5 Years with Solar Panels - Is It Still Worth It?
5 Years with Solar Panels - Is It Still Worth It? For 65% off with HelloFresh PLUS free shipping, use code MATTFERRELL65 at bit.ly/3D53QkS! I’ve been living with solar panels for almost 5 years in Massachusetts. Get my achieve energy security with solar guide: link.undecidedmf.com/solar-guide. There’s been some twists and turns with solar production and how it’s performed in the cold and snow. I also added a Tesla Powerwall into the mix. There are definitely some things I wish I knew before getting solar and a battery installed. How has it performed and do I still think getting solar panels was a good idea?
Additional videos:
How My Tesla Powerwall Could Save the Grid - • How My Tesla Powerwall...
Are Solar Panels on a Net Zero Home Worth it? - • Are solar panels worth...
This Smart Home Electric Panel Fixed My Tesla Powerwall - • This Smart Home Electr...
Watch Is a Geothermal Heat Pump Worth It? My Net Zero Home • Is a Geothermal Heat P...
Video script and citations:
undecidedmf.com/5-years-with-...
Get my achieve energy security with solar guide:
link.undecidedmf.com/solar-guide
Follow-up podcast:
Video version - / @stilltbd
Audio version - bit.ly/stilltbdfm
Join the Undecided Discord server:
link.undecidedmf.com/discord
👋 Support Undecided on Patreon!
/ mattferrell
⚙️ Gear & Products I Like
undecidedmf.com/shop/
Visit my Energysage Portal (US):
Research solar panels and get quotes for free!
link.undecidedmf.com/energysage
And find heat pump installers near you (US):
link.undecidedmf.com/energysa...
Or find community solar near you (US):
link.undecidedmf.com/communit...
For a curated solar buying experience (Canada)
EnergyPal's free personalized quotes:
energypal.com/undecided
Tesla Referral Code:
Get 1,000 free supercharging miles
or a discount on Tesla Solar & Powerwalls
ts.la/matthew84515
👉 Follow Me
Mastodon
mastodon.social/@mattferrell
X
X.com/mattferrell
X.com/undecidedMF
Instagram
/ mattferrell
/ undecidedmf
Facebook
/ undecidedmf
Website
undecidedmf.com
📺 KZhead Tools I Recommend
Audio file(s) provided by Epidemic Sound
bit.ly/UndecidedEpidemic
TubeBuddy
www.tubebuddy.com/undecided
VidIQ
vidiq.com/undecided
I may earn a small commission for my endorsement or recommendation to products or services linked above, but I wouldn't put them here if I didn't like them. Your purchase helps support the channel and the videos I produce. Thank you.
Do you want solar for your house? If you have solar, what are the things you wish you had known beforehand? For 65% off with HelloFresh PLUS free shipping, use code MATTFERRELL65 at
I have a friend who worked at a radio astronomy observatory for decades. They had this "standardized" intelligence test for their interns. When the "big" (26m) dish would fill up with snow, the procedure was to tilt it down, and hit it repeatedly with a whacking stick, and it would come avalanching down. The "test"? If the student stood
About 11 years ago, I had a grid-connected array of free-standing solar panels installed behind my barn. (I realize most homeowners do not have the space for this.) It produces about 90% of the power I need on the farm. The panels are angled for maximum sun exposure during the summer in Michigan; during the winter, we manually tilt them vertically for 3 reasons: 1) the lower angle of the sun during winter 2) to avoid snow sticking to them 3) to take advantage of "snow bounce" (the light reflected off the snow on the ground). I've been completely pleased with their performance; my annual electric bills are in the low hundreds of dollars instead of thousands. I can run my whole house A/C while still sending excess power to the grid on hot days! I love having green power!
Another thing to consider is structural integrity of your roof. I lived in a housing area for a few years that had some years prior attempted to put panels on most if not all of the properties. Apparently, the extra weight of the panels plus several inches of snowfall was enough to collapse some of the roofs.
