My father has had a gentleman come to his house yesterday pushing solar panels. Dad (82 years old) is wanting to buy into this. Does anyone have any info on whether this is a good deal or not. Supposedly a 5 year contract. Promising him a total bill monthly of $128.00. Any more energy that is brought in is sold back to the power company. House is 1600 square foot. Average elec bill cost is $250 per month average.
Any opinions from the TFF brains?

Thanks.

I would assume they are all scams until you find out otherwise. The solar panels themselves are fine but this industry is bloated with middlemen between the ACTUAL solar company and the customer. Lots of third-party sales acting as those middlemen and they are almost all scams.

If he really wants solar, I would suggest researching and choosing a company rather than hoping the one that knocked on the door isn't a scam.

Run.
I don't like things that have a monthly bill or any contracts. He'll be 87 when the contract is up, will the solar company still be around?

5 year contract... so is this a lease program? Who owns the panels after 5 years? Who pays for installation and removal? Who pays to repair roof after removal?

Have you checked with his local power providers to see what their buyback terms are? Many have essentially killed that type of deal by setting a price so low it doesn't net the solar owners anything.

What happens when not enough power is generated, will your dad be out of power?

At that age he should know better.

Usually they are financing them. He didn’t say anything about the panel 5yr cost just what’ the bill is reduced to. Basically cut in half.

I know a few people who have these. What they seem to do is get crazy about their power consumption playing the solar sell back game. If they did the same reduction without the panels the result would be about the same.

They will be more attractive as rates go up. I know a guy who lives in San Diego area. Rates are high at 30 cents + per kWh and he isn’t home a lot. He does real well saving money with his system. It was about $80k with the Tesla batteries. The CA rate structure is set up more favorable to buy back to the grid.

No way would I sign up with solar salesmen.....not any of them.

Only way solar panels make sense is if you do it yourself......especially now that the net metering agreements with Ercot/State of Texas are far less generous relative to five years ago.

Now, there are ways to do it on your own to save significant money. Some methods are complex....some are easy.

The easiest way (and this would be simple and low cost with a 1600 sq foot house) would be to install about 1000 watts of panels (cheap), connected to a quality microinverter (the ones that automatically sense and shut off when the grid goes down) then wired on a dedicated circuit and dedicated circuit breaker at the main circuit breaker panel to cover the idle energy consumption of the home (during daylight hours)

With this method, the energy company won't get triggered as they will never see negative usage.

Runnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

Yesterday pricing on ERCOT. You need to be able to sell it at $5,000.

I'd be skeptical. There is no "equipment and installation" costs? Just $128 a month guaranteed?

One guy I know told me what he is getting and how great it is. He liked checking out his phone app. I said…”you’re basically either sitting in hot or cold dark.” He did not argue. He laughed then, agreed.

Considering he is a retired electrician, his brother was a big wheel at comanche peak power for many years (retired, went back as a contract type guy for several more), I have been an electrician all of my grown life and still work as a project manager/estimator now. I have talked him out of it for the past 2 years.

He does not know the total cost of the panels. Supposedly going to find this out. Is going to get the name of the company as well so hopefully I can vet the company.

I'm afraid that at this point he is soo fired up about it that I may be the bad person for trying to steer him clear, although he will listen to me.

Company supposedly told him that in 5 years he will have three options, pay for the solar panels, have them remove them or renew the contract for an additional 5 years.

"Supposedly" the company has been around for years, uses made in the USA solar panels and such.

The scams are out there of course.

If you could get all that in writing along with not having to change those terms if the company goes under, go for it.
He'll cut his spending on electricity by almost half. Also, my highest electricity bills are around $250 a month, maybe lower. My average is probably closer to $110 a month in a 1700 sq ft home.
Hint: You can't get that in writing.

I've been told you can do it cheaper and it pays off the panels if you buy it outright and shop around. Some contractors charge twice what others do for the same system.

from what i'm hearing from him. I have given him some questions to ask before he agrees to anything.

owner of my company put $40k worth of solar into his ranch house. Bill went from $1100 a month to less than $200. But he has the revenue to front this up front. Dad doesnt.