“We have wanted to get solar panels on our rooftop for years, but the up-front cost has kept us from doing so.” That’s how I began my blog post, “Putting off solar panels?” Now nearly a year later, we have even less cash on hand… but we are going solar anyway! How does that work?
…Like free money, just for having decent credit and a decent roof.
The trick is so simple, it’s ingenious: SolarCity has a leasing program. As I understand it, strictly speaking, you don’t rent the solar array. Instead, you pay a flat fee for a variable amount of electricity from SolarCity, which they generate on a dedicated solar array. It just so happens that a convenient place for this array is your own roof.
We expect our savings to be greater than just the difference between our PG&E power reduction and the Solar City monthly fee. As I wrote before, Kay & I work hard to reduce our energy consumption. We both grew up in Japan and so are used to conservation. But we do have a hot tub (used regularly year-round) and a pool. Thanks to PG&E’s tiered pricing system, we pay more per kilowatt than most households because those two items push us past a certain threshold. By generating electricity on our roof, we should be able to come in under that painful line and keep PG&E from antagonizing us.
So it’s going to be good, or even better — like free money, just for having a decent credit rating and a decent roof. Sound interesting? …If you decide to go for a free consultation from SolarCity, please tell them you heard about this through a customer referral from Jonathan Reid in area code 95123, and I will receive a referral fee. Thanks in advance! And I’ll certainly be posting more about our experiences once the array is installed.
Did this post stretch your perspective? Consider subscribing!
Sounds great.
Is this a pyramid scheme …
Well Chuck, if you guys go for it, some of your friends and neighbors might be interested.