Solar on your roof? Act quickly for more savings

If you live in San Francisco and have been thinking about putting PV (photovoltaics or solar cells) on your roof, you may want to act quickly. The San Francisco Public Utility Commission recently discussed reducing residential rebates from $6000 down to $4000. That's still a significant rebate, but that $2000 drop means you will have to wait that much longer for electric bill savings to start paying off your system.

If you haven't been thinking about it, you should. Right now, you will not find a better and more cost effective time to install PVs. The City has a huge rebate, California provides a rebate based upon power output and the you get a tax rebate on your Federal taxes, as well. That can turn a $14K installation into $3500.

Recently, I requested quotes from a number of solar installers. There were two that I really liked (Marin Solar and Sungevity), and I picked Marin Solar. A third, One Block Off the Grid, also looks good, but I had already signed the installation contract before I found this last one.

I decided to go with Marin Solar because they were able to get more power from our roof. Our roof has shading issues and a tight layout. Marin Solar's panels cost a little bit more, but they get more power out of smaller space.

Sungevity has a great story and they front load the rebates, meaning you pay net of all estimated rebates. They eat the difference if the rebates come up short and you get the balance if more comes in than originally expected. Contrast that with Marin solar who gets me more wattage, but requires me to layout more upfront cash.

One Block Off the Grid looks to be a grassroots movement for PV installation around the country. They negotiate installation at group rates with local installers. Quite possibly, one of these other installers would still be doing the work, but presumably for cheaper than you could get directly. They are evaluating installations starting in January, so most likely too late to get the $6000 rebate (although that's tight for everybody, at this point).

Many of the PV installer sites are very simple to use. You type in your address and they locate your home on Google maps, grab your roof's profile and do a rough estimate of your shading and panel spacing. With your average electricity usage (available from PG&E online), they can calculate your annual savings, overall savings and return on investment (time until the system pays for itself).

Good luck.