that payback to 30 years. In other words, the best I could do was break even if everything went to plan. Your situation is much better than mine so congratulations - I had to pass (so did my neighbors who all had t he same problems I did). I had two different companies estimate this - and they both came back with the negative payback result. Of course with higher prices now for power it may make sense so I may look at it again.

Interesting. Here in Sydney (Australia) we installed solar panels about 15 years ago (approximately. If my memory is accurate). Things were different with electricity tariffs, because the cost of electricity was about A 7c per kilowatt hour. The feed in tariff was for then a massive 17c per kilowatt hour and we could sell all our power to the grid at 17 and buy it back at 7 cents, a sweet deal but this was necessary since the panels were so much more expensive that they are now therefore it was needed to have the government incentive to make the panels worth while. Although their high cost to purchase nearly broke us at the time, soon the panels started saving us some real money. I had predicted that they would be paid off in approximately 7 years. Now the panels had been guaranteed for 35 years by the installer, so I didn't see how we could miss! There was however much more in it all than meets the eye. For a start the inverter which was doing all the work changing the DC electricity into AC power failed almost as soon as its warranty ran out. No not 35 years, that was the panels. the inverter was only guaranteed for 4 years!!!! After a year or so we scraped up the money to replace the inverter, although fortunately by then the cost of them had almost halved. Next problem that faced us was that people who had not taken up the government deal by the deadline began to complain that the "ordinary poor taxpayers were propping up those rich enough to afford the panels with these large tariff payments that had been guaranteed until 2017". The government thought hard about breaking the deal but there were enough people who had done the purchase and recognised that it would cause a major issue with their finances if the deal fell through so we kept the feed in tariff for the remaining years, (only just). Nowadays the cost of electricity is so much more that this differential would not matter, and anyway the money repaid for power returned to the grid is a fraction of the purchase price of the same power. We continued to claw back our outlay although I thought that the panels were decreasing their input without a significant weather deterioration (actually the problem went the other way since there was some really hot summer weather and we used the Air-conditioner more than expected) I decided to call the company which had guaranteed the PV panels only to find that they had gone out of business. Well the panels have continued to function in spite of all this and we have recouped our money at last even though the government deal is long gone. We now have to decide whether should stump up the money to buy some batteries! So far I have resisted the urge since the technology seems to be improving and to wait a while might see batteries with greater capacity for less cost and hopefully a longer recharging lifespan. Hopefully my own lifespan would be long enough to see these improvements come to pass Let me summarise the lessons I have learnt. 1) note what Matt said about purchasing from a reliable company. This is sound advice. When I bought mine, it was a bit of a gamble since most of the companies in the market were those I had never heard of. Now there are large good companies that can give a guarantee that means something. 2) Recognise when you are calculating the economics of the decision that there can be a few issues that might cramp down the benefits of any renewable system so don't go out on a financial limb to get a system that might not return the promised benefits as quickly as was envisaged. 3) the length of time the PV panels work efficiently is very important not just from economics but also Ecologically to those of us concerned with the planet's future since they are difficult to dispose of and cannot (in this country anyway) be recycled effectively as far as I know.

We live in southern California and have a 4KW solar panel system that was installed about nine years ago. Although our roof is not oriented in the optimum direction for solar insolation, the system has been producing about 5,400 KWh per year since it was installed with small fluctuations up and down from year to year. Electricity rates here in California are very high, so our system paid for itself in a little over 5-years. The inverter died two months ago while still under warranty, so it was replaced with a rebuilt inverter at no cost except for installation which ran $845. However, we lost a month of production while waiting for the replacement inverter to arrive. So this year overall production will probably run around 4,800 to 4,900 KWh. All in all, this turned out to be a great investment. Our yearly cost for electricity since installing the system has ranged between -$50 and +$100. This year our yearly cost probably will be about $250 because the inverter went out during a hot month.

