What is your ROI?

[Vince2]

Oh. Also installed mini splits 16 units (LG multi, about $1000 each), and reduced propane bill by $2000 a year. Natural gas savings about $800 a year. With tax credit, breaking even in 4 years. The repair estimate of the boiler steam system failure ($30k) was avoided and not included in this roi.
Not sure how to count the electric truck and phev. vehicle. With tax credit the prices of the new vehicles were close to the price of equivalent ice vehicles. Driving total 25000 miles a year spend about $250 in gas instead of about $3000. My main goal was reducing my carbon foot print, effectively cutting it with 70%. Did most of the work myself but hired electrician and HVAC for final hook ups.

 

[robby]

I have been watching solar for 40 years. And it didn't make financial sense until recently. If it didn't save me money, I wouldn't have done it.

Same here, my catch phrase when asked about Solar use to be "Solar is for Suckers".
Yeah that came back to haunt me when I was trying to convince the Wife that we needed to go Solar

I remember going to a small business around 2016 and they had the roof covered with what I can only assume now was 200W panels and so many FLA batteries in a shed that my mind was blown. The guys were still installing it and I asked one of them how much would a system like this cost. I think he said something like $90K and I just looked at him like he was a complete loon.

Then in 2021 prices really dropped and LFP batteries became readily available and my opinion completely changed.

 

[hybe022]

hybrid operating in off grid mode, with grid only as backup
$6000 total
9.36kwp, 6kw, 28.6kwh
I didn't bother itemizing.

Producing an average of 38kwh/day
Utility rate is ~$0.25/kwh, no Time of use.
Need to produce 24,000kW to break even $6000 investment
24,000kW / 38kWh/day = 631 days

I can say in about 2 years for good measure.

 

[dspence73]

Was that to cover the poco for damages and liability possibly caused by your solar system, or was that for losses to your home? Not to be nosy but if for poco liability, what did that cost?

It was in the contract I signed that Duke required, it was basically a liability for the home. I assume since they were profiting from the excess back-feed, if something were to happen I would have the insurance to repair it and resume production. It did say something to the effect of if no production of energy was produced in 12 months they would suspend the contract and also if I exceed 12KW back-feed they would also terminate.

That is how I took it anyway.

 

[NotTooBright]

My total before any tax credit is just under $23k, will be right around $16k all said and done.
$14k for 1x 18kpv, 1x Powerpro, 20x Qcells 410W, Tamarack racking, Tigo RSD's, shipping.
$9k for an electrician to install and hook it all up, including conduit, wiring, 2x MTS, and permit fees.

My total electric cost in 2024 was about $4,200 so I'm looking at around 4 years ROI based on current numbers.

PG&E has raised rates an average of ~7% annually for the past 20 years and ~15% annually for the past 5. Using the more conservative 7% value and 10% for an opportunity cost of not investing that money (20 year S&P 500 average) still gives me an ROI of 4.2 years.

Oh, PG&E recently requested its 7th rate increase since the beginning of 2024. Their reasoning for this latest one is to "adequately compensate investors" (direct quote from them) despite the fact they've set new records for profit every year since 2017. Between that and the current state of the stock market, my ROI keeps shrinking.

The savings are nice, but giving the finger to PG&E is just *chef's kiss*.

 

[jwy224]

When I was a child in the 90s, I remember a commercial promoting solar panels for residential use. While I don’t recall the exact wattage, it appeared to be quite low. What stuck with me, however, was the image of a woman climbing a ladder with hedge clippers, cutting the power line to the house, as the announcer discussed the idea of power independence. That’s when I first became interested in solar energy. My primary motivation for investing in solar today is to achieve power independence. I keep track of what I purchase and how much I spend mainly for the tax breaks, but I’m not overly concerned with the return on investment—I’m focused on energy independence.

 

[Madcodger]

After 30% fed tax credit, our off-grid system has a payback period of 7.78 years compared to supplying power to home at $0.23/kwh (current local rate). Admittedly does not account for time value of money, but that would likely have been eaten up by cost of trenching and electrician to bring power in (only about 150 feet to power pole), so sort of a wash. Very happy!

 

[LydMekk]

The goalposts keeps moving.
Funny that...
First phase 5-6 years.

 

[Lavarock7]

I have an EG4 6000XP and 8 Hyundai 400 watt panels (well maybe a skosh higher) that are bi-directional. They are not yet at the proper angle. I also have 2 EG4-LL batteries connected and 1 in the wings ready to attach.

Hawaii has a massive cost for electricity so I have all my lights converted to LEDs.

So my normal utility bill was $285 or so a month.

On Hawaii Island, the average residential electricity rate is around 46.52 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh). This rate can vary depending on time of day and the specific rate schedule (like "Shift and Save"). For example, during the Shift and Save program's evening peak hours (5 pm - 9 pm), the rate is significantly higher at 64.5144 cents per kWh.

Most of my circuits (except the Dryer and Stove) are on solar with just a couple outlets still on the utility. Hot water is Propane.
I am now on Shift and Save but it did not make much difference yet as I was always using heavy usage during the cheap hours.
So a large cost of the setup is shipping and wire cost. I estimate I have spent about $5,000 to $6,000 including shipping. However I am currently paying the utility about $90 a month, so a savings of $200 a month.

