Solar Array Progress

Sorry it has been so long since my last update but things have been moving along slow update wise. However, I have come across lots of new information but not a lot of answers so far.

There is new legislation on net metering, I had healthy dialogue with Julie Baldwin of the Michigan Public Service Commission, Manager of the Renewable Energy Sector. June 1, 2018 laws changed and this will roughly make energy costs $20 or so more per month for new installs. Existing installs are grandfathered in to the old system for 10 years from June 1, 2018. I also learned that in Michigan energy credits can carry over indefinitely and can not be cashed out. Those were the biggest revelations and I will discuss them further in another blog post.

In other news our snow guards will be installed in September. After some hassle with our vendor they agreed to a 40% discount. This is because had they let us know this situation could happen we would have purchased with the system instead of paying cash out of pocket. The height of our roof, size of our array and the fact our Berkley lots are so small and the snow dumps onto our neighbors driveway makes for a VERY dangerous situation when snow accumulates. The snow guards will reduce our production because the snow will cover  the panels longer but we will no longer have avalanches of snow tumbling down and shaking the whole house landing on our neighbors driveway. I also believe the direct sun with no shade and south facing array play into this as well heating the snow and panels quickly to cause it to fall fast. Honestly, I was surprised when Yellowlite said that they have not had this problem before and it is not something they discuss in installs. We were the first to have this concern. They did note that since our situation arose, they will be assessing this on future sites where snow accumulates to determine the need for snow guards. If it were not for the fact it falls in my neighbor's driveway, I likely would not want or need snow guards. Especially if I could block it off so the kids and pets do not play there during snowfall. Small city lots make avalanche snowfall being harmless pretty much impossible. I believe as solar power becomes more available and the move to go green increases, city arrays will be more prominent along with more northern installs and solar companies will need to consider all aspects such as this when quoting installs.

The last update I have is on our bill DTE has still not cycled our bill. We last received a DTE bill in February so we have yet to see how our usage compares to our production. It seems we are producing more than our calculated average monthly use but usage can definitely change. We went live on 2/23/18 and you can see monthly production in the bar graph. Pvwatts website estimated production is in the last table. I added additional lost for the snow guards which are not currently installed but I think it is necessary to estimate future performance with the snow guards installed. Losses due to snowfall in February and March were minimal.

Overall, we are happy with the system and the fact we are doing our part to be more green. As soon as I get our first DTE bill I will do a more in depth comparative analysis!

So now that we are live ...

This whole solar experience has definitely had a learning curve. As with anything there is so much more to it than meets the eye...This is why I decided to blog about our experience.

There are a few things that happened that took us by surprise. The first being the billing cycle after our solar panel install. Right about the time we were expecting our first bill I kept checking online to see the bill and the information on how much electric we had used. After about two weeks of looking and not seeing a new bill, I called DTE. It was then that we found out that after installing solar panels DTE will not bill for approximately three billing cycles. This is to ensure the bi-directional meter is functioning properly. Due to this we anticipate our first bill sometime late May to June 2018. Once we have this I can speak more to how our usage compares to production.

The next thing that we didn't anticipate or hear any vendor discuss in this process is what happens in heavy snowfall? The panels themselves are very durable and can withstand a lot of weight so that is not a cause to worry.  Our install was the end of January and the go live was February 23rd so this year our panels did not see much heavy snow. In fact, most snowfall was less than one inch. However, in early March we had about 3-5 inches of accumulated snow fall in a short timeframe of about 6 hours. When the snow stopped the panels didn't clear right away. They remained covered for roughly half the day and finally cleared. When the snow cleared off the panels, it did so all at once causing the house to rumble and making a good amount of noise. The snow fell and piled on the ground in our neighbors driveway. With Berkley yards being so tiny this was another major concern. After a little internet research we found that heavy snowfall can be a dangerous situation, especially with a two story home and having the solar panels on the rooftop. We are currently working with our vendor to have snow guards added to the roof. This will prevent the mass sliding of snow from the panels all at once. Instead the snow will still fall, but it will be a little at a time. This will effect solar production as the snow will not clear as fast from the solar panels and the solar panels will remain covered for longer, sometimes having to melt rather than fall. For us and our neighborhood with small yards, it is more important to be safe and prevent injury from snow falling off the panels. Since it is not currently snowing we anticipate installing the snow guards in the fall. We have not decided on what type but below I've added some photos of what snow guards look like. There are several different varieties available.