My 10kWp installation is 13 years old. On average the performance has dropped less than 1% during the last 11 years. The loss was larger in the beginning (about 2% in 2 years) Only thing that needed replacement is the inverter that developed startup issues, and a few connectors that had isolation issues. My install is inclined 42% and pointed pure south, and produces 11.2MWh a year on average (spread: between 10.6 and 11.8MWh)

Thanks for the update. Hard to believe it's been 4 years! My goals are very similar to yours Matt. We built our house a few years ago and now plan to add solar. We're now working on the budget to maximize solar production. We plan to go all in and go to close to zero grid use if possible/worth the money. Thanks again for all the great info you provide on this and many other subjects!

Congrats on the net-zero build. We were considering that at the end of 2021 but local builders are booked into 2024, so we just made the choice to buy something else for now & will see how it looks again in maybe 5-6 years or so.

You got a great utility company. I have PG&E and they're charging $0.51/kWh! My first electric bill for 28 days was $628 (not including natural gas cost). So, as you can guess, I've already contracted to get a 12.1kWh added to my roof 😉

G'day Matt, I had a 14Kw solar system installed early 2020, just before the pandemic lockdowns here in AU. I have not had an electricity bill for over 18 months now and I'm in almost $900 credit. They are well worth it for me. I live in Victoria Australia where winter is cool to cold, no snow and summers very hot. One of the main things I do is to use a wet brush to clean the panels from dirt and bird poop. Same here too, houses with solar installed are very sort after and I've had offers to purchase my house for about 300K above my area's median price. Not bad on an 8K investment.

My experience with 12 Solar Panels installed in 2016 is good energy savings, but in the last 2 years, 6 of the "Power Optimizers" located on panels failed. It takes a Tech about one hour to replace each one. This year, a large capacitor exploded in the main Invertor box, blowing off the cover and damaged a car in the garage. All Optimizers and the Invertor were replaced at no charge. Not sure what is happening regarding Insurance coverage on damage to the car. A nice thing about solar panels is that during summer when the weather is hottest, the panels produce the most energy, so the cost running fans and air conditioning is greatly reduced, and essentially costs nothing in my situation.

Love our panels. We bundled a Powerwall unit with the install so we're able to stretch out production usage throughout the day and night and all but eliminated black outs. This video prompted me to take a peek at the Tesla app and see the numbers since we installed and we're at 74% of total power consumption has been solar. XD

My small off grid on grid switchable system I installed 8yrs ago is still working perfectly. It supplements my energy needs and when our location suffers an outage, I'm not effected to the annoyance of my neighbours. I retired from my electrical engineering career 15 years ago and was then able to play with solar, which is so simple to construct, and virtually maintenance free. Have a go.

I live on the east coast of Australia and have had my Solar panels for about 10 years now. It was one of the best decisions i ever made. The panels themselves still produce 95% of the energy as when they were new. We get great sunlight throughout the year. I reckon it only took us 2 yrs to payback the cost of the panels.

Our house has 24 square meters of south-facing windows (don't panic, they're shaded by the carefully-designed roof overhangs during summer, nice and cool in summer), so on clear winters days, the peak solar gain is on the order of 20kW of passive solar heat. They weren't that expensive to include in my house design, six large 'picture windows' spread over two floors. On cold clear days in winter, the house is toasty warm even while the electric heaters are off. Since the house is now about 30 years old, they've paid for themselves maybe a dozen times over. Passive solar (combined with energy efficient design) should be the FIRST STEP for any new design (in a heating climate), only then followed by PV panels.

We installed a 7.3KW ground mount system on Long Island 14 years ago, 35 degree tilt, direct south. The first year or two we were at about 9200 kwh per year, now we are at about 8800kwh. The original system came with two Xantrex inverters which lasted 4 years, we then had twp Fronius inverters that ;lasted five years. Since I had good luck with SMA Sunny Boys on a system I monitored for work, we went with 2 SMAs. The panels are Kyocera 130 watt. I am looking for decent replavements panels that will work.

The biggest benefit for solar usually goes to the new home buyer IF you sell within 6 or 7 years of installing solar on your home. So for the next buyer it is a real success story however, there is a flip side. There are many stories about homeowners ending up having to remove a solar installation because the home won't sell, and the only buyers interested refuse to take over the solar or even deal with solar at all. This is leaving the current homeowner with only two choices. Miss the sell on the house and keep solar or remove solar in order to sell the home. I didn't think that was even a possibility until my local agent explained that while rare, it has happened. Especially if you find yourself in a market that isn't moving very well. As we know the current housing market is cooling off and may even become colder.

