5 Years with Solar Panels - Is It Still Worth It?

Watched this a couple times, mental gymnastics galore, so u spent 30gs or something and have never made a profit off of this? I've done the math before years and years ago, I still don't think it makes any sense. Any genius care to eli5 me? I been drinkin

Nice video Matt. My advice would be to make sure your installer/provider is someone who has installed many years and all kinds of system designs. Example, your inverters are not desired because they create too many points of failure. Every extra part and extra connection is a point of potential failure. There are pros and cons of all decisions and choices. Nice video, good information Matt.

Useless. I want a full off grid system. PGE is gouging us here in CA. Went up 100% in the past 3 years.

Personally, I LOVE the idea of every home having SOME capacity to produce a little power on their own... it will be amazing for taking some strain off the grid and grid-failure security... Having some power in the event of a storm or outage could be life-saving for so many.

nobody wants to talk about maintenance costs which really changes as the system gets older

That is really expensive for the initial install, it is about double it would be in my country and mine included a battery.

If someone has solar panels all over their roof, during a POWER OUTAGE do they still have power? No.

Arkansas has net metering. You never get anything back. There are credits that accrue and don’t expire. If you ever need more than you generate, the credits help you avoid having to pay.

Bro. You need to get off the veggie diet and drastically increase your meat consumption. I really mean NO DISRESPECT, but you aren't looking well in your videos..... 😔

Hello you talked about a grid tie system with micro inverters. Then you talk about power wall which use whole house inverter vs micro inverters. I sense issues with that but can you explain what happened and what was needed to be done.

My Son advises not worth it. 20 years and maintenance and Roof damage plus warranty on roof .plus Solar panels not good at all
But you decide remember when selling you need to add the panels as a extra . I'm out no thank you

It should never have been mounted to the roof. If you have space, it's silly to mount it to the roof.

So I'm building a new home and I want to go full solar or as much of it is solar as I can. Energy costs are a little less than what you do and I'm designing my own house with dataCAD so I am actually going to go for an A-frame styled home and position it east west. Nice lovely view of the river solar can catch all the time and I really don't have to worry too much about the snow because we get a lot of snow where I'm from. It means less shoveling for me and there's no roof height that's going to drop the snow off. Then I can simply leave some snow there for insulation in the winter because you want to bank the sides of your house and take the rest away with the tractor

Matt, thanks a lot for this video.
I would like to buy approximately 100 kW solar system (circa 150 panels; each 1 x 2 meters )
and also combine them with vacuum solar tube heating system

In my state, they tried to dramatically inflate utility bills to subsidize (trick) people into solar panels. When you add up all the real costs, leases, and subsidies, Solar power is not efficient. Individuals may save money today at the expense of others, or by bankrupting the state, but we are all going to regret it later.

Not sure how it works in the US, but an accountant would also count the cost of the $14,000 not being used elsewhere (opportunity cost). This means $14,000 put on the roof is not in the bank at 5%....or in the share market or whatever. If you borrow the $14,000 that's asy $700 pa extra in interest. Also, sis you pay to have the panels cleaned? then if you escape before the inverter fails and there's no hailstorm etc etc.

Problems with solar panels: Part obsolescence. Trees. Hail. Snow avalanches. Rainwater shoots out over gutters. Got it 👍.
You think you’ll get more $ for your old house? A little double-dip? I should hope so, after that huge Solar investment. However: If I was going to buy a house, and the shingles/solar panels were old, I’d offer a much lower amount for the house so I could afford to do it again. (Same thing with an EV that had an old battery.)
My new roof cost $20,000. The roofing guy told me they charge an extra $17,000 to remove/replace solar panels when replacing shingles. (Plus, solar panels put big holes in the roof, you’ll probably need new wood$$$.)
A 30% federal tax subsidy for solar is a burden on poor people that cannot afford solar; and who pay bloated utility bills so you can get a subsidy. And “Energy credit systems” and free Tesla Powerwall Batteries are just more subsidies. Don’t fool yourself with the energy savings “shell game”. Money isn’t “magic”; somebody has to pay.
Taking out a $30,000 home loan to buy the panels means you also pay “interest”. Next time you enjoy low or negative electric bills, don’t forget to deduct those $1,000’s in interest, the $1000’s in subsidies, and the $1000’s to have solar installed.
Would your solar panel purchase have made any financial sense without the subsidy gimmicks? Consider this: Second generation solar panel owners, when everybody is forced (or tricked) into becoming energy manufacturing plants for the state, will not have “Robin Hood Discounts”. We’ll pay the full amount in addition to having all the power plant headaches.
And remember, once a house goes solar, you are not allowed to go back to a regular house.
(You saved $1500 a year? You need to get gas heating for your new house—very cheap.)
Solar panels last about 25 years. Are you ready to pay full-price on your next setup? Is that the next guy’s problem? I can’t wait to see that video.

Just think what you could have saved by just getting your power from the Earth. Look it up!

This has backfired on home owners. As now Insurance companies are dropping them. As the cost to replace a roof is 3x as much. If they have solar panels on them..

So when it comes time to sell your house. People have to pay cash for it. As nobody will finance it. Unless you can get insurance..

Solar panel is the way to go

Very expensive install and it would make roof repairs difficult as well.