The next thing that occurred was that we received a letter from the assessors office in Oakland County. This letter informed us that since permits were filed an assessor will be out to confirm if the work is complete and determine the new taxable value of our home if it is complete. This was a big concern to my husband and I since solar panels are a costly investment, will the taxable value increase based on what we invested? A very helpful worker at the Oakland County Assessors Office let me know that it is hard to say what the value will increase. In fact, adding solar panels may only increase taxes slightly similiar to how adding a deck to your home would. However, she was not certain exactly how much the taxable value would increase and made this clear. She took down my information and let me know that she would have an assessor call me. In the meantime, I researched like crazy to figure out what would happen to taxable value of our home. I was concerned about this because added taxes will directly affect how quickly we see any return on our investment. I was also confused considering the push to go green, why would they tax private homeowners who invest in green energy? This taxable value increase and assessed taxes can make or break a home owners decision to go green with solar panels.  DTE is gaining the generated power and in effect selling it to other customers. They are taxed on those sales and then the consumer is also taxed on their bill based on the electricity they use. With the push to go green why would they want to tax the homeowner as well with increased property taxes? The homeowners benefit through net metering where one kw of electricity produced reduces our bill by one kw of electricity used but we do not earn any money from the sale of the electricity produced and are still charged the usage tax on electricity we use.

In my research I came across the following website:

https://www.michigan.gov/som/0,4669,7-192-29701_74909_74922-459348--,00.html

This provides information and form links regarding solar systems costing less than $80,000 being tax exempt. These systems are considered commercial panels on private residental property since the energy they produce is fed into a commercial grid and used for commercial purposes. Due to this they are referred to as a business investment on private property. This form allows you to file each year before tax assessments go out in February and will exempt the system from any tax increase it has added to your property. After this research I did receive a phone call from the assessor, she mentioned that I would need to check back at the end of the year to confirm. Since our panels were installed this year, the taxable value will not increase until February 2019 and before that is when we would need to have the tax exempt form filed with the city. Currently, there are a number of bills going through the state and federal government that could change everything if passed... this means more researching for me to follow all the potential changes. I have briefly looked at some but I am not knowledgable enough about them to share at this time... that will have to be another blog post. At any rate my reasearch showed me that there are ways to dispute taxable value increase due to solar panel install.

In Berkley our home is only one of two systems recently installed and very likely one of the only two installed in this city. The other owner I know of I found on Facebook through my blog posts. We both installed our systems and went live early this year. I am hoping to meet with her soon in person and talk solar panels. Because there are not many private solar panel installations in Berkley or Michigan in general, it is hard to say exactly how much home values increase due to adding solar panels. Not to mention most home owners who install solar panels plan to stay in their homes and not necessairly sell so this would make the stock of comparable sales difficult to find when placing your home on the market. Leased systems will not add value to your home because the system is not owned. In the event of a sale with leased solar panels the lease would need to be signed over to the new owner potentially making the sale more difficult. All important items to consider when deciding which type of solar system to install. Purchased panels can add to your house value approximately 10-15 times the amount saved on your yearly electric bill. However, this is subjective because our family may use more power than the family who buys the house. Also this added value number depends on the age of the system. A new system will add more value than a system near the end of life... no matter if it is still producing power. Also when a system is close to EOL you have to worry about disposal... my hopes are that in 30 years when our system is EOL there will be great solar panel recycling programs!

Since we went live our solar panels we have been producing a bit more power than anticipated. Using the PV Watts webite I plugged in information and our panels should produce approximately 9,980 kwh/year.

The chart above shows the kw produced per month according to the PV watts website. Below I posted March and April full month production to compare to the PV Watts chart. Remember this has nothing to do with usage, only our production. In April we produced 963 kwh compared to the calculated 970 kwh and in March we produced 921 kwh compared to 880 kwh anticipated production. As mentioned before our average usage declined due to winterizing our electric hot tub over the winter. It will be interesting to see our first cycled DTE bill and compare it to our calculated average use and the actual electric use. My early estimates on our actual production versus usage seem to show our system is covering about 98% plus of our usage. At the time of system purchase calculating needs we aimed for 90% production of electric use. Then early calculations after winterizing the hot tub showed about 94% production of electric use but there were still 3 months left of cold weather. With the new legislation heading through the government I am hoping they do away with net metering (see prior blog post) as it is advantageous to the electric company and not as beneficial to the private owner who invests in green energy. This would be extremely beneficial to us if our system is over producing power as we would, in effect, be giving DTE free power and would in no way benefit from it. It is possible we can call and request a check if there is credit on our account but it may take me some time to find out if this is true. 

I hope you enjoyed reading and at least learned something new... my next blog posts will discuss our first cycled bill and new potential legislation on solar energy.

We went LIVE!!!

