I own a townhome in the Phoenix area (my power company's SRP, if that makes a difference). Phoenix is a great place for solar. I could probably save money, in the long term, if I got some solar panels.But I am currently extremely broke, so I can't buy solar panels unless I will more or less immediately be paying no more than I am now per month, with little or nothing down. And most of the solar leasing places won't work with me, because (as is common for townhomes) I don't technically own my roof. I have permission to put things on it, but the property management people (or whoever actually owns my roof) won't sign the lease or whatever.Anyone know of either a way to buy solar panels without paying significantly more per month than I already do for electricity, or a solar leasing company that can work with the restrictions I have?
The big problem is that you cannot force the homeowners association to do anything. I live in a condo with a HOA. We have outside parking spaces. The goonies won't let people run electric lines to parking spaces to charge electric cars. Several years ago, residents had to sue the HOA in court because they would not allow satellite dishes on buildings. The HOA lost. You don't have money to pay an attorney so you are out of luck.
Nope; I see no escape. Best advice I can give is this: sell out and move to a single home residence that has no HOA. If you want solar, I believe the main roofline should run east-west, so that the south exposure of the roof can be easily and economically populated with panels. APS is better than SRP wrt solar ....maybe. Im not sure, everythiong around here is APS so there's no balance. Ive occasionally heard rumors from SRP folks who are unhappy.... check into it before you buy.
There are companies who would install solar panels on your roof for no cost. The catch is that they get the power generated for the first 20 years which is the useful life of the panels then you get what's left of the obsolete panels, meanwhile you're required to purchase your power from them at allegedly reduced rates but there is no guarantee that they would remain reduced versus the market once they have you locked in. It's like how the cell phone companies will give you a free cell phone if you sign a contract. Keep in mind that once you've factored in the installation costs and the useful life of the panels, the effective costs of solar photovoltaic energy is about 23 cents to 43 cents a kwh while grid power is about 5 cents per kwh to the consumer, 3 cents per kwh to the utilities for coal generation. It's just that so few people understand how to project an initial capital expense with periodic future returns through discounted cash flow, hence people think solar power is free out of ignorance. Without government incentives, there are no economic benefits to solar and most solar installers structure the sales such that they gain the economic benefit instead of the consumer who is often ignorant of how to calculate the financials.
