Was at home depot today and a Solar City sales man came up to me, offering me free solar panels. He said he could install them on my garage for free, free installation, free panels. Promised me it wouldn't cost me a dime. This is obviously appealing to someone like me who has a $200.00 monthly electrical bill. Now my question is this. Is this a scam? Are there ANY hidden fees or things I should be weary of?- I understand I may not save tons of money, but if I can save even something as low as $20 a month I would be happy. I live in a sunny area and they seem very interested in my garage roof. Any information would be super-helpful, thank you.
Remember, if it sounds to good to be true, it usually is .
What that means is free, considering the cost of electricity saved, i.e., no additional out-of-pocket costs. It could still be a good deal. For example, your bill is now $200 a month. Maybe the solar drops your bill to $40 a month, and you pay $50 a month to SolarCity for the duration of the lease. One thing to remember, though is that only works if your bill drops to $50 a month or less. If the panels don't produce enough, you may end up paying a $60 electric bill, and still $50 to Solar City, for the duration of the lease. They will also count on getting your federal tax credit, so I don't know how that works into the price. Also, they must make money as a leaseholder or financer, so it shouldn't be as good a deal as simply installing panels and paying for the whole thing up front. We installed solar electric in 2006, and it's still working great. If I had to do it over again, I think I'd get solar hot water first, though.