If you have been following our solar story you know that we signed our solar agreement last year. However, the process began mid 2017 with energy assessments with DTE and Consumers. To be quick I will add a timeline below.

July-August 2017 - energy assessments
September-November 2017 - research solar energy and get solar quotes
November 21, 2017 - sign purchase agreement
Late November 2017 - DTE interconnection application mailed by Yellowlite / city permits and fees filed
Late December 2017 - city permits finalized
January 5, 2018 - DTE interconnection application complete via internet (no longer accept mail applications)
January 10, 2018 - DTE install approval confirmed
January 31, 2018 - install begins
February 1, 2018 - install complete
February 7, 2018 - electrical inspection
February 8, 2018 - final photos submitted to DTE
February 12, 201i - interconnection application approved to schedule go live
February 23, 2018 - system FINALLY is LIVE!!!

It has been a long process but we are happy we installed our system! The attached photos are from the first day and the very start of the energy production. It was a cloudy and rainy day. The system produced roughly 9 KWh of power. It was a slow day for production but we were happy to finally have our system be live. Because the system was up in February our first loan payment will be in April and it coincides with our first DTE bill having a whole month of green energy! Despite the deferred payment until April we have been maling a monthly solar loan payment since December. April will be the first official loan payment after the 4 month deferrment expires. I have been getting solar loan statements showing payments applied on the system. At signing a 10% down payment was applied, at install another 60% payment was applied and once inspections were passed the final 30% payment was made. This allows for fair distribution of charges to go along with the lengthy install time frame.

I will try to post frequent updates to solar production and I have a few other blog posts regarding this whole process to post. Things have been busy but I hope to do at least two blogs each month.

Warranties, lifetime and maintenance of solar panels

When making a solar investment it is important to research your options and purchase panels with a warranty that meets your needs. When looking at the solar panel systems, warranty was part of the decision for us. The panels we purchased from Silfab Solar - SLA-310M SLA-M come with a 25 year workmanship warranty. In particular the product warranty is 12 years and the Linear Power Performance guarantee is 25 years. This means that the product will be free from defects for 12 years and the power is guaranteed to perform for 25 years or panels will be replaced. The inverter we purchased is from Solar Edge Technologies and this also has a 12 year warranty. The overall labor warranty for the system is 10 years so all parts and labor needed is covered for 10 years. Then for 2 years parts are covered but labor to install is not. By year 11 the solar loan will be paid off and power production will drastically reduce monthly bills. It is at this point any repairs or parts will be out of pocket.

There are more extensive warranties you can get, some even last for 25 years. To get longer warranties will either cost more, or will need to be compensated for with less expensive or efficient components. A system that came with a 25 year all around warranty including a 25 year labor warranty cost almost double per KW than the system we purchased. With the less expensive system we got we were able to get higher wattage and more efficient mid range panels than the system with a lifetime warranty. We estimate that after 12 years for our system any repair costs can be managed since there will no longer be a solar loan payment to make. Personally, I feel any needed parts or labor for the system during the latter half of the expected life will be less expensive than paying for the system in full again. Also my excel sheet (I still need to post this) estimates roughly 40k in savings over 25 years with a modest 2% cost of electric increase each year. However, only time will tell if our choice was the right one.

In regards to maintenance, overall solar systems are fairly maintenance free, especially in locations that get frequent rain. If a drop in production is noticed then a power washing may be needed. In the 1.5 months we have been live with solar there has not been any maintenance required. However, we did have one panel go out due to a bad optimizer but that was ordered and replaced.

Our solar journey has just begun and we still have plenty to learn... We still have yet to see our first DTE bill with our solar panels in service but early estimates show that we are currently producing more than our households average daily usage over the last 12 months. I will try to post again soon and cover how our production has been overall and compare production on snowy, cloudy, rainy and sunny days.

Solar Loans

photo courtesy of solarcity.com

A solar panel system is not only good for the environment but also an investment. There are many ways to get your home into a solar system. The first being a cash purchase, the second is utilizing a loan, the third is a solar lease. The video I've attached shows loan options that allow home owners to purchase solar panels. Many of these options can be zero down or a variable down payment with monthly payments thereafter. Once the size and cost of the solar system is determined then purchasing options should be reviewed to determine what is best. If you can pay cash great but if not, a home equity loan or a low interest unsecured loan may be an option. Unsecured loan rates can be as high as 10% APR but with a good credit score can go as low as 1% APR, if you qualify. Oftentimes a secured loan will be the best option if the applicants credit score is so-so. This will allow for a lower interest rate than an unsecured loan. The loan terms can also be flexible. The useful life span of solar panels ranges from 20-30 years and panels can continue to produce energy beyond that. 