I am having my 10Kvh system being installed as I watch this video, it was a timely recommendation and I was interested in what issues you encountered. I laughed when you mentioned one of the issues is snow since I won’t have to worry about that as I live in Australia.
I did a DIY solar last year and ended up spending about $30k for 11 kW including 15 kWh of battery storage. My takeaways were:
I'm in Ottawa Canada and I have a 10kw array. The installer neglected to install the snow rail and the first winter we had a fairly large accumulation slide off. It shook the house. I went out to look at what had happened and was surprised to see it had dumped the snow out far enough to smash my neighbours air conditioning unit in to the ground. Thankfully the installer covered the repairs and installed the rail. No avalanches since.
For comparison, I had 42 Sunpower SPR225-BLK panels installed about 15 years ago, they are pretty worn-out by now. Total price was $75,000 before credits, total capacity was 9450 watts, very similar to yours. After 15 years the power is down substantially due to deterioration of the substrate, which was expected. 2021 generation was 16,620 kWh which covered exactly 1/2 of our total usage, which was ~32,000kWh. Being part of SRP means about $70 per month in fees and taxes. My panels are small compared to the new form-factor where you get ~400 watts per panel, efficiency is pretty similar. At least when new. I suspect our panels wear out faster in Phoenix than they would in New England.
Hi Matt. I remember watching your pv install vid before I took the plunge and got panels on my roof in the UK in Aug 19.
We're in Austin,Texas and got solar and 2 powerwalls a few months ago. We had gone through winter storm uri a couple years ago and didn't have any power for several days where we live. This time during winter ice storm mara we kept our power on the whole time (it was out in our neighborhood for several days) having TV, Lights, and Kitchen appliances all working. We have a fireplace that we kept the house warm with so we didn't use the AC/Furnace. So I'm super happy with our solar!
Bought 40 acres and a completely off-grid cabin in April 2019.
Great video thanks. My wife and I live in Epsom just south of London England and we have had solar panels for 12 years which we are delighted with. Snow isn't our problem but I wish I had known about bird problems. Pigeons nest under the panels leaving a lot of mess on the pannels, around the house and making a lot of noise early in the morning. We had to have a bird control company clean the panels put up fences around each panel which solved the issue. Like your snow fences I wish I had known about this problem when they were installed.
We have a 14' x 70' ground mounted panel system in our large back yard. This avoided all of the roof-mounted issues. We also have a geothermal heat pump system for heating and cooling. Our utility bills with this combination are minuscule, and the home is totally carbon free. We have been comfortable year-round and very happy with the systems.
My wife and I had a small 1kw system installed for our off grid cottage in Ontario 20 years ago. Amazingly, we just replaced our original battery bank last summer. The system has performed flawlessly. 120 watt panels in 2002 were $799 each!!!!
Nice video Matt. My advice would be to make sure your installer/provider is someone who has installed many years and all kinds of system designs. Example, your inverters are not desired because they create too many points of failure. Every extra part and extra connection is a point of potential failure. There are pros and cons of all decisions and choices. Nice video, good information Matt.
The rising energy costs is such a big one. My husband did load calculations and realized our hvac unit isn't properly sized for our house. Plus we have a cheap, inefficient system to begin with.. So our electric bill has always been high. Now with our power company raising rates our electric bills are extremely high for a 1400 square foot homes.
I was looking for things to make life more complicated. This seems like the type of thing I am looking for.
I’ve been working in solar for almost 10 years. The cost most don’t consider is the cost of removal/reinstall when they need a new roof. Most rates across the country are about $200/panel, and not all insurance carriers cover that cost.
My wife and I decided to install a 5.8 kWh system on our house in IL. Your 4-year video was a great source of information that informed our decision, so thank you for doing all of this. We are quite happy so far, and I'm glad your system is working out well for you still.
I had a solar company cold call my property and give me a quote today. The problem i had was the hard sale, where I only had 2 hours to decide if I was going to sign along the dotted line. I told them under no uncertain terms I was not going to make a hasty decision no matter the benefits of solar and payback period.