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Comment by toomuchtodo | Hacker News Reader

Payback period in most parts of the US is ~10 years for residential rooftop solar. The equipment will last at least 25-30 years, most likely longer at a lower capacity rating (panels degrade ~0.5-1%/year). It also prevents your utility from holding you hostage economically, because they'll just keep raising rates at the max rate the PUC allows and to max their equity return permitted.

I'm unsure why you think savings would be passed to ratepayers versus kept as profit by investor owned utilities? Might happen with coops and non profit utilities. Utility scale solar absolutely helps drive out fossil generation at the macro, but residential rooftop solar is a hedge against utility monopolistic practices.

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/electricity-prices-inflatio...

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/retail-electricity-prices-c...

https://www.wptv.com/money/consumer/florida-residents-strugg...

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I had the local solar reseller estimate for installing on my flat roof house. I would like to think I am keen on going green, but after three visits, some hard sell and spreadsheets showing when and how I would break even, i really felt like I was just engaging in a long-term finance deal. I would pay the same as I currently do, but to the solar finance lender, not to my local electricity company. And some of the cost benefit was speculated based on my local electricity company buying from me. I also had concerns about roof maintenance when it was inaccessible due to the panels. I also worried that to sell my house I would have to find a buyer willing to take-on the debt, the reseller unrealistically insisted the opposite, that this would add value. I didn't sign up, having seen companies fold, be acquired, change terms and conditions and essentially screw consumers, it just wasn't appealing.

This is exactly my experience as well. I got a lot of hard sales tactics that all sounded like "Pay us instead of your power company." I see no incentive to do that honestly, it just leaves a bunch of pain and complicated math for me to take care of and they eat up all the savings. From what I can tell, just like recycling, it is almost useless unless we all group together and do it at once. In this case, it is better for my power company to innovate that each individual take on the problem themselves.

> it is almost useless unless we all group together and do it at once.

There are coops that perform group buys if you don't feel sophisticated enough to compare bids and select an installer (which is a reasonable position to take): https://www.solarunitedneighbors.org/

https://reddit.com/r/solar is also a resource for having bids reviewed, asking for system and install advice, etc.

(i collectively own ~100kw of residential solar and provide guidance gratis to others constructing or purchasing their own systems)

No reason to prevent people from putting solar on their roofs if they wish.

I'm talking about tax rebates and credits given to people who put solar on their roofs. I'm sure these are good investments: they're subsidized!

This tool, while cool, is an application of large-scale image processing and won't stand scrutiny over the estimates for individual buildings. Just as an example, it features Oklahoma City, but their model does not seem to include the mean time between being destroyed by hail or tornados. This would be a somewhat relevant point for OKC.

Rooftop racking strengthens roofs (racking is mounted to roof trusses with asphalt roofing, or friction mounts on seams are used with standing seam metal roofs), and panels are rated to withstand hail (1 inch hail at 50 mph speeds) and hurricane force winds. Homeowner's insurance will cover replacement of damaged panels and systems in the event of a loss. A few minutes with a search engine of your choice will confirm these facts.

A little searching would also show that the installed capacity in Oklahoma is just 1% of that in Arizona and I think there's a reason for that. Even of your insurance covers it, it's not like the insurer is operating a steady-state loss. You're paying for it, and that factors into an economic estimate.

If your panels are destroyed, you're going to get the replacement cost back from home insurance along with your roof repair claim. Unless your panels are destroyed in year one, your deductible will more than have been paid for by the panels' production.

That the equipment has a useable date of 25-30 years is why most people won't bother with it. Most people don't want to be getting near retirement age and replacing obsolete equipment with a 15 year break even replacement cost on their homes.

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