We decided to go with a low interest unsecured loan. This option was less hassle and, for us, offered a comparable interest rate to a home equity loan. Because our purchase qualified for the Green Energy credit on our Federal Tax Return the loan was split into a 70% / 30% loan. The 30% portion is no payment, no interest for a year. After one year this loan is subject to the regular loan terms if not paid in full. This allows for tax returns to be filed so that the loan can be paid off. The 70% loan is termed for 12 years but broken into 139 payments to give 4 months deferment. This is because a solar system can take several months to install due to various reasons. Some delays we experienced DTE permits, weather, DTE communication delays and finally DTE delays going live. Ultimately our loan payment & electric will be roughly what we paid for just our electric because we chose a shorter loan term. Our savings will increase as the cost of electric increases. The faster this happens the more we save. In Michigan electric costs have risen pretty consistently at just under 5% every year since 2012. I normally post blogs from my phone but I will try to see if I can post the excel calculator I created from my computer. It allows you to plug in specific information, including the electric rates and determine savings due to varying factors over the useful life of a solar panel system. 

There are differences between solar loans and leases the primary being you own the panels you have a loan on. With a solar lease you do not own the equipment and it will eventually go back to the leasing company. Also a purchase will increase the value of your home by up to 10 times the annual utility savings. A lease will add value to a home but not near as much as a system that is owned.

So check out this helpful video regarding solar purchases. Also I cannot encourage you enough to check out the website www.energysage.com, Again I highly recommed it. Energy Sage helped us so much on our solar panel journey. 

So you signed your solar agreement

Our exploration to go solar started mid 2017. After a full investigation we finally settled on the company Yellowlite and signed our purchase agreement on November 21st, 2017. When purchasing such an important and expensive investment, you always have a standard 3 days to change your mind and back out of a signed contract. We obviously stayed the course and literally just finished our solar panel install on February 1, 2018. Little did we know that the install would take until the new year...

After signing the contract at the agreed upon price our sales representative took pictures if our electrical box and utility meters. We discussed where the panels and meters would be installed and agreed upon specifications. Our system would be 24 Silfab 310 watt premium panels, located on the south facing side of our roof. Meters would be installed near the current utility meters. The specifications were sent over to the design team who put together the design that was sent over for customer approval. We denied the first design because we requested a satellite to be removed and the solar panel wiring to run along the gutter rather than down the middle of the house. The design had to be amended and then approved before submitting to apply for city permits and DTE approval. Shots of the approved design are shown and were submitted for permit approval along with full specifications.

After we approved the design, the first thing that held up progress was our permits. Yellowlite was all inclusive for us and the permits costs were included in the purchase cost. The city permits went through rather smoothly even with the Christmas and New Year holiday. However, the DTE permits caused some problems. On our behalf, Yellowlite manually filled out permit paperwork, submitted design, wrote a check and mailed everything to DTE. A couple weeks later, I get a call from DTE stating that they no longer accept manual paperwork and that solar applications need to be submitted electronically. I call DTE to get clarification on what was needed and then followed up with my Yellowlite Interconnection Coordinator. I was sent the design plans to submit electronically via the DTE website solar permit application and had to fill out specific information Yellowlite provided to me. Once the application was complete, I had to email copies to my coordinator along with a one page permit payment stub for Yellowlite to send in the permit fee. At that point we thought it was just a brief wait for approval. By this time we are into the first week of January and the very cold temps. I was informed that panel install could only occur when temperatures were above 30°F but we were still waiting on DTE permits. Another 10 days go by and I receive another call from DTE saying they couldn't process my application. This is because they had both a manual and electronic application with two checks and they can't proceed until they know what check to cash. I had to call Yellowlite again to follow up. This took just a couple of days and we were finally approved then it was a wait on the weather...

On January 29, 2018 I got the call they wanted to schedule this week, weather permitting, and we would be contacted by our sub-contracted installer Strawberry Solar. The next day the installer called and scheduled a 10 am start on January 31st and continue through February 1st. They showed up as planned albeit about an hour late and began install. Rails were installed and wiring ran. The next day panels were installed and the electrician came to install the bidirectional meter and connect to the electrical panel. Now we wait for the city inspector and the DTE inspection and for the panels to be turned on. We also have to get instructions on the monitoring application and then we will be good to go! Here are some photos of the install...

