We Got A New Roof and Solar Power!

New Roof + Solar

A few months after the completion of our new bathroom, we finally got a new metal roof. And it looks great! In addition to our new metal roof, we also got additional insulation under the roof and we added solar panels to the roof. Yea, it was a busy year!

The good news about the roof is that is looks really great and we haven't had a leak since it was installed. The bad news is that we paid for hurricane straps, but our insurance inspector said they were not installed properly *sigh*. So, I guess adding hurricane clips is a future house project once the weather starts to cool and the rainy days stop.

As mentioned above, shortly after we got the roof installed, we also added solar panels, which was an adventure in an of itself. For those of you wondering about how solar works, costs, etc, I'm going to do my best to explain.

Solar Costs

The installation of a solar system (yes, that's really what it's called) is roughly $3,000-$4,000 per kW installed. We have a simple gable roof with the surface facing east/west, which is not optimal. Ideally, you want a south facing roof. Since the USA is in the northern hemisphere, southern facing solar panels will give you the maximum power as the sun passes from east to west during the day. If you have an east/west setup then you lose about 20% of your daily production. I'll get into the details on that later in this post. But the bottom line is that we had to have roughly a 20% larger solar install than a house equivalent to ours but with a south facing roof section would require.

We paid approximately $38,000 for our 11.1kW solar system. 2019 is the last year for the full government solar tax rebate, which covers 1/3 of that cost. So, our out of pocket cost was $26,000. Or at least it would have been had we not taken out a loan.

Since we didn't want to drop $38,000 and then wait a year for our tax rebate, my wife and I took out a loan with Enerbank. Actually, we took out two loans. They gave us what amounts to a first year zero interest credit card equivalent to the government rebate - that served as the down payment for our solar system. Then, they gave us a 20 year loan at 5% for the remainder, which we released to the solar installer after the work was complete. Our solar payment is about $174/mo.

Net Metering

Bidirectional Meter

The only way solar makes any financial sense at all is through net metering. Net metering allows you to get energy credits based on what you produce that can then be applied to your consumption. Our solar system only produces power during the day, when the sun is out. And we produce about 50kWh on a good sunny day. Most of that production, however, happens over a 6 hour period when both my wife and I are at work. During that time, we are consuming very little. We use most of our electricity at night and on the weekends. Essentially, we are mostly producing electricity for the benefit of other consumers on the grid.

Let's say we consume 20kWh of electricity in the morning. Then, we go to work and produce 50kWh of electricity, but our house only consumes 5kWh of electricity while we're gone. And finally, we come home and consume another 20kWh of electricity with another 5kWh of electricity consumed by our house when we are sleeping. With net metering, our electric consumption costs would be as follows 20 - 50 + 5 + 20 + 5 = 0kWh. Without net metering, our electric consumption costs would be 20 + 20 + 5 = 45kWh, since we would only cancel out our consumption costs while we were producing and all production above our consumption at time of use would effectively just be giving away free electricity.

What's even more interesting is that in Florida, net metering credits can last for up to a year. So, if in February, we produce 10kWh more than we consume. And in March, we consume 10kWh more than we produce. Then, both February and March have a $0 electric consumption bill. Pretty cool, huh?

Estimating Actual Production

Since net metering credits are based on annual production, estimating a daily average based on the year seems to make the most sense. We have a 11.1kW system, but we lose roughly 20% due to our east/west installation. So, that is the equivalent of a 8.88kW system. What's more is that solar produces DC power, which must be converted to AC power for our home to use it. That means we have an inverter, which results in roughly another 5% loss in electricity. So, a good estimate of our peak production is 8.4kW.

In Central Florida, there are an average of 5.3hours of peak production on a sunny day. That means on an average sunny day, I can expect to produce about 44.5kWh of electricity. In reality, we have seen it as high as 50kWh, but that's in the summer months when we get more like 6hours of peak production. On average, there are 246 sunny days in Tampa per year. That means over a year, I can expect to have an average net production of 246 * 44.5 = 10947kWh... sort of. You see, even on not very sunny days, our solar panels still produce something. I've seen our solar panels produce 3kW on a cloudy day. I've even seen our panels produce 500W while it was raining. So, let's figure on the not so sunny days, we produce an average of 10% what we should produce on a sunny day. That puts our annual net production estimate at 246 * 44.5 + 119 * (0.1 * 44.5) = 11476.55kWh of production for the year.

Here's The Reality

When people find out that we have solar panels, their first question is, "How long until you recover your investment?" My typical response is, I am doing that right now. Essentially what we have done is we have traded in our electric bill for a solar payment. 

Our present day savings are negligible. We have a $173/mo solar payment. If we netted out every month, meaning kWh consumed - kWh produced = 0 every month, then we would be out of pocket $193.00/mo. There is a $15/mo connect fee and about $5/mo in taxes regardless if you get charged for consuming any electricity or not. 

Our electric bill used to range from $150/mo to $330/mo, with our average electric bill being around $220/mo. Since our solar install, our highest monthly electric bill has been $89.00 and our lowest bill was about $25.00. Add the solar payment on top of that, and we're not really saving anything compared to our average, but the swings in price over the summer have been less (on those long hot sunny days, we also produce a lot more electricity). Of course, after our solar system is paid off, we will be saving a ton in the form of a really low electric bill.

Is Solar Worth It?

Rooftop Solar Panels

If you plan to own your home for a long time, then I think solar does make good financial sense. If you can pay for your solar install outright, then I also think it makes good financial sense. However, if you don't think you'll be staying in your home for 10+ years and you would have to finance your solar install, then I don't think it makes sense. Essentially what you are doing when you get a solar system installed, is you are pre-buying electricity at a lower rate and hedging against rising electric costs. 

By installing a solar system, you're also contributing to the grid and reducing the strain on the grid and your electric company's power generation requirements. So, if being a good steward is important to you then maybe the financial numbers are less important. For us, we liked the idea of generating our own power and giving back, but it had to make financial sense. Fortunately, it did.