One tricky thing about Solar is optimizing the size of the install.
Because of the way electricity pricing is tiered, you don’t want to buy enough panels to eliminate your bill. You want to buy enough panels to eliminate only the electricity that costs more than your average cost of providing it using solar. Spread the up-front cost of the panels and other necessary equipment out over several years, then divide by the number of kwH you can produce with those in that time.
It is complicated by the fact that throughout the year, you have a different number of Sunny days per month, different electricity demands, and different pricing patterns.
Go over your bills for the last few years, if you have them, and whip out a spreadsheet to optimize the purchase size. THe key is figuring out how much electricity each panel can produce each month, thus arriving at a cost per kwH, then comparing that cost to the cost tiers for that month.
I have a good friend who did this very well as part of new construction. I guess the “new construction” rebates are better than add-on construction.
