Like some you out there I have some units that people pay a flat amount for rent, electrical & water. I’m giving some thought to putting solar panels on 1 of my units to experiment with the idea. I’m getting prices now to see if it’s financially viable. The gov’t allows you to write off 80% of the cost if it’s your home however it must be primary residence so no 2nd homes or investment homes.
Has anyone seen are used solar panels in a park enviroment?
You must admit it’d be pretty neat to have the sun make electricity for you that you in turn sell back to your renter.
My CPA is getting me an analysis on it. The length of depreciation time will make or break the financial part of the deal. Do anyone know about weight limits on roofs? Should I look at poles? I’ve spent thousands removing Pine trees from my parks so thats no longer an issue. Yes huricanes are an issue here in Southwest Louisiana however I suspect I could put a rider on my policy to cover the solar investment? Anyone with suggestions or comments please advise me now! I’m in Go mode!
We have a government program here in Ontario Canada where we are paid about 7X what our hydro company actually charges customers when we feed the solar electric back into the grid. This is the only reason investing in solar power is economically viable.
Solar power is not efficient and not economically logical without your 80% government rebate. If you are not planning on selling directly back to your hydro provider then providing power to a home would require charge controllers, storage batteries, inverters etc as well as still being connected to the grid to provide backup power when necessary.
You will need to investigate your options further but realistically I do not see any benefit considering the extreme long pay back time solar involves.
Without a major refund from government and the direct feed/sale of power back to your hydro provider solar power is little more than a lifestyle choice.
I echo what Greg said. Here in Rolla MO; Missouri Science and Technology has built 4 MH’s that are in part powered by solar and wind…the takeaway from the exercise is that in an application where no other power sources are available, it is worthwhile. As a financial matter where other sources of power are available- it is unfeasable.
As you probably know these universities operate in large part on research grants from the federal government- Professors must “publish or perish”, so if there are any positive findings from these projects to crow about- it would have been all over the news- they don’t work. Natural gas is at an all time low price as a result of fracking…and my residents all prefer electric heat.
I looked at PV in OH and it made a lot of sense given the available rebates. My idea was to put it on top of a storage building I was planning on constructing and then the local utility would buy the power from me. The siting could not have been better in terms of orientation. The problem was that no-one would loan me the money to do it. It wasn’t a residential loan (lots of money for that) and the project was too small for any sort of commercial loan. My business partner and I had our share all ready to go plus the initial feasibility analysis but there was simply no way to get financing. Funny how everything often comes down to financing.
Bagman, the Lamar Corp recently began installing solar panels on their billboards. Their contractor is Joule Energy. Www.joule-energy.com. I talked with a couple of guys from Joule and I think the financial benefit comes from selling the power generated back to the power company. Call them. They can explain how it works.
Thanks for the input. I agree & understand the part about selling it back. I just bought a toyhauler/camper. I’m considering putting some panels on it. That’s when the idea hit me. Looks like 50% of our contributors think it a bad idea.
I’m most likely going to outfit one of my houses in solar just for experimental purposes by doing one I believe I can expense it. I’ll keep you all posted.
We’ve had solar panels powering our managers residence for just under 7 years now. Not only have we not paid for power on that account since then, but it’s oh so sweet to get a 1099 for the money they send you for your excess power.
You didn’t mention what state you live in so I can’t offer any direct thoughts there, however this web site breaks down every and all renewable energy benefit.
If and when you get more interested please let me know, i’m also a Solar Dealer and sell the stuff at cost. BECAUSE I would rather have the frequent flier miles I can generate on a sale.
The people who aren’t in favor are probably a few years out of date on their pricing or technology. Most states have reached grid parity by now and as such it’s cost effective to go solar regardless of the federal incentive. Although that incentive is tehre so why not use it if you can. In most case expect pay back in 3-5 years, on a system with a life expectancy of 40+ years.
Consider Solar Carports out in front of your units. Sell the power to the tenants at 75% of what they would pay now. They will be happy. Sell the carbon credits / RECS to the power company, and if ya do it as part of your park then enjoy being able to depreciate it all in the first year if needed.