Net Metering and feeding back to the grid

After weeks of barely any progress waiting on permits and red tape we are finally starting install tomorrow, January 31st! Only 2.5 months after signing on our system! The vendor Yellowlite sub-contracted the install to a local vendor, Strawberry Solar, and things get underway at 10 am. Install will be completed by Thursday but then we must wait on city electrical inspection and DTE inspection before our production will be underway... In the meantime on to my next blog post.

https://www.strawberrysolar.com

Image courtesy of CPI:

https://www.cpi.coop/home-energy-use/renewables/net-metering/

Most states have laws governing solar panels and power production. Utility providers have goals to meet in providing clean energy. One of the ways they do so is allowing customers to purchase solar panel systems and feed energy back to the grid. This benefits the utility company in three ways:

1) It takes the investment in the panels away from the utility company and puts it on the customer.

2) The clean energy produced by your solar panels counts towards the utility companies clean energy goal.

3) Any excess energy produced cannot be carried over year to year. 

The laws in place governing solar energy are not friendly to private citizens that produce electricity and, for the most part, favor the utility companies. In Michigan if you are already connected to a utility company that provides electric, you cannot disconnect from the company and produce your power 100%. You also cannot utilize a battery backup to store excess energy as it must be fed back to the grid. The system to credit this energy production on your electric bill has been labeled Net Metering and this is the method the majority of states have adopted. Net Metering as shown in the graphic uses a bi-directional meter to count the watts your solar panels produce and the watts your home uses. It then credits the excess energy sent to the grid on your energy bill. Your electric bill will only charge you for the watts used over your solar energy production.

DTE and other electric providers will not let you install a system that is estimated to over produce your average annual usage. This is because they do not want excess production and the system is set up so that DTE wipes your energy credits clean at the start of the new year. So over producing is not necessarily advantageous to you and it would mostly benefit your electric company because they get free energy from your system. Potentially, at the end of the year, before the credits are wiped, if you have a credit of excess production you can call and request a cash out. I have not tried this so I can neither confirm or deny this claim but I will hopefully be able to eventually verify this once my panels are installed. 

To be completely off the grid you must build a new home that has never been connected to a utility company. This would not apply to a tear down and rebuild but it would apply to a lot that was split with an old home and a new home, with new service. The new home would be able to be off the grid by purchasing a solar system with a battery backup. The battery systems that come with solar panels are quite expensive and once the life of the battery is up they must be disposed of. The bright side of adding solar after already having an electric utility provider is that the large battery investment is not needed and there is no need to eventually worry about battery disposal.

Another question might be what happens when there is a power outage? Unfortunately, without a battery system when the grid goes down your solar production will continue but will cease to be Net Metered to prevent damage to the grid and the power will still go out. There are small battery backup systems that can be used to store your power and prevent a power outage at your home. These systems are allowed to work with a grid connected home solar system. In the event of a power outage you would flip a manual switch to allow your system to begin sending power to the battery backup system that can keep your home powered for a short period of time. However, such a system would need to be started during daylight hours and have active energy production to prevent having the power out. The cost of this setup would far outweigh the cost of a generator for use in such times.

After reading all this you might think "why go solar?" Obviously the number 1 reason is that it is the green thing to do and an excellent step in reducing your households carbon footprint. Another reason is that Net Metering looks at 1 watt of energy production as 1 watt of energy production. This correlation will not change over the 25 plus life span of your solar energy system. In Michigan electric costs are currently 15.7 cents per watt in 2017 up from 12.11 cents per watt in 2011. This is roughly a 29% increase in 6 years or approximately 4.9% increase per year. If this trend continues a solar system will provide an excellent return on investment as the value of energy produced would not be subject to the price increase on electric. Personally, for my household the cost of going solar will not cost more than my monthly electric bill. After the 30% federal tax reduction for going solar the loan payment will be equal to what we would pay in electric costs. If electric rates continue to increase, we will see a monthly payment reduction. In 11 years the solar system will be paid off and there will still be 14 plus years of use left to the system. At that point our electric bill will be 80% or less than it would be without solar panels at that point it is pure return on investment. Another point to mention is that solar panels are an investment in your home no matter if you plan to live there 2 years or 50 years. The research I found regarding home value after solar panel install notes that a homes value will increase 10 to 15 times the annual savings on your electric bill. So if a solar system saves $1000 per year on the electric bill you can expect the home value to increase approximately $10,000. Not a bad investment for producing clean energy!

Solar power is a household decision and can be catered to fit all needs, budgets and uses. Personally, I would hope that everyone would want to go solar. I am blogging about it in hopes of getting the word out with our experience on solar and possibly encourage those thinking about it to go for it. I did create an excel file, that after entering pertinent information, can help you estimate money savings over the life of a solar system. If I can I will try to add the spreadsheet with instructions for download. More to follow on that...