I got a really great deal on 2 houses because they were fixer-uppers. I'm living in one and the other I'm renting out. However, the previous owner did everything himself in 950 95, so needless to say, things are not to todays standards. Both houses need rewiring (there are no ceiling lights, few outlets, and mine has two old fuse boxes and the other has a breaker box but it pops the breaker a lot). The only reason they are still functional is because both houses use natural gas for water and heat, so otherwise, they electrical work is getting us by, but who knows for how long. I thought that maybe instead of redoing the electric, that I could just add solar panels to compensate for the small electric boxes. Also, since I would have to hire electricians to do all the work, which would be more cost effective (not including the decrease in utilities since I don't pay the utilities in the rental anyways)?
A solar panel does not replace the wiring in your house. All it does is supply power to the house, the same way a line in from the street does. After the power gets to the house, regardless of how it got to your house, it goes through exactly the same wiring to get to outlets and lights. Your problem is not that the power coming in from the street is insufficient; the power company can supply all you'd ever need. The problem is that your houses are not wired to receive or use more power. You need to upgrade the service panel so it can bring more power into the house, and upgrade the wiring inside the walls so you have the number of outlets and lights required by today's codes and which most of us need for all the things we plug in these days. Solar panels, while they are cheaper than ever, are not a low cost thing to install. It will take years to recover their cost, and if the rules are the same where you are as they are here, you can't use the cost of installing them as a write-off against the cost of the house until you sell it. They are a capital expense, not a maintenance and repair deduction which you can use each year against the income you receive from the rental. Doing a conventional rewiring is your best bet.
No. solar panels would not solve your problems and are usually not cost effective. Solar panels will not help to compensate for undersized electrical service. You would still have to upgrade the existing service. Once that is done you should have no problems and all the electricity you need would come from your power company. Have an electrician come out and do an inspection and tell you what all needs upgrading. Solar panels would save you money on the monthly power bill but the cost to install them would be higher than your savings. If it made economic sense to have solar power then everybody would be doing it. That's why you see very few houses with solar panels on top.
If there is already electricity on the street, you won't save anything up-front by adding solar. In fact, it will cost a lot more. You'd still have to have them wired up to code, plus have inverters and maybe a kit to sell power back to the utility. It may pay for itself in 20 years if the price of electricity rises. Otherwise, solar makes sense if you are miles from town and the utility wants $00,000 to run a power line to your house. (My figures are total guesswork - check with a local solar installer or two)
