There are solar panels on our house. Plenty of people have asked me about them over the years. Was it worth it? Would you do it again?
Absolutely. Not.
Here is our solar story:
Back in November of 2016, Envirosolar came calling to our front door. Tony sat down with a jovial man called Brandon in a pinstripe suit and proceeded to have a conversation with him about solar panels. Tony was hooked immediately by the guy’s down to earth mojo and charismatic laugh. He was a nice guy, no doubt. I sat down for a little while and learned that we’d be paying less than $99 a month for electricity if we had solar panels, that the original cost of the install would pay off quickly, that it was excellent for the environment, we’d be setting a standard in our community, we’d get a large tax rebate, blah blah blah. Yes, I agreed, let’s go for it.
We were told the price would be $24,900. Well. The contract says that is the amount. Why then, did we need another $25,000? The answer is – we needed to replace our entire air conditioning and heating system including the outside unit to bring everything up to date in order to service the panels. Then, we had to pay $2000 to the electric company to install the correct meter on the side of our house. We also had to replace all the light bulbs in our house with LED ones.
I took a loan out for $10,000 with my horse trailer as collateral, to pay the initial deposit. After that, things start to get very, very sketchy. We financed the rest of the amount through two banks – GreenSky and EnerBankUSA. Both of which were recommended to us by Brandon. The EnerBank account started at $25,000, of which I immediately paid the $10,000 from the loan I got. Then, you can see by my old notes that I played money-roulette. Cash advance from USAA for $1000. $7500 balance transfer to Bank of America and another balance transfer to Discover for $2250. These must have been interest free balance transfer offers. I can see the interest rate for EnerBank was 16.54%. That’s a lot when you’re talking about $25,000.
Now, with GreenSky, the initial loan amount was slightly less than $25,000. But, the interest rate was much higher at 23.99%. WHAT WAS I THINKING?
I will admit, I don’t remember all the details. But I do remember that we were told that we would have a certain period of time to pay off these debts, interest free. That did not happen with EnerBank – we had thirty days. I remember the panic of having to figure out how to pay that EnerBank amount off quickly. For some reason, it took us another year to pay GreenSky… with the interest of about $448 a month snowballing. However, if we paid it off within that year they would credit all that interest back. I was sweating, for sure. I can see that I waited until the year was almost up before I paid anything back … and I did manage to pay it off, but how? I don’t have any notes on this one, and I don’t remember how I did it.
The fun part is that during that first year I didn’t really see any decreases in our electric bills. And Brandon disappeared. I assume the company went tits-up as my Dad would say and Brandon was displaced.
We never did get the $500 rebate we were promised.
Here’s where it gets insane….
A year ago. SEVEN years after installing the solar panels, I have never seen much of a difference in the cost of our electricity. It still reaches $400 in the hottest summer months and up to $500 in the winter. Nothing really changed. Then one day I had to call Reliant (our electric provider) for a reason I can no longer remember. We were discussing something and I happened to mention that I never noticed the solar panels doing any good. The guy on the other end of the phone goes… “You have solar panels?” You could have heard a pin drop on my end. I stuttered ye-ess. The guy says “that isn’t reflected on your plan. You don’t have a solar panel plan.” More silence from me. Total crickets. Finally I pick my jaw up from the floor and I say what, exactly, do you mean? Do you mean to tell me that for SEVEN years the solar panels have never done ANYTHING? “Right.” he says.
Son of a Bi….
We were never, never, ever, told that we had to let the electric company know we had solar panels. Hell, the power company had to install the meter! Wasn’t it automatic? No, no it was not. Even though the guy who reads the meter every month can clearly see we have solar panels, and can clearly read the input and output and reports this back to the energy company…. because we didn’t have a solar plan we were not getting credit.
So of course I remedy the situation. I can honestly say I have never felt so stupid in all my life. But we get it fixed up. We now have a solar plan, wahoo! We should be set, good to go.
Then the tornado comes. Rips two solar panels off my roof. I don’t really have the money to replace/repair them so I ignore it for a few months. I don’t really know if the panels are still working or not, but life gets in the way and it gets pushed out of my mind. Then the other day, Reliant sends an email. A general email, not to me specifically. It says I can link my solar inverter directly to my plan so that the input and output is automatically recorded and I can see on a day to day basis how much power we are generating. I think this is pretty neat, so I go to sign up.
After a bunch of being redirected to this site and that site, I finally learn I have to have an account for the inverter. The inverter company says I have to have a code from the installer. I’m like “Look here. That company is no longer with us. I need some help.” So she gives me a one time courtesy break and supplies me with the number I need. Then I find out that Tony has had that account for all these years and I never knew it. Sigh. More communication between spouses, friends. We all need more communication.
But I got it! I’m in! Annnndddd…. the output is zero. Zero? Why? My brain is spinning. I call the lady back. Oh, she says, your inverter hasn’t been on since December of 2022.
Son of a Bi….
Apparently the energy company couldn’t find it within themselves to let me know that we were, in fact, NOT getting any benefits from our solar panels. It’s been eight years. Eight years, $50,000 later. Zero benefits.
Do I recommend solar panels?
Hell no.