Erickson House
2425 Delmar
|
A Solar Journey - 2425 Delmar, Plano, Texas
|
Renewable energy features
Solar PV 1
kW: 3
Installation date: August 2015
Installer/contractor: Solar City
Equipment
12 solar panels 250 W
ABB PVI-3.0 Inverter
Solar PV 2
kW: 7.2 kW APsystems
Installation Date: 2017
Installer: Kosmos Energy
Equipment
24 solar panels 300 W
24 integrated APsystems YC300 inverters
Retail Electric Provider
Used to be MP2 but Shell recently bought them out so now it is Shell
Green features
- Attic insulation
- Double Pane Low UV windows
Host Comments
Solar Journey - 2425 Delmar, Plano, Texas
Here is the house that Liz and I purchased in 1986 when we moved from Houston to Dallas. We were looking for a place to raise our kids. The house was built in 1974 and had kind of a Spanish motif. We remodeled in 2010 to create more of an open floor plan, at the same time we added foam insulation and double paned windows through-out.
We put on our first Solar panels in mid 2015. At the time our electricity bill was $182/month. These panels were from Solar City and we didn’t pay anything upfront for the panels. Rather we agreed to lease the panels for a 20 year period.
The “lease payments” are made when the panels produce electricity. The rate for the electricity started at current market value but then rises slightly over the terms of the agreement (a maximum of 2.9% of the current rate each year). At the end of the agreement we can either purchase the panels for fair market value or continue paying for the electricity the way we already have been.
We have 12 panels which are rated at 250 watts each for a total capacity of 3 kW. These panels face East and are mostly situated on the roof of the garage. The Solar City team decided that was the most panels we could add to our house given the large trees that we had. These 12 panels furnish roughly 1/3 of the electricity that we consume. We pay about $50/month for the electricity they produce at the current rate of 12.5 cents per kWh. The Solar City panels accounted for roughly 1/3 of our electricity and our monthly electricity cost for 2017 was $117.82/month.
The Spring storms of 2016 generated considerable hail in Plano. Our roof suffered hail damage, but our Solar panels were unaffected. When we replaced the roof Solar City sent crews to remove the panels from the old roof and reinstall them once the new roof was on. There was a charge of $500 for the whole operation.
In mid 2017 my friend René began selling and installing solar panels. He knew that I was interested in having more panels and we had removed a large tree on the East side of our house since installing the Tesla panels. I would really like to have enough panels to supply all of our electricity but my wife did not want panels on the front of our house, which just happens to face South.
He felt that we could use more of the total roof space on the house and after analysis determined that we could add enough panels to get to around 80% of total consumption by adding 24x300 watt panels (6.6KW capacity) and still keep our total electric expense right around $100 per month. Even though we would be adding North and West facing panels they would still make an overall contribution. We settled on 24 additional panels for a cost of $16,500 – we got a $4,950 federal credit at the time so we ended up financing $11,500 for a period of 20 years. That resulted in monthly payments of $60.23 to pay off the loan.
We paid off the loan early but we are illustrating the cost of the loan in the overall monthly electrical cost. So after adding the Kosmos panels which we purchased through René our average monthly electric bill, including the loan cost has been $132.73.
Why so high you ask. Didn’t our bill go UP after we added the 24 additional panels? Yep, that is right we are spending more now than we did previously on electricity. I suppose I should explain that for the last 5 years we have also been supplying power to an electric car through a level 2 charger. At first we had a BMW i3. I loved this car. It was like driving a skate board. Fast and responsive – but it had kind of a limited range. So in late 2019 we acquired a Tesla Model Y. Charging the i3 amounted to $37 per month. With the extended range (nearly 300 miles) of the Model Y I tend to drive more. It looks like the average per month is roughly 1500 miles. On a daily basis the car consumes about 17 kWh per day at a cost to me of $2.06. That works out to $62.62 per month.
So if you subtract that $62.62 per month from the overall cost of electricity that brings the average monthly electricity bill to $78.78. That seems like a reasonable enough bill. So with all that being said we seem to be saving about $100 per month over our bills from 2012 to 2015. Given that level of savings the “payback” on the $11,500 initial investment for the panels we purchased works out to about 14 years. The “payback” on the Tesla panels is slightly more difficult to calculate, and I haven’t bothered doing it, as not having to use fossil fuels to get a little over 20% of our electricity is pay back enough.
Well that’s kind of a financial summary of our Solar Panel experience. If you have any questions Liz and I will be happy to answer them during the Solar home tour.
Cheers,
Chris Erickson