We put solar panels on our small home in Wisconsin this March as part of the state's greener initiative, but we did it for all reasons you mentioned in this video. Some nice things about our situation was that our street side faces north, so there was no concern about curb appeal since the panels faced the backyard (that has no trees, so we get full sun). That, and I have thought of solar panels as a protective covering for part of our roof, so that would increase the longevity of it, in theory. What we were surprised by was a large rebate check from the state that helps encourage a greener footprint. It turns out that some states have a rebate program for doing things like putting in solar. Needless to say, I hope we can do this again for our next home

I suggest that you also install a solar water heater, this should also decrease electricity consumption significantly.

Hey Matt, thank you for all the great content. Your videos are so professional and easy to watch, I appreciate all the work you put into each video with editing and references.

We have 12 panels on our home in Mexico and we pay $1.25/mo (which is basically just govt fees) for our electric. In comparison, many expats in our area pay $200-$500/mo when they don't have panels. Love them!

An Australian from Victoria. My mother was early (1984) when she got into solar hot water heating. The people who installed it said it would never pay for itself. Some 20+ years later she had solar panels installed (2010ish) and the guys who installed the panels could not believe what she had been told. I know for a fact that a heating element went out in the hot water tank and we still got warmish water even in the middle of Winter simply because of the solar hot water system.

I love my panels. Sadly I was miss-led and told Idaho power would pay me. They don’t. I was talked into way more panels than I needed as well. Please call your power company to make sure they pay back. Just knowing that the cost of power goes up the investment in solar is worth it for me.

I saw a news article yesterday that people in Florida are starting to see higher "minimum" charges from Duke Energy with their solar panels. I wonder if more energy companies are going to implement minimum usage charges like this.

Thanks for crunching the numbers, it's really appreciated. I am definitely feeling the need to get solar after the latest heat wave and rolling blackouts here in California. But for anyone who can't get installation scheduled this year, the good news is that you won't lose out on the 26% federal credit. It's been bumped up to 30%. "As written in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, the tax credit will begin at 30% and step down to 26% in 2033 and 22% in 2034."

My home is in south Florida, where we have a slight advantage in sunlight strength and hours. My panels went online in Jan 2022. They are rated at 8,4 kw. This does power my house and charge my electric car and still send extra power to the grid so my electric bill is zero. The system cost me just over $11000.00, which means that (based on my former electric bill) over the 30 year term of the loan I would have still save $22000.00 on my electric bill. (That is assuming that the price of electric would never go up over those 30 years, but we all know it will so the savings would actually be greater). In my case I paid my loan off in the first year so my savings are exponentially greater. That being said, and having almost six months experience doing this, I believe the contractor underestimated and should have sold me a 12kw system. As I said earlier, I produce more than I use, but what happens if crazy weather develops. Then I may see an electric bill again. After being free of electric bills for almost 6 months one could say that I am now “spoiled”. I am considering expanding my system to 12 or 13 kw, just to avoid that possible scenario.

Here in CA I saw a good 6 year return to my investment, and I still see a consistent 8MWhrs per year, which is pretty impressive. Additionally, my utility has tiered rates by usage (31/39/49 cents/kwh), and I no longer even care about the higher tier rates. Even in the winter time when my solar is not producing as much, I never leave the lowest price tier in my monthly bill. The high kwh rates and tiered structure really made a difference in making my solar investment work for me. Actually, the per kwh rates I pay on my extra consumption (~20%) has gone up significantly in recent years, but my blood pressure has stayed steady thanks to rooftop solar.

Congratulations on your plans to build a dream home. I hope you keep us updated on the progress.

We considered adding solar panels to our house (Austin, TX) a year ago, but that would have required either cutting back severely or removing several large trees that provide a great deal of shade and that add substantially to the curbside appeal of the house. I told the company "no deal". No one is going to screw around with my trees.

