Oldpaddy
Well-Known Member
Other than replacing my insulation and windows, there's nothing more anyone can do to bring my electric bill down. And I'm not ready to do that yet. I did my roof last year and the siding, insulation, windows are a few years away. It's all about the benjamins. Especially since the wuhan flu took my job away and I have to babysit my kids until they open the schools/recs back up. I only want solar to get my bill down. If it doesn't help my electricity expense, then it's not worth it.Have you had MassSave come in and do a walk through? They'll replace any bulbs left (for free!) and see if there's other ways to save power - insulation and so on.
As far as solar itself goes, it CAN be worth it, or it could cost more than you spend now.
You can have a couple solar companies come in and do an estimate - first is southern exposure, and also how many trees you have blocking the roof. Also keep in mind there's differences from companies that lease the panels to you versus ones that sell them to you outright.
We had them come in. The leasing ones will put any number up, but it may not make much difference.
The ones that we were going to buy had an engineering study done, and for us it wouldn't even come close unless we cut down all our trees and coated both sides of the roof - we're also an east-west orientation.
Instead we went with split unit A|C / heaters, and replaced all the baseboards in the house with new, high efficiency models. We saved almost half on our electric bills almost immediately.
My roof is set north south with the south side having the most area. It's a straight shot too. No gables or anything. I've been taking down trees left and right on my half acre so that's not an issue.