Free Solar Panel Installation for Honda owners if you buy the electricity they generate

Anyone care to summarize the general idea of this? Don't really care to read up on it.

what happens to panels in hail storms :/ I am thinking that panels would charge some kind of battery that has a household inverter attached to it that powers some /all of the power outlets. If that's true, they need a freakin' big array of batteries.

I don't think this has anything to do with Honda/Acura owners. If you go to SolarCity's website, they offer the same $750 savings.

I signed up and filled out my report. Wait and see what happens.

Nice find. Thanks for taking time to share this deal.

Quote from ToadKilla : I am sure some dumazz HOAs are gonna raise their eye brows and tell me what can I not do to my own house and charge me for saying that !!

That's the reason why you don't buy a house with HOA.

Quote from calmuttgrl : I thought they are bankrupt and ceased all business...

They did... after they took tax payers money.

So do they just kind of average out what your monthly bill is now & charge you a little less?

I don't see how they can make money if they are having to pay for the cost of the equipment & it's installation & maintainence. Unless there is some huge gov't subsidy for this stuff (inwhich case, I'm already paying for it, why not have it). Also, I guess you have to check your local codes to see if your city allows for the ugly-ass panels to be installed on your roof.

Quote from ToadKilla : what happens to panels in hail storms :/ I am thinking that panels would charge some kind of battery that has a household inverter attached to it that powers some /all of the power outlets. If that's true, they need a freakin' big array of batteries.

no need for batteries, The excess power is dumped into the power grid. And there's a plastic coating to prevent damage to the silicone

Quote from 722 : Anyone care to summarize the general idea of this? Don't really care to read up on it.

Essentially you call email them. setup appointment. they come out to look at your roof make sure there's not trees and its a good fit for them to install solar panels. basically you are selling them your roof if they install the stuff. contract and such and such. no removing it. Its either free or "low cost" haha.. and you buy the going rate for solar energy.

Basically your giving them free real estate to install solar planels, and in return your buying that energy either with A, a monthly solar energy rate bill, or B, you pay solarcity, the company a up front sum for the term of the contract. Um. i guess simply its instead of a gas/coal company giving u electricity, Your using a solar company with them install in on your roof.

Quote from ionizer : so legitimate or what? what's the catch?

Its a legit company. Solar city is a company that leases solar equipment and is basically trying to become a power company. You either prepay, ie give solarcity, money for all the solar energy the solar panels will produce for the term of the lease, or pay montly like a normal electric bill for all the solar panel energy generated that you use.
http://www.solarcity.com/resident...arted.aspx here's some basic info.


And if your not going to move for the next 10 years, its probably a decent idea to do this. Just be careful and ask questions about liability, terms of removal, escape clauses.... I have a feeling those might come with a hidden catch or at least money that will need to be paid..

Quote from The6thArmy : So do they just kind of average out what your monthly bill is now & charge you a little less? I don't see how they can make money if they are having to pay for the cost of the equipment & it's installation & maintainence. Unless there is some huge gov't subsidy for this stuff (inwhich case, I'm already paying for it, why not have it). Also, I guess you have to check your local codes to see if your city allows for the ugly-ass panels to be installed on your roof.

Don't know, but would definitely run your own numbers before you sign a contract. If it saves you money and you can live with the look go for it. Just don't believe the salesman.

Better off buying your own solar panels, then selling your surpus electricity to the power company. That way you MAKE money after recovering the cost of your initial investment.

This isn't a bad idea if you want to farm out the work and equipment and pay for it, but it only works out if you just so happen to want it for the length of the contract they're offering. You probably pay a pretty steep penalty if you need to terminate the contract early, say, because you're selling the house.

Still, if you're clueless about this stuff but want to go green, and/or if it saves you money in the long run, that'll work.

the problem with oil math is it's price is going to exponentially increase at some point in the near future as supply dwindles. When that is is the real question but why not screw our kids kids; it's been our thought process for generations right?

I always wondered about the look of it. Why would people want this look on their roof? Gotta hope your house is on the south side of the street.

it's just PPA - nothing special (remove the word Honda from it, and it does what any PPA company would do otherwise)
Could be a good deal, or a great deal, if this is the first time you heard about PPA model.

they come in, and put solar energy on top of your roof, for free.
most basic plan: you pay monthly for the energy produced (cheaper than paying your utility co.)

you must have decent size roof, right facing and also, relatively new.
this is basic req. for solar energy install, not PPA related.

I am a solar city client, this deal is not exclusive to Honda owners. They are essentially giving you a solar lease which anyone can get. I have mine for close to a year but did not go with the monthly plan. There are not much savings in the monthly plan, plus they build in an annual increase in the price of the power generated by the panels. They reason that on average your current power company increase electric rates at 6% a year, but that may not be the case. As an alternative they offer a per-paid plan, however there are 2 types of prepaid plan. One is a power generation plan where you agree to buy all the power generated by the panel and they set the price based on how much power they estimate the solar system will generate. I would not recommend this, if the panels generate more power you will need to pay a true up at the end of the year. Also my experience is that they underestimate the amount of power the panels generate when you sign the contract to lower the cost. They did that to me and wanted me to pay more upfront to avoid an annual true up. I then argued that the sales person sold me not a power generation plan but a prepaid lease plan. With a prepaid lease, you make one lump sum payment upfront and everything is covered for the next 20 years. This is a much better deal as it work like you own the system with a much lower upfront cost. Plus Solarcity still provide a minimum power generation guarantee and cover any damage to the system. For people arguing that outright ownership is better, you will pretty much own the system at the end of the lease. There are terms in the contract that allows Solarcity to just leave the panels on your roof and it automatically transfer the ownership to the homeowner. By that time about 75% of the useful life of the panels has past, it would cost them more to uninstall and dispose of them than to leave it behind. You can still demand that they take the panels away.