Thank you for the update. One thing I find in Ontario, Canada is a large part of the electricity bill is fixed cost whereas electricity itself is actually cheap.

I think your installer has stepped in it with respect to an annual production guarantee. Cost of grid energy is a large factor in determining payback. It's cheap here, so looking at 12 years for mine.

I like the idea of solar PV and think it’s a great investment for say, a young family that are pretty sure that they are going to be living in that house for at least twice the pay back period. Naturally the real solution is for all houses to be built with at least 6 kw of solar from day one. If we did that then we wouldn’t need to build any more power plants. 🙏

It's a big investment at first, but it's my opinion that it is absolutely worth it over time. Depending on where you live you may get more out of your panels, but even in a location that is less ideal for panels, you still get good use of them. The way things are going in The U.S. people should really think about going green any way possible, because the energy companies continue to raise prices. The longer you wait the more it's going to cost.

I had reduced production on my system for last two years due to the fires out here in California. They required more cleaning as well. However, the cost of electricity here is very high, also factor in the cost savings from driving an EV and not paying the $6.20 for a gallon of gas. So PV is money well spent.

There's a big aspect around solar power that wasn't mentioned here and that's the battery replacement cost. This is not surprising since this solar setup is only 4 years old so the batteries should still be fine but it is something to consider when you're looking at solar in the long term.

You touched on an important part with the net metering and credits. Even with the huge push to move to greener power a growing number of regions across America and the world are eliminating net metering and some are even implementing a minimum charge to be simply hooked to the grid. Every time I think I’m ready to pull the trigger I seem to see another consumer watchdog news report on poeple ending up with a huge debt (as most poeple can’t afford to flat out buy these systems) because they got the system that was promised a quick payback followed by profits only to end up with a huge loan payment and still end up paying the power company anyway. Always do you homework. Don’t just go with what the solar company says, but ask local representatives if there is anything in the pipeline that could change the data on break even, etc.

I also live outside Boston and my Tesla system just got PTO this week. Although only 4.8 KW we are excited and hoping for some offset to your new electric vehicles we purchased. I am a local realtor and the information on the potential increase in value is spot on now I have a great video to share with my clients on the subject. Thanks and nice job and I look forward to following you.

I'm thinking a solar porch would be nice. Easy to build and install myself and I get a nice shady place to sit on a sunny day.

Matt have you considered drawing Direct Currect (DC) line from the battery storage system in your new home. It can be used to run DC lights, ceiling fans etc. It is more efficient the DC to AC to DC conversion.

I had a house with solar on the roof. After spending $ 22,000 dollars the pay back came to about $50 a month average for a year. Sun is not out as long during winter so you have to average the cost for the entire year. In my case it was a waste of money.

Thanks Matt. We are currently shopping solar and your commentary is very helpful to our thinking.

Great video Matt! We live in South Florida and went Solar in Jun/2020 (because of Covid it took almost 3 months for the City to approve the system to go live). On average the system has been providing us 2/3 or our energy consumption and that includes charging an EV. We also installed 2 Powerwalls 2 because we wanted to be able to go though the frequent storms we have here during the Summer, hence, our whole system payback time might take very long, but in every single Tropical Storm we are glad about the decision, it is not uncommon for the whole neighboorhood to stay with no power and we are still enjoying the confort of our A/Cs.

When I designed my home, I incorporated PV, Geo HVAC and SIPs construction. With the big jump in electrical costs, my bill is rarely above $90 in a state controlled by crooks like coal power producers… neighbors pay 350-500/month routinely

Solar panels seem very expensive in USA. In Zimbabwe I can get 455w panels for about 150usd each. But we also don't get any payback as we don't export to the grid. We just don't have grid power

You could really do with having some ventilation under your solar panels. Even when it is a cold day, the panels heat up very quickly and the efficiency drops off as a result, this is really amplified if there is not good air circulation at the back of the panel which can really help to cool them down. I actually have a ventilation system set up to suck air across the back of the panels and then use the warm air to warm and dry out my basement. Even with only a few panels, when the Air temperature is just 10C I can get heated air at 30C.