A neighbor had a PV system installed on his roof. I have never seen so many lag screws, screwed through the shingles. After a couple of years he had to have his roof shingles replaced so all the PV modules had to be removed and then reinstalled. I wouldn't have a PV system installed on my roof even if given to me. DO YOUR HOMEWORK!

Net metering is gone in CA, except for those grandfathered in. My utility now credits only 7 c/kWh for power uploaded to the grid. SoCal utilities proposed only 3 c/kWh, plus a $300/yr grid connection fee. Not sure what the PUC granted them. But, solar still pencils out in San Diego with their 83 c/kWh peak residential rate in Summer, though can no longer use the grid as a "free battery". Your battery-car would need to be parked at home when the sun is shining, unless you opt for very pricey home batteries. At ~$1K/kWh battery capacity for ~3000 cycle life, it costs 33 c/kWh to store power in the battery, and since an upfront cost more like 66 c/kWh given time-value-of-money.

The rising energy costs is such a big one. My husband did load calculations and realized our hvac unit isn't properly sized for our house. Plus we have a cheap, inefficient system to begin with.. So our electric bill has always been high. Now with our power company raising rates our electric bills are extremely high for a 1400 square foot homes.

We're talking about working in building our "forever home" and I'm definitely looking into airtight home designs, passive solar, and solar panels.

Before you decide to buy a solar system
Read the contract, and all the promises the salesperson says should be in the contract, too

Never put the solar system on your house loan
They will try this

Read the specifications
Like how many panels they are going to install

Just be careful

We can save even more by making all solar systems paid for by the government tax payer. Everyone can have their electricity for FREE!
Free electricity is like free money. It makes perfect economic sense. Everyone can have everything paid by the government for FREE!

If you value your mental health and your money, avoid solar at all costs.

There is nothing wrong with solar and more people need to it and maybe it should be required on new construction if certain conditions are met. Still if your an older person I’m not sure it is economically justifiable. I’m 71 and we put solar on our home last yr. The cost of the panels is actually a little more than my previous electric bills. So no real savings other than maybe the environment. Also our electric company is trying to change the sell back of your excess generation so maybe my power bill is going up if the PUC allows the change. I also checked into adding batteries but that would make the cost of the panels and the battery loan payback about 2.5X what my pervious electric bill was. They make sense on new homes and if your young enough but if you are an over 60 yr old I’m no longer sure it makes economic sense. Sorry

@insurance Does homeowners insurance cover Solar Panels?

Micro inverters and DC optimizers modify power by only 1% to 3%, and are not worth the expense.

We had solar panels fitted they are a load of rubbish. It's just a get rich quick for the companies and that's all.

We are a solar company in Manitoba Canada. I personally have a battery backup and 10kw solar and in our case the Utility changes the sell amount every year. our customers get up to $10,000 off with grants and rebates.

We added snow guards to one clients home for the same reason!

Great explanation!!

I have an 8.3 kW system in Northern California with no shading or snow. It produces about 13.5 MWh per year.

Sounds like a giant flop. If it werent subsidized to the hilt it wouldnt be even be an option anyone considers. We're paying for your panels on the back end and theyre barely even useful with the entire country footing the bill. What a joke

Man, $0.37 per kwh is insane. I recall Maui screwed up their market with so many customers installing solar to avoid the high prices leading to even higher prices as the utility lost scale. In Texas we've seen a spike this year from $0.093 to $0.124. Still too low for solar but a 30% spike in one year.

Dear Sirs. If there ever comes a day when you feel stupid, remember that there are people who drive a Tesla just because they think they are going to save the world😅



Don't be a dummy. Eat high quality beef, fish and eggs, pecans, cod liver, good veggies and fruit and drink clean water. Healthy!

Our solar panels just make us break even (has a lease payment). So not worth it. Western Massachusetts

I live in Mass, on the North Shore. I've had solar panels since I got them at the very end of December of 2019, so I got the bigger tax credit. My roof isn't optimized as I have an east/west facing ranch.
I used: New England Clean Energy and I had a great experience with them. They were recommended by a coworker and by using them they paid both him and myself a bit of cash, which was great.
2020: 7.57 MWh
2021: 7.00 MWh
2022: 7.55 MWh
2023: 6.65 MWh (as of today)
I thought posting my numbers might be interesting for people.

The HUGE ELEPHANT in the room is when you have to replace your roof (typically after 15-20 years) the massive additional cost to remove those panels safely without damaging them and replacing them. Nobody is talking about that. Do we have TRUE total NET COST or Break even on this film NO.

Sure you save money, is the radiation worth it. Can you do a study on EHS radiation and human health??

Have you ever considered the hybrid of wind with the solar?

Have people considered the costs over 30 years? If you aren't planning to stay in your house that long, it's a waste of money...
1. The panels will lose most of their effectiveness by year 15.
2. If you don't change your shingles at the same time as installing the panels, they will need replacement within 20 years, meaning you must pay to have the panels removed and then reinstalled again.
3. When panels become ineffective, you must replace them.

“You don’t know what you don’t know” 👍

Nice job on that video very well done

i switched to all power smart lightbulbs and efficient electrical appliances and the bastards upped my elictricity rate and am actually paying more now