I went solar!

I have always been fascinated by solar since I was a child. The thought that there is this giant fusion reactor in the sky that can provide power freely to the entire planet is amazing. When Tesla rolled out their NEW Solar Roof (actual solar tiles that replace traditional shingles) I was like WOAH! The only problem is that my house is fairly new. It was built in May 2016 and therefore the roof is too new to simply rip off, throw away and start over. I wasn’t willing to take that loss. I went the next best route. I had solar panels installed instead.
I had a solar system installed at the end of 2019
I wanted to take advantage of the Federal Tax Credit which for 2019 was 30%. That takes a sizable chunk off the cost of the system and resulted in a tax refund.

Normally I would advise people to get 2 to 3 quotes for any project this large. I didn’t do that. I usually follow my own advice, but this time I didn’t. I ran into a rep of Better Tomorrow Solar here in Georgia at an Electric Vehicle event. I got such a great vibe with no pressure from this guy that I went with them. I got a quote. They did the traditional good, better, and the best approach to their quotes. I immediately dismissed the “good” option. If I was going to do this, I was going to do this right.
I ended up going with the “best” option which ended up being a 26 panel, 8.2 kW system priced at $22K. When pricing a system one of the first things you’ll want to know is how long it will take for it to pay for itself. For my system, the estimated payback was 11.5 years. This means that after that time it will continue to generate electricity and will have paid for itself. Not to mention increasing the resale value of my home.
The install
I’ve learned to double the time that any contractor gives me on how long something will take. I’ve only been wrong once where the construction of the house itself was actually finished on the exact day of the estimate. For the solar install, they said “it will probably take 2-3 days.” They took a week. Now keep in mind that this was no big deal and I was in no hurry. Just remember that with any big project there’s the likelihood for something unexpected to pop up. In my case, they underestimated the slope of my roof and how much more time that would add to the job. Since I wasn’t paying by the hour it wasn’t a big deal to me.
Better Tomorrow Solar was completely professional and courteous. They cleaned up after themselves and paid attention to every detail. They even wanted to paint the conduit coming down the side of my house from the roof, the same color as the side of my house so that it would blend in (and it does). I can’t say enough good things about the install. No complaints.
How does it work?
I get all kinds of questions from friends like “does it power your whole house?” and “do you notice any difference?” These kinds of questions and...