The big advantage to me with solar is the energy creation that occurs during the peak months when many electric companies ratchet up their rates. Also those are the times when rolling blackouts seem to happen.

I’ve looked at solar for my house here in Texas. It’s amazing how many more panels you need for about the same energy requirements. For me, system size is driven by peak usage. My house is all electric and I have an EV. However, my payoff is longer. My coop has super cheap rates (9.3 cents per kWh flat rate) but buys at 5.3 cents per kWh and there is a connection fee of $25. Our average monthly fee was $87/month for 2021 in a 2100 sq ft home. The killer is there is no net metering. I pay for every kWh we use and they pay for every kWh I don’t use. I have an option of paying for green energy (lots of wind from west Texas and my coop is doing distributed solar), I can also buy into community solar. I’ll likely still put PV on my roof to deal with potential peak summer months outages (rare with our coop because they are very good about maintaining lines, transformers and trimming trees) and to charge my EV with greener energy.

I would be more concerned about paying 30 cents per kWh for power... that's just short of insane, but I'm aware people put up with it for whatever reason...

We are currently in the process of getting solar. One of the first questions I asked was resale value. The system we are looking is zero net metering. While there's no guarantee that I'll never have an electric bill, they will be small.

Awesome video as usual Matt!! Can't wait to see how the sell and move work out for you guys. I know when people ask about our solar and EV's they "What If" me to death about every negative thing they can think of. For us it's well worth the investment and pays us great dividends every year. As you stated our system at the end of it's warranty period will have saved us around $70k in electricity bills and still be working. Keep up the good work.

I'm on my 9th year with panels on my house in CT. My best year (2016) I generated 8.4MWh, worst year (2018) 7.26 MWh. So there is definitely year-to-year variability. And I can see a downward slope to production, although it is lumpy, as my first 3 years are above 8 MWh and the last 5 are below. Last year was about 7.5. It's not like it will trend to zero, however. I'll likely always have 75%+, and at some point the panels themselves can be replaced at an ever-cheaper price. I also think the value added to the house can depend on if you have panels facing the front of the house or not. Some people are turned off by seeing panels from the curb, its just the way it is. Luckily mine are on the south side, which is the rear of the house. Of course they should add to the value of my house considering they generate half our electricity for free.

My biggest issue is the term “clean”. Why? Where does the materials to make these “clean” sources of energy come from? I am a huge fan of solar/electric but we also need to be true to ourselves and stop thinking solar/batteries are “clean”. I just see it as an alternate way of getting energy.

Along with installing our PV panels this year, we had storage batteries added which hold 10 kWh each, giving us up to 20 kWh. March through September our daytime needs were met as well as charging the batteries. Once the Sun got low, the house drew from the batteries until reaching the 25% emergency reserve level we set. For example in July while running air conditioning (house HVAC) we still exported 450 kWh to the grid for credit. Most important to us was that during multiple power outages over the Summer, we still had electricity. Discus storage batteries with your prospective installers.

Fifteen years ago we had the choice of paying 25k to bring the local utility lines to our property or install a solar system with the same amount of money. We have been living completely off-grid for over 15 years, and would make the same choice again without any hesitation. If you've had to live with a solar system using lead acid batteries, as we did, the joy of now having LFP batteries is hard to contain. A couple of comments I'd like to address: roof condition and snow. It's not uncommon for the IRS to allow the federal tax credit for roof replacement as part of the initial solar system intallation. I don't know about a retrofit. We get snow. Our solar system is mounted on a short building, making it quite easy to use a very long handled squeegee to clear most of the snow so the remaining snow and ice can melt faster. Probably wouldn't work for a taller building. But al little thinking outside the box would probably come up with a simple solution. Thank you for this video, and others. Thoughtful always, backed by good research. I've already said enough. But this whole approach about using a traditional "break even" calculation is really quite ridiculous. Do you ever consider what the break even point is paying a utility bill month after month year after year?

