We had the solar panels installed a couple of weeks ago.
In addition to the above 8kW set of panels, we have another 6.5kW in two areas on the front of our house. Initially, we were going to install it all, but we decided to scale back a bit for a couple of reasons
- To save some money (did we mention that building a house is EXPENSIVE?)
- To see how it goes with 8kW of solar, and make sure we aren’t over-installing
The nice thing is, we already have everything ready for the next set of panels, so installing them should be a snap
- The roof has mounting brackets already installed
- The conduit from the mechanical room to the roof is installed
- The mechanical room has the rack installed for the inverter
One downside of our solar timing has been the effects of the solar tariffs. Since we first signed up with our solar contractor, every time we’ve talked to them, up through the end of last year, the price per watt went down, as solar panel prices continued to improve. With the new solar tariffs, this year it changed. We saw a 10% price increase from our last quote. Whether the company is using this as an excuse to bump the price, or whether the panel prices really went up, we don’t know, and it probably doesn’t matter. In my manufacturing business, we’ve seen quite a few domestic suppliers of steel and aluminum products raise their prices to 25% and 10% respectively after the steel and aluminum tariffs, simply because they felt they could.
Needless to say, I am not a huge fan of tariffs.