Neighbors Helping Neighbors

What inspired you to make this upgrade?

I made a decision to take an active role as an environmental activist volunteering in many organizations for the past 5 years and felt I should also be exploring what I can do as an individual to help decrease my carbon footprint. The addition of solar to my home seemed liked a good place to take personal action and was further inspired by the cost saving to my family after the initial cost layout.

What’s the most common question you get about your system from friends or family?

The most common question asked is about cost savings.

How did you go about searching for a vendor? And which did you select?

I asked some of my fellow environmental activist and decided to use a vendor local to our area.

What was the planning and sales process like?

The first process is to see if your home is actually suitable for solar panels, not every home has the right amount of sunlight depending on roof location and trees surrounding your home. Our home was very suitable for solar.
Our vendor came in and looked at the amount of electricity we used in our home and our roof integrity to determine the amount of solar panels we would need and if our roof was in good shape to hold the amount of panels necessary.

What was the installation process like?

As most work is done outside it was not interruptive to us, they do have to attach it to your electrical panel which requires the workers to possibly be inside. We also have an outside inverter that was installed. The process was easy to go through. The panels were delivered to my house first, the installers came the next day to install. The whole process took approximately 2 weeks from evaluation to installation.

How has it been living with the new system?

We have had no issues with our solar panels and they seem to be working fine. The vendor provides an APP monitoring system which the installers and the homeowner can access to monitor the output of the solar panels.

What did the system cost? What incentives were available? What was the final cost after incentives? And did it deliver on the promise of cost savings?
Our estimated price was $30,000 and we received a rebate of $16,000 with tax breaks. The total cost was approximately $14,000. We expect our total cost to be recouped in around 8 years from savings in electric bills.  I feel like it delivered well on cost savings. Depending on how much electricity you use electric bills are significantly lower. We also at times receive credits for electricity our panel produces that we do not utilize that is bought back by Con Edison.

What did you wish you knew before the installation?

I think maybe to examine the vendor experience and the monitoring system prior to installation. I would also ask if they could leave roof space to add more panels easily to add if your electric needs rise.

Would you recommend the installation and the vendor you used?

Yes.

Anything else you’d tell a person considering this upgrade?

After putting solar on my house I have also been inspired to add other systems that lower my carbon footprint----a mini-split AC and an electric car. I have been able to add additional panels easily with the roof space that was previously left open with the original panels.

For more information on Donna O’Malley’s experience, email her at donnaord@optonline.net

Read more about this upgrade in our blog:  Stepping towards a Better Environment – Install Rooftop Solar NOW