Thanks for this Matt. I have been trying to figure how to afford an Electric Vehicle for several years. Now I have realised, as our electricity has already doubled in reality (they slapped it partly on the standing charge ie inelastic fees), and is expected to go another 50% in October perhaps, it’s actually solar panels first, then EV. Nobody predicted home energy going nuts in price, but it has massively risen in price, while gas (petrol here in the UK) has ‘only’ gone up 25% to 35%. I mean, that’s huge, but the equation has just been turned around. Home energy generation, probably a battery on the wall, a method to sell surplus to Grid and buy back at a sensible price, etc. And of course, our government really is not terribly keen on this - the UK Govt gets tax galore from gasoline, so they let the high capital investment throw people quite happily. Lastly, I’ve heard people here talk of insulation - these are people genuinely believing they are helping poor people to lower bills. But, no sums work out. If you get solar, and you can replace gasoline or on-street charging with home energy generation, the sums work, but the capital investment literally could mean remortgaging. The phrase for this, in terms of most consumers, is ‘caught with their pants down’ ie it’s the hardest time to get the money together to invest in your home, but it really is the best time, and you got to go big, a little insulation, or an EV that is now more expensive than a fossil fuel vehicle to run any distance, unless you have home energy generation, is the wrong way to go. Not easy, I haven’t really got any answers, although I know what our best ‘solution’ is! Take care, thanks for the insights.

We installed our 3.3 kw rooftop solar system in October 2016. So far I can’t see any noticeable decline in annual power output over those years. With a south facing roof here in Colorado we get a consistent 5.1 mWh of annual electricity production. The system has required basically no maintenance and we essentially pay zero cents per kWh.

The bottom line is that there are many investments that can be made to reduce costs and improve the comfort in a home. Matt Risinger’s work and passive house standards combined with renewable energy and modern storage systems can put you in a situation where you’re selling back to the grid as well as having an extremely comfortable home. Good video!

So what happens if you have placed a solar system on your roof and for some reason you need to repair or replace the roof system 8 -10- 15 years down the road.? What's the cost to remove all the panels, then replace those panels once the roofing project has been completed? That's almost never figured in to the cost of a full house solar project.

Matt, thanks for the video, the roof deteriorates overtime. The average asphalt roof last about 15 years. I fear that it will be more expensive to replace the roof because of the solar panels. Just a concern that I have. Not sure if it is valid.

I'd probably benefit from a combination of a wind turbine and solar cells. In Nebraska wind is pretty consistent, speed will vary but should almost be a guarantee of something. So a hybrid of both would he hugely beneficial over one or the other. Could maybe get to complete energy independence

Our panels were 8 years old when we bought our house. After I fnally got the historical data from the manufacturer I could see that we were not producing what they had been pretty solidly for the first 5 years, for the last 3 years. We got up on the roof and clieaned them with a mixtture of vinager and dawn. 1 gallon to 2 table spoons. We immediately saw a 30% jump in production over the forst week. Almost back to its installed levels. Thank you to the lady from RU-vid who suggested this mixture. We have since added 8 new modern panels, which produce nearly 60% of what our other 29 panels do. The wonders of updated panels. Both our old and our new panets use "Enphase Inverters" each panel has its own. That seems to help with shade from trees. Our next addition will be Wind Generation. We live in the California Desert. We have a lot of sun and wind. You can only win in the long run with increasing costs from Power Thieves...I mean Companies! LOL

Good video and lots of information. I'm looking at a solar system and was curious how you got such a short payback period. After watching this it became clear. You had a 30% federal tax credit, vs 26% now. Your electric cost is over $.30 per KWH mine is about $.11 and your state had SREC credits - mine doesn't. All of this makes the math much different.

We want to see some videos on your new house !

A couple of things that you might need to know about the warranty / costs of these installations is the panels may be guaranteed for 25+ years BUT THE INVERTER (that it connects to) IS NOT (in most cases) . And they can be quite expensive. When the inverter goes, the whole system goes off. The panels are "solid state" which is why they are reliable, but the inverter is electronic and like most electronic devices...they will go wrong. The other thing to note is that if part of a solar panel is blocked (say by snow, or a shadow from a tree) it does not just reduce the output, it will shut the whole panel down. And if that panel was been connected in series with a line of panels it could shut down that whole line, so get that snow off quickly and keep trees trimmed that could be a problem.