Solar Question?

I am not real big on the lease systems but it could be viable for some people and the out of pocket is almost nothing compared to purchasing and owning. You situation of 100 average a month vs 58 payment a month leaves you with a possible 42 dollars in saving or 40%. That is only if the system can take care of 100% of your power needs. If it is a grid tie system you will get a credit for anything above your usage that is provided back to the grid to offset times when solar is not functional (Night). All of that depends on the system size of course and most of the pre-packed systems are sold or leased in packages rated by kWh per day or per month depending on vendor. Most utility companies now give customers the ability to go to their website and find out your average daily and or monthly kWh usage for your location.

Looks to me the only way your going to come out on top being you will be paying 58 monthly and your monthly without is 100 is if your system is set up for excess which you will sell back to the electric company.

I have a friend with a grid tie and has had no problems with his system which is now 5 years old and provides about half his usage between direct consumption and credits for peak hours back to the grid.

These systems are usually centralized or meaning they are wired to a central converter which does have its draw backs as far as reliability. First most of these system wiring configurations will fail if one panel goes down and you will lose the whole system. Second if the centralized inverter goes down you lose the whole system.

In recent years one of the better developments has been the micro converters especially for those who want to start small and then keep adding as you can afford it. These systems have a small converter for each panel rather than having to buy a several thousand dollar centralized converter which is matched to the number of panels and watts. The big advantage here is expense and reliability, you can buy just one panel and one converter and then add as many as you like. On top of this if you lose one panel it does not take down the whole system but rather just the one, same goes for the inverter if you lose one the rest of the system keeps operating verses a single centralized system would crash the whole system. I have a neighbor with this setup and I helped him pick out the equipment almost a year ago. He started with 10 240 watt panels with inverters (Sharp Panels & Enphase Converters). The installer commented how much simpler it was to wire and he has had no problems to date. He also added the monitoring system which allows him to log in at any time and get exact data on his system daily--weekly-monthly-annually (Very Cool) and useful for identifying problems. You can start with as little as one panel and just add as you go!!

From a Prepper or SHTF scenario this type of system makes more sense in both cost and reliability. The simplicity of it (wiring) and the ability to keep functioning even when individual pieces break or stop working makes it the best choice (In My Opinion).

In your stated lease you will still be paying around $15,000 and not get any fed tax credits or state/utility credits. The above system was purchased for under $10,000 and his payment on the loan was just a little more than your lease payment (10 Years not 20). Adding a middle-man just adds to the expense and limits your selection in my opinion, you should check out the alternatives before making a decision.

Bottom Line   A lot has to do with your Local and installation options for optimizing energy capture. Wind should not be a problem and your local installer will know the installation options for securing the panels for high winds.

Here is where the above system (Enphase-Sharp) was purchased from

http://www.wholesalesolar.com/enphase-solar-power-system.html