Sorry coal lovers, but we've been powered by rooftop solar for about three months now, and so far I'm delighted with the whole experience.
I got hooked up with Solar Energy Solutions through the city's Solar Over Louisville campaign, which was critical to my signing up in the first place. The city's Sustainability Council vetted contractors for the program and seminars offered a soft sales pitch. I had about a million different questions going in, and I wouldn't relish the additional concerns that come with choosing a contractor on top of everything else. We aren't the perfect solar customer -- our roof is closer to okay than great, and we still heat using natural gas, so our marginal benefit for adding solar wasn't clear from the beginning. But the 30% federal rebate helped a lot, and improved technologies with lengthy warranties also tipped the balance.
The whole process took about three months. They were quick to share an individualized assessment of my roof and my energy bill, with estimated savings extrapolated over time. Communication was sporadic, and we waited a couple of months to get the panels installed, but I know they were juggling a lot of projects here in the city this summer. They worked out all the communication with LG&E to set up the permits and the contracts and the net metering.
No, we're not off the grid. They can do that sort of thing, but energy storage is still expensive, and that wasn't the point for us.
So far the impact on my monthly bill has been about what they advertised. The setup isn't going to be a huge moneymaker for us, but the panels will definitely be paying for themselves over the next decade. read more