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.