321–330 of 363 posts
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In Australia solar panels are so ubiquitous I don't think you'd even notice them. They just blend in as much as any other functional part of a house.
My perception has long reached the flipping point where sun-facing roof without any solar installed makes the house look like a house in bad maintenance.
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I’ve never understood why so many houses in the US have felt shingles rather than a longer lasting alternative Tiles on my house are at least 150yrs old
Economics. No one lives 150 years, so why pay for someone else’s roof when you’ll be making payments for so long.
Given shingles last between 20-30 years someone's got to pay the cost of re-roofing on a regular basis throughout the house's lifetime
Then you've got the added maintenance, flammability and other downsides of a shingle roof to take into account too
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Have always said community solar programs are the way to do residential solar. In those programs, you pay for and own off-site solar panels, then the energy they produce is credited to your electric bill. They end up installed at commercial locations ideal for solar: often on covered parking, in fields, or on industrial roofs. Easier to repair, they can do larger panels, no issues with your roof line or roof conditio…
Now imagine if we create a separate company that invests in infrastructure and sells energy to willing buyers who don't have to deal with this. We could call it an energy company.
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10k for a SFH roof seems extraordinarily cheap to me for any COL area. I would expect around 50k-60k for a 1000 sq ft roof (not US).
> I would expect around 50k-60k for a 1000 sq ft roof (not US). That's about 90 m². Here in Germany [1], if it's just replacing tiles, you're looking at 10k, add 20k for adding heat insulation - and you can get 15-20% back with government assistance from that sum. The only way you reach 50k in costs here is if you have to fix structural issues (e.g. rotting wood due to water ingress, but if you take proper care of yo…
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You're not supposed to be down-voted simply because folk "agree or not". Honestly, I don't agree with you though. Yes, there are ways for folk to signal virtue, and that happens, but I don't think solar power is one of those. Frankly the utility, and financial, returns are just too high. Obviously ymmv with regard to returns, but I'm getting 16% on capital invested (a number that keeps climbing as electricity costs r…
Just because there's actual virtue doesn't mean there isn't also virtue signalling going on... especially when it might be (in your particular circles) more taboo to talk about the actual numbers than the "doing it for the environment" part.
Where I stay solar is really common (probably > 1 in 10 has it.) Plus the Financials make it easy (if you have the roof and capital.) And here no-one really cares if you're green or not.
The fact that it is green is a bonus. (Which i think most people don't care about.)
I guess you can read virtue-signalling into anything you like, especially if it matters to you personally. I just don't think it comes into play here.
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That sounds a bit pointless to me. The benefit of putting solar on your house is that your house uses electricity, and transmitting electricity is not actually free. If you just care about the overall transition to solar (which you should!) then you can pay for green tariffs and invest in existing solar energy companies or ETFs.
The panels on my roof go straight to the energy company anyways. You need to add batteries to use it yourself.
Solar panels have become cheap as dirt and the balance of system is majority of the cost. Installing these massive panels on roof requires a lot more skilled labor and time. Its time to incorporate solar into more areas of the building, build fences with vertical panels, mount them on walls, solar car canopy in front of the garage, optimize for fast installation with ease of installation as well as repair. We should…
Have always said community solar programs are the way to do residential solar. In those programs, you pay for and own off-site solar panels, then the energy they produce is credited to your electric bill. They end up installed at commercial locations ideal for solar: often on covered parking, in fields, or on industrial roofs. Easier to repair, they can do larger panels, no issues with your roof line or roof conditio…
10/10 would recommend.
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The panels on my roof go straight to the energy company anyways. You need to add batteries to use it yourself.
Only the surplus goes straight to the energy company. If you're consuming any energy and producing it from solar you'll use your own solar first, even without batteries.
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When it comes to eyesores, there is nothing worse than garage door(s). The front of the house is mostly a massive ugly garage door. I don't see people ever not having a garage because its an eyesore and it is right in front of you, can't avoid looking at it. Roof stays out of sight unless you want to look at the roof. Americans come up will all kinds of ridiculous reasons for not using clean energy. 1) Nuclear is dan…
Hey cool this is like those myspace surveys. Let me participate. 1. I support nuclear, really stupid not to use anything else. Blame politicians and the hippies. 2. Yeah wind imo is useless, and it's more than 2 dozen. Quite high, I don't think comparing kills to the top predator is a win. Also windmills are in raptor's paths, generally cats don't eat raptors. Noisy and ugly too. 3. Solar is nice, will use it as aux,…