Because of my altitude on island, me temp range during the winter is 65 at night 80 during the day. During summer, 70 at night and 85 during the day). Hey, 65 is freezing when you have no heating, single wall construction, no insulation and no long sleeve shirts or nwarm pants. Heck it is odd that I even have socks!

Because I don't want to over-engineer the system to handle those short period, high usage devices, I just do laundry and cooking on the stove during our cheapest rate (9am to 5pm).

Return On Investment (break even point) is 30 months or so. I enjoy telling people that, because in many cases, they have to have professional installs or roof installs or have to worry about feeding power back to the grid.

With such a short ROI and overall cost, I have not even woried about rebates. Maybe I should but I am just happy not to lose power (which happens here often enough).

 

[1234enough]

I would say ROI based on usage only is approx 6yrs.
But my electrical usage has increased as my system has increased, with electrical usage increase other energy usage (oil & wood) has decreased.
Also comfort generally has increased, with heating of domestic water / pool / house & cooling of house being on more due to electricity being available from my PV system.

Overall very happy with ROI and added comfort.

 

[OzSolar]

I work in the industrial/commercial electrical industry so I watch the utility industry pretty closely.

Utilities are doing their very best to get the bulk of thier rate increases in the base charge plus add every sort of anti-solar fee they can think of. It will take years but they will eventually get to the point where almost all of your bill is charges that you can do nothing about.

I predict that within a decade there will be no ROI for solar unless you go totally off grid.

 

[blueforce]

Thank God for Texas free nights power plans. My ROI is 3.75 years. I'm only 10 months in right now but this is in keeping with my pre-build calculations.
1x EG4 18kpv, 3x EG4 wallmounts (I purchased these)
6.6kw solar (professionally installed including my equipment, permits, warranty, and at a less than ideal angle and location but I knew that going in)
$26,833 all in before tax return and all paid in cash.
Average power bill before: $397@0.14/kwh
Average power bill after: $63@0.32/kwh and free nights from 8pm-6am

 

[Tulex]

Keep in mind that ROI, if one is really tracking it, isn't what the inverter says. My Sol-Ark for example simply asks for the electric rate and multiplies that by solar watts. In reality, with losses converting solar to AC and going in and out of the battery on top of idle consumption, my inverter averages just over 74% efficient over nearly 2 years. Also, at least with my inverter and it's app, you can't actually track cost with rate changes. Without a spreadsheet, I would have no idea. The rate I put in the inverter when I started was $.11/kWh, it's now $.19

 

[darkskies]

FWIW, the way I calculate ROI for a running system, given the tariff that I have where the provider pays for any net excess each month (vs banking kWh and using them in the future, where I consume more than I produce, like at my previous home):

1) Identify the number of months [N] (e.g. 44 in my case)
2) Using the consumption each month, calculate the cost, if had no PV. Total that for the time period [TC] ($8,457.85)
3) Using the month utility bills, determine the actual amount paid each month and total for the period [AC] ($-133.04)
4) Tally up value of all the RECs received for the period [R] ($1,034)
5) Calculate the net system cost, after any rebates/tax credits [SC] ($32,958)

Average Savings per month [AS] = (TC - AC + R) / N ($218.75)
Return On Investment in years = SC / AS / 12. (12.55 years, 12 years and almost 7 months)

YMMV

 

[Kuma]

SMA 5kw with 20 yr warranty
SMA RSD's
15 455w Solarever 6.83 kw
Ironridge roof mount
ROI <24 months

 

[Smorris998]

I have a offgrid system to handle heating and cooling and runs home server and a few other odds and ends. Makes around 18-20kwh now, probably more like 10-12kwh in the winter due to shadows.
2 Ecoworthy 5kw inverters with 15.6kwh of DCHOUSE batteries and various extra charge controllers for my weird used solar panel arrays.

I have about 7500 into my system, (after tax credits) but have already made about 2000 in power in the last 2 years before I really upgraded the system at the end of last year. So at the moment have 5500 left til payoff and thanks to lovely California power rates my payback is 2.5 years. My power bill went from a 200ish dollar average down to 30-40, and got to turn off gas heating forever after installing minisplits which is great cause after getting railed by a 150 dollar gas bill 2 years back during that crazy lng shortage for a bit, I wanted to never run into that again.

I’m still playing with my solar panels and tweaking for a bit more production. I’m almost to the point where I may buy a cheap ev for commuting only just to have a place to dump the extra power into and cut my gas costs too


I got everything pulled into my home assistant and love watching my little offgrid savings money counter go up. I have it setup to even calculate power usage by TOU time to keep a accurate continuous count

Edit: someone asked so I thought I’d add that this is the card I use in Home Assistant

GitHub - slipx06/sunsynk-power-flow-card: ⚡A customizable Home Assistant card to emulate the Sunsynk System flow that's displayed on the Inverter screen.

⚡A customizable Home Assistant card to emulate the Sunsynk System flow that's displayed on the Inverter screen. - GitHub - slipx06/sunsynk-power-flow-card: ⚡A customizable Home Assistant card ...

github.com