Is it worth it? How does it work? What’s the capacity? Are you happy with your solar?
Part 1- Background
It was for a long time on my wish list, and no matter how much I would crunch numbers and estimates, it did not make obvious sense from a purely economic perspective. Eventually, the main factors to determine the decision were:
- Our house is using electrical energy for heating and cooling: a geothermal furnace. The builder had a pilot project of 20 high-efficiency homes using a shared underground glycol loop. So the furnace is a heat pump, extracting heat from the ground in the winter and pumping the heat from the house to the ground in the summer.
- An electrical vehicle was on the wish list as well.
- Zero interest Canada Greener Homes Loan + $5k Canada Greener Homes Grant
- Last and probably the tipping factor was that the property market value increase due to the installation of the PV system would be higher than the cost itself.
When all the calculations, projections and spreadsheets are done, there are still risks and uncertainties that one has to take and make a “gut” decision.
I am going to share My Residential Solar Panel Journey in this series of posts, from door-to-door sellers, shameless middlemen, contracts, preliminary loans, home inspections, federal loans and grants, installation, commissioning, middleman refund, generation, enmax bills cost savings, year-round generation, projections vs actual numbers.
To be continued …
