Would you install Solar? Any tips?

[Rafael Ro]

This is a general question... Do you think solar is worth it, for an area like a desert with plenty of sun and hot summers (AC blasting) raking up big electricity bills? 

But also more specific... Would you think that it would increase the value of a rental?

I'm considering buying them for our house and would likely break even in about 4years. The issue is that I plan to rent this house out in within the next 2 years (ie. before breaking, leaving the tenant reap the rewards). 

Would love to hear your thoughts.

[Steve K.]

@Nathan G. Nathan! What the heck man? Your posts on property management are the best, and you’re obviously a smart man. Your posts on solar, however, with all due respect, are still mostly nonsense even after we’ve discussed this several times already. What batteries? What maintenance? Since the late 80’s when net-metering was developed, 99.9% of solar systems have used the grid as a battery and don’t have batteries themselves. They use net metering, no batteries. Only off grid systems require batteries and modern AGM’s last 10 years or more, not 5-7. As far as maintenance, modern solar systems don’t require any maintenance at all (no moving parts, nothing to oil or maintain). Some people clean them because they want to, but rain takes care of that for those who can’t be bothered. That’s it for maintenance and repair! Plus they all come with 20-30 year bumper to bumper warranties. Regarding the environmental impacts that “nobody talks about”. They actually do talk about it. It’s been studied and quantified by the biggest pocket-protector types out there for many decades. This is called the environmental return on investment or EROI which looks at sourcing raw materials, manufacturing, transportation, installation and recycling of materials after their 40-50 year useful life. Most panels have an EROI of under one year these days and the worst are 3-4 years. So pretty good, and compared to most other energy sources, extremely good. You’re not too far off on system price at $15k, the range is about $8k-$18k for a residential system these days, minus the tax credit and any local rebates (yes like all forms of energy solar receives government money, but not nearly as much as fossil fuels and nuclear, etc. do). The payback period really depends and can range from 3-20 years, depending on local rebates, pricing, and net metering policies. But considering there’s no return at all from continuing to pay an electric bill every month, a long return is still better than no return. The OP should get 3-4 quotes from local installers (I recommend owning over leasing, and going with a local installer over the big national companies). Most quotes include a financial analysis and he can decide for himself if the math works out for him or not. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. It did for me on two of my rentals that I used to live in, but not my small multi-families that don’t have good roofs for it. On one of my systems, it was paid off in less than a year and the utility writes me a check for $20 every month, even with a hot tub, whereas without solar my bill would be $200/month. So that’s obviously a win. It really depends on the specific property, a lot of times it makes sense and sometimes it doesn’t, so anyone looking into it should get a quote from an installer like @Andrew Smith