photo courtesy Zan Dubin Scott.
In Sept. 2008, Laura Love and her husband got solar panels for their four bed, two-and-a-half-bath home in San Diego. They couldn't afford to purchase the panels but, because of a leasing deal offered by SolarCity, they live almost entirely off the grid thanks to a four-kilowatt panel system.
SolarCity, which operates in five states, provides panels at $90 a month, which includes free installation and no upfront charges. Read USA Today's coverage of this deal here. Municipalities are providing similar deals. For example, San Francisco launched a finance plan that lets homeowners pay for panels through their existing property taxes. Click here for more tips on going solar. Meantime, enjoy our interview with Love on how she went solar.
Describe the system.
It's a four-kilowatt system and the panels are fitted for your home based on your energy needs. The power that the panels generate is DC current, but the power you use in your house is AC current. The inverter box converts it so that you can put it into the main grid. It's a beige box about two-and-a-half feet by four feet, and it has a little tiny display. It took the installers three days to set it up.
What has happened to your monthly bills?
The way San Diego Gas & Electric runs it is that we owe a bill once a year now. They do a net-metering account that we only pay in October. Through the summer we usually generate more than we use. Last year our total usage for the year came to $220, whereas before we installed the system, we paid about $130 or $140 a month. It depends on how much we generate and use. In the rainy months, we have usage. In the summer, we feed energy back into the grid.
Any rebates involved?
No. The owner of the system gets state and federal rebates. But what SolarCity did is take those rebates and factor them into the cost of the system and that lowered our lease payment. And those rebates amounted -- if I remember the paperwork right -- to about $7,000. That's a lot of money. But if you pay for panels straight out, the rebates are yours. Plus this year I'm filing for a credit on my federal return. There was a $1,600 deduction for energy-efficient upgrades.
How did you hear about the deal?
They did a direct-mail campaign. We got one or two of them before we said we had to take a look at this because it said that it was zero money down and free installation.
Did you think there might be a catch?
We called them and they came out and gave us a presentation. We were kind of curious about it, but once we met their representative and read about them online, it seemed like the real deal.
So we're pretty happy. One of the nice things they do is that if you recommend somebody and they get a system installed, they send you a check for $400. And there's no limit to the number of friends you can recommend it to. I guess if you wanted to, you could have your own business referring people to get solar panels installed.
Is there any maintenance involved?
No, none. And since it's a lease, we don’t have to do any of that. There's some rinsing off you have to do every now and then. The winter kind of takes care of that.
How big a factor is it that you can lease?
We wouldn't be able to buy it. What we have is about a $40,000 system. Leasing it was the only way we could do it, and we knew we could qualify with good credit.
Are there any myths or misconceptions?
I don't think people are aware of this deal, although I think SolarCity is the only company that offers leasing. One myth is that people think that once you put them up you won't have any more electric bills. Our friends with a bigger house set it up and their bills were lower, but it wasn't enough to offset their costs. Initially for us, with the lease payment considered in, we were going to be paying about the same, but we went out and replaced all our windows and that made a huge difference.
I heard that it's become a valuable learning tool for your kids.
We have a five-year-old daughter and a three-year-old son. Obviously our youngest is only three, but with our daughter -- the inverter box for our system is on the wall outside our back gate, so we'll go out there because it shows us our output for the day and we’ll talk about it. I don't think a three-year-old understands, but a five-year-old is very understanding and she'll actually tell him what the panels are doing -- which is interesting, listening to her talk to him about it.
-- Brian Foley
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