Solar on a House Hack

[Charles E. Bruckman]

Hello,
I am currently house hacking a four-bedroom house and doing rent by the room for the other 3 bedrooms. The bills/utilities are in my name and I invoice the tenants monthly based on usage.

I am considering getting solar (through a loan) to help lower the electricity bill and cash flow a bit. Does anyone have any advice on how to effectively and fairly pass along the cost of the loan and the savings to the tenants? Are there any logistics regarding splitting costs that I need to be concerned about? The estimated ROI on this is 12%.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Zambricki Li]

You could do it as a estimated flat rate, or a certain percentage of each monthly bill allocated to each tenant based on portion of house. Unlikely most tenants would care to get in the nitty gritty of it with you. It is your risk. You will prob not cashflow off of the solar, in most cases the utility gives your overflow as credits back. You can use them on cloudy days that's about it.  Consider not getting a battery unless you have blackouts you don't need a battery and they are very expensive.

In San Diego you could get a good roofer to prep your roof and a budget solar install company. Making sure your roof is ready is important. The panel and inverter install are rudimentary don't let the solar companies make it seem like its magic. I bought panels on sale and invertor as part of a prop purchase and outsourced the install all in 12,500. Bids are all over the place for solar.