[00:00:00] Speaker A: Where does it make the most sense to install residential solar? Would it make sense for your home?
[00:00:06] Speaker B: Welcome to the your Energy Footprint podcast, where we cover easy ways to lower your energy bill and other ways to make your home more sustainable, with a few energy industry highlights sprinkled in. Hi, I'm Robin Seidoff and I've been in the energy industry for the past 20 years in both utilities and power generation, and I'll explain everything you need to know for some quick wins in your home to become more sustainable and save some money. Now let's dig in.
[00:00:32] Speaker A: First I'm going to add my usual disclaimer that your energy footprint and I are not and never will be affiliated with any solar installers. You can find our course on our website, yourenergyfootprint.com. If you would like to learn everything you need to know to make a smart investment in residential solar. And don't worry, it's podcast based in less than an hour with simple instructions for homework between lessons. And here's a little hint. If you sign up for the email list, you'll get a discount code to get the first course for just $19. This course includes everything you need to know to make sure you get the right quotes for your home and that they're complete. Now let's get into it. I would argue that solar might be a good investment for any home in the US, depending on a few factors. First, the amount of sun you get correlates somewhat to the price you pay for energy. For example, I went through my process for my dad's house in southern Arizona and he installed solar panels and can generate electricity at which is pretty close to the rate that he is paid by his utility when he sends kilowatt hours to the grid. His normal utility rate without solar is about ten cents per kilowatt hour. Its a great investment for him because in the worst case when he sends the energy back to the grid hes still covering his costs.
I have terrible sun exposure in Connecticut because I live in the woods and had several companies refused to even give me proposals. Those were sunpower and Tesla. I did get proposals from both by being persistent for Tesla. I scheduled a call with an advisor and asked them to check again. It was just the engineers, probably out in Reno, that were assuming low electric rates. My utility rate is so high at right now that even with the low capacity factor, it actually does make sense. I've calculated that with financing. It costs me $0.17 for each kilowatt hour that I generate. This calculation includes my two Powerwall batteries. Because I have a larger system, I don't get one for one net metering. If I send a kilowatt hour to the grid, I will be compensated at the current generation rate plus 3.5 cents for each kilowatt hour.
My system is sized for less than my energy use, but if I do send electricity back to the grid like the 19 kilowatt hours I sent yesterday, okay with that. However, if I lived in the woods in the north but had electric rates in the ten to range, then solar probably wouldn't make sense. The second factor I would focus on is the presence of solar installers. There are plenty of installers to choose from in Arizona and Connecticut. It's possible to get a reasonable price for a new system. However, if you live in Tennessee, the market for solar panels there is nearly nonexistent. If the price per kilowatt hour of solar installed was similar to Arizona, you could install solar economically, in my opinion. Now there is still a bit of an assumption in there because the electricity sent back to the grid would be compensated like my dad and I on the generation portion of the utility rate, and I'm assuming this is about 50% of the full electric rate, I would definitely verify this before actually recommending it. The third factor is more specific to your state, utility and household. Extra incentives from your utility or state and the orientation of your house and space on your roof are also factors that can make solar a good investment for you but not your neighbor, or vice versa. In my case, I'm lucky to have a large portion of my roof facing south, which gives you the best production in the northern hemisphere with fixed solar panels. I am also able to take advantage of a demand response program with my utility where I allow the utility to discharge electricity from my batteries on the hottest days of the summer and then I get cash back. If my house was different, or if I didn't have access to the demand response program, then maybe the investment wouldn't have made sense for me.
A few weeks ago, I went through the average electric rates by state, picked a house at random in a major city, and used my calculator in my second course to find out if solar might make sense. And a bit of a disclaimer. The reason I picked a random house was to include an estimate of the solar production for the regional I did a quick search on zillow for a house, a particular city, and basically took the first one. I didn't look at the direction of the roof, but I may have picked the second or third house to avoid obvious shading from trees. I very well could have picked a suboptimal house so I wouldn't rule out solar just because you live in a state not at the top of my list. I also included battery backup in each case, which may not be necessary if you have a one for one net.
[00:05:11] Speaker C: Metering available from your local utility without.
[00:05:15] Speaker A: Adding battery backup, solar will be cheaper and then more likely to be economic.
You may still want to consider a.
[00:05:22] Speaker C: Battery backup, of course, because then you.
[00:05:24] Speaker A: Will have backup power during an outage. So without further ado, here is my short list of states where solar might be a great investment.
California, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Connecticut. Were there any surprises there?
States that I think may be possible to invest in solar. If you're able to get a one for one net metering from your utility, have the perfect house or a great subsidy from your state or utility, Colorado, DC, North Carolina, New Jersey, Nevada, New Hampshire, Delaware, Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, Utah, Texas, and Oregon. Hopefully that wasn't too painful to listen to.
[00:06:12] Speaker C: If I didn't name your state, then.
[00:06:14] Speaker A: I think you're less likely to have a good enough solar market to get competitive bids from installers wherever you live. If you're interested in going solar but want to make sure it's a good choice for you, then reach out. I'm here to help.
That's it for today. Do you live in a state that may be a good fit for solar, or do you have another state you think I should add to the list? If there are any topics youd like me to cover in future episodes, please reach out and let me know. You can email me
[email protected] or find me on instagramour energy footprint on next week's episode, we'll talk about electrification of everything and how this is addressing carbon emissions across the US. If you've enjoyed today's podcast, please rate and review this podcast to help more listeners find us. I really appreciate it. Our mission at your energy footprint is to educate consumers on ways you can.
[00:07:06] Speaker C: Be more energy efficient at home, as.
[00:07:09] Speaker A: Well as how to make significant investments like solar while saving money. You can find more information on our courses for homeowners interested in installing rooftop solar on our website, www.yourenergyfootprint.com. All of our information is unbiased and based on my 20 years of experience working for utilities and as a renewable developer. We are not affiliated with any installers.
