It’s a Great Time to Buy Solar Panels

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My garage, without the trees, that I hope can be a place for solar panels soon.
My garage, without the trees, that I hope can be a place for solar panels soon.

I’m in the solar energy hunt. Ever since my daughter Kate and her husband got their solar panels installed on their garage, to go with their new electric car charging station, I’ve been thinking of how great it would be to get my electricity from the sun and no longer pay the utility.

The sad thing is that I have been told that with the trees in front and even the ones over my garage, I can’t install solar at my house. That’s a real bummer. NO SOLAR FOR US. Mini Splits instead!

I reached out a few months ago to a local company, Northeast Solar, who put the panels up at Kate’s house and they never actually came to my house to do the estimate. I got them to look at Google Maps and then send a photo that showed my neighbor’s towering oak trees that pretty much assured I would never be able to install south-facing panels.

Then my good neighbor, Jim Terrapane, helped me pay to cut down a swatch of five old evergreen trees that were behind my sheds. Then I got a new roof for my garage…and voila, I think, I hope, I pray that I am not eligible for solar panels to generate electricity from a western-facing roof. Not as good as South, but hopefully it might work. Now I am truly ready to get some quotes.

I replied to an ad and SunRun Solar began to get in touch with me. First, it was an old acquaintance who just started selling solar who I told them I was interested, after I said I’d prefer to own instead of lease the panels, they began calling me from their Utah office.  We went back and forth with electric bills, annual usage, and many details before she finally gave me some prices. As long as west-facing panels can generate enough power, the approximate cost will be $15,000, and with a $7000 rebate at tax time, it would be around $8 grand.

That sounds pretty good. So now I’ll see how long it takes to get a quote from a local vendor, and if it’s the same, I’ll use the local guy and if not, I’ll go with SunRun. Then  I got a message,  they can’t do panels above  my roof.  That’s all.