All Forum Posts by: Andrew Smith

@Michael Bucher - Welcome! I too am a newbie and also into solar! 

Thank you both!

 Our focus right now is on driving the mass adoption of solar, but our platform is geared to marketing efficiency of all related products. The next products include batteries. LEDs and so on. Our thoughts are that producing and managing energy efficiently and sustainably unlocks other vital progress to sustainability like desalination and hydroponic food growth. That's on a "large scale" rather than an individual building.

For me I want to increase efficiency with products such as high efficiency water heaters, solar powered A/Cs and so on. In terms of numbers though these have a little ways to go before they stack up even factoring in the reduced solar footprint. The most effective way for now is to replace utility power with as much solar as the space will allow.

@Dennis Rodriguez before the hurricanes, Puerto Rico was our fastest growing market. There are people there I consider family now through our company. Our company (Powur) is actively supplying solar and batteries to Puerto Rico. The silver lining in this devastation is that we have a chance to build the power infrastructure in a way to off set future disaster. There is zero reason to rebuild the archaic grid.

Much love to all on PR and let people know there are people and companies on the mainland that care very deeply about the plight of fellow citizens.

You can either hike the rent and offer "free power" to the tenant or become the equivalent of the utility and bill the tenant monthly. If the former I would include a reasonable usage clause to enable you to charge for excessive usage. You can tell that in most cases from a reconciliation statement the utility will send monthly to show whether you owe them or vice versa. The "true up" reconciliation happens annually for the most part and either you send a check to the utility or they send you one. You can keep tabs on that monthly and make sure the tenant is paying their excessive use if any.

@Rob Beardsley They are a cost effective route regardless of attitude to the environment especially in tier 1 markets like CA. I got involved in solar because it released my "inner tree hugger" :)  I realised pretty quickly that while people were environmental, they would not be switching to solar unless the numbers stacked up. Fortunately they do and then some.

Solar reached "grid parity" across the USA generally about three years ago with fossil fuel power. In many States including CA it is a cheaper option by some margin. My goal with properties is to make them intelligent and sustainable to attract the specific market you mentioned.

@John Woodrich You can be "the utility" and charge for the power. Keep the rent the same and bill them for power directly (cost of system + any utility power required). The way I am exploring for the rentals I will buy would be the "free power" route though. Maybe different in MN for sure depending on how homes are heated, but here in CA allowing the tenants to use A/C at their discretion would be a major plus when already included in an (increased) rent. The utility typically stops sending monthly bills when solar is added, but send reconciliation statements monthly with then an annual payment to be made or received. In this case you'd see if the tenants were doing things like growing herbal products or other ways of excessive use and put a clause in the agreement that states they will be responsible for the utility reconciliation.

Hi @Tim Swierczek, absolutely! It really does depend on circumstances though. Again as a "rule" the best ROI is cash purchase for a solar system. Next would be the low APR zero down financing. This assumes that the solar buyer has a tax liability that will benefit from the 30% tax credit (plus other localised incentives).

In the cases where a customer has no tax liability, the solar company can benefit from the tax credit and lease the system. The benefit to the homeowner is a reduced monthly bill at a fixed rate for their power. A good example of this is solar for churches. The leases are typically a great option because churches have no tax liability and can reduce their monthly expenses.

I personally would not want to lease. Leases are not so much a problem in escrow with educated realtors/buyers. The savings with time still make financial sense. Solar City's leases in the past were not the greatest for sure, but even those guaranteed a home buyer would automatically qualify for the existing lease and/or the buyer/seller could pay off the lease and bake the cost into the sales price.

Hi @John Woodrich - Our coverage in MN is limited to portions of the State. The call is more about information gathering than selling. It's difficult to give accurate numbers without doing that. Example a 2000 sqft with a retired couple would be completely different to a 2000 sqft with 6 kids and a Tesla.

What I can say is that a very "general" rule would be an existing bill of at least $120-$140/ month typically show an ROI out of the gate. The zero down solar programs are relatively new, but make sense for a ton of homes - but not always for sure! In the example I gave, the rates currently paid are very important. Does the home with kids use all their power at peak rate for example?

Our "top tier" markets are CA, MD, VA, DC, FL, TX and others because the value proposition of solar is so high. In most areas in those States it pretty much makes zero sense to not explore solar if the bill is $120+. Other areas like northern WA not so much because hydro makes the underlying cost of power much lower.

In calculating ROI, don't leave out the reduced bill. I have seen frustrations with Realtors in escrows with solar because the buyer has not understood cost of home ownership. They might see a contracted payment of $200/month for a solar system for example but they are neglecting to factor in the elimination of $250 to the utility. Plainly as the system is paid off, that value also increases significantly notwithstanding the average 8%/yr hike in power bills. (Edison here last year hiked 38%)!

Hi @Account Closed, if you have a specific property I can run the numbers on it so you would have actual data on it to see if it makes sense in MPLS.

Right now the Federal incentives are excellent, and I can dig in to the local level incentives. Panels will increase in cost if the tariffs are imposed on foreign-made panels so that is something to consider for anyone looking at solar.