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Anyone have solar other than Tesla solar?
- Thread starter itsallaboutme
- Start date
Exactly. We got the loan through Goodleap at 1.99% interest. Only draw back is we had to put the $17.5k tax credit onto the loan to keep our payments low. The collateral for the loan is the Solar System itself, not our home.
We didn't go with the PPA, and have a 25 year warranty on the system.Yeah, Sunrun makes a lot of money signing customers up into Power Purchase Agreements. These have no-up-front costs, and Sunrun gets to securitize the future cash flow stream from homeowners with PPA. Eventually after the lease, the ownership of the system is transferred to the homeowner. However the effective interest rate for the PPA is very high; oftentimes over 10%. So a homeowner who can get a HELOC at 5% may be better off paying the bank over 20 years than paying Sunrun over 20 years... since the homeowner owns the solar system if they financed it themselves.
PPA are messy for homeowners because if they try to sell the house; oftentimes they'll have to buy out the lease (which may have a very unattractive payment option at that future time). Also, if the roof needs repair during the lease, the homeowner may foot extra costs to remove the panels since the panels aren't their own property. So Sunrun has to come out and have their "authorized person" do it. Many other downsides with PPAs.
The only upside I can think of with a PPA is if the solar array breaks, Sunrun has to fix it or pay the value of the lost electricity. At least, I think they're supposed to do the fixing ... the homeowner probably needs to read the PPA fine print.
The absolute WORST WORST WORST financing vehicle is called a PACE loan. These are secured by the property tax bill. PACE loans should be avoided at all costs. Even if the intention of PACE is positive; scammers have soured PACE.
Lawsuit Alleges Low-Income Homeowners Were Manipulated Into Getting PACE Green Energy Loans
As we previously investigated, a green energy program that targets low-income homeowners continues to leave a trail of financial hardships and foreclosures in its wake. KPIX 5'S Susie Steimle got an exclusive interview with the state agency tasked to oversee the troubled program.www.cbsnews.com
el-guapin
Trust no One
The warranty guarantees production? Or is it just a warranty on physical defects with the panels themselves?
Good info. in a TSLA rental right now, selling the home. The realtor says they need to be taken down (as do other lease type arrangements ) I have barely broken even on the $50/ mo. 3.78Kwh deal so no big loss there.
Funny thing though he said he wouldn't move them or get new ones either since some new builders will void house warranties if solar is installed. What say ye?
dandelot
Member
Lots of good advice. One bit I would add if the panels go flat on a roof is to budget for wire mesh screening around all the edges. Critters (various sorts) build nests and sometimes chew on wires.
We lost a month of generation some years ago when critters did something to the wires and an
industrial 1A fuse in the inverter blew.
Adding the screening stopped the fuse-blowing so the spare fuses on hand here (now) just
sit in a drawer.
Ours is Sunrun with dc to an inverter on the wall and I wish we had had the option of micro-inverters back in 2013.
We lost a month of generation some years ago when critters did something to the wires and an
industrial 1A fuse in the inverter blew.
Adding the screening stopped the fuse-blowing so the spare fuses on hand here (now) just
sit in a drawer.
Ours is Sunrun with dc to an inverter on the wall and I wish we had had the option of micro-inverters back in 2013.
Your not kidding; I live in SoCal and there must be a thousand; But I definitely did my homework; Started with Sun Run with Costco and down the list; Ended up with a family owned company:Orange County Solar, Panasonic 380 W panels; All work and parts, 25-35 year warranty; Great customer service, no pressure, everything disclosed upfront; Great referrals, and great price.
Panels just went up yesterday, just waiting for So Cal Edison to hook up.
Well...
The company installing the solar panels normally guarantees against leaks etc for the portion of the roof they installed over, and they would not do that if they didnt have to (is my guess) so there may be some truth to that statement.
With that being said, its not like new home builders are usually tripping over themselves to "fix issues" either, so /shrug.
I consider the rental you have a bit different (since you could get into and out of it fairly easily from what I remember reading), so its not as much a "No dont do that" as a PPA or lease.
I am also not against getting a loan to pay for the panels, since you still own them in that case, so its effectively the same as a purchase. its what I wish I had went with (loan) back in 2015 when I got my panels instead of getting a PPA.
With that being said, I mean "regular loan" not the funky one thats tied to the property. I knew I didnt like those back then, but after having a conversation with @holeydonut about them (with roughly the same content he posted here in this thread about it in post #20), I would say no one should ever consider that PACE loan. Better to do nothing at all than that, in my opinion anyway.
JimBob 909
Little Red Raven
The PPA we had with my wife's board & care was still a big saver over Edison, but no upfront costs. Sure could have saved more on a loan, but the PPA they warrantee everything. Monthly payment and catch-up bill was still much less than the prior year Edison bill. Back then you couldn't do 100%, now you can. Money was tighter since I had just paid cash for our home system, Costco/Sun-Run.
Yeah if one's credit is so bad that they can't get financed any other way but PACE, then they shouldn't be doing whatever they're about to take the loan out for. The terms are terrible and securing debt against a property tax bill can be disastrous if the borrower defaults on the PACE loan.
One good thing about NEM 3.0 is almost every proposal has things in place for disadvantaged homeowners to be able to add solar without PACE or weird things. Although part of me is like "who is disadvantaged and actually own a house???" Every detached house within 200 miles of SF that has a roof that can fit panels costs over like $1mm.
Out of curiosity, what is about Sunrun's customer support that leads you to characterize it as "stellar?" Have you had a technical issue that required onsite repair? And how long did it take Sunrun to arrive and perform the repair?
Had an issue with the House indication, (I have a tablet hooked up to the IP address of the Gateway), going into a "Load Meter Fault" when the batteries hit 100% and power from the panels was over 5kW. They came out, found it was the CT's in the Tesla Gateway that were defective. Ordered the parts and are going to be here Friday to replace them.
This is the true reason who those in lower tax brackets cannot get solar installed.
Maybe what we really need for low income solar support is the ability for a renter to put a lease system on the roof of that million dollar silicon valley house. That will kill 2 birds, since both will everyone have access to solar PV but the property values will go down because of a bunch of lease systems going on and off roofs of rentals. Now more people will be able to afford both bay area homes and PV systems! /s
That does sound like good service.
Unlike Tesla, where you're lucky to get someone on the phone in less than 30 minutes, and tech to come out in less than three weeks.
When I've called Sunrun, I get someone on the phone right away. Getting Tech out does take a bit because they are so busy installing.
FWIW, Sunrun actually sent a guy to my house without alerting me to investigate why 2 of my micros were "underperforming"
I met him at the door and was like - uhhhh why wouldn't you all give me advance notice of this? His response = ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Anyway the micros were fine. I just had shading from my chimney that blocked them during a few hours in the day. I own the system and there are no production guarantees; but I guess Sunrun monitors production anyway.
PACE loans will also need to be paid off by the owner if they want to sell the home to someone getting financing through Fannie, Freddy, FHA, VA as the PACE lien tied to the home has a superior position to the new mortgage.
B5-3.4-01, Property Assessed Clean Energy Loans (12/16/2020)
Do not get a PACE loan/lien
