Solar Panels After 1 Year: Are They Worth It?

okay so you guys a year ago I finally

took the plunge and I got solar panels

for my Airbnb in Palm Springs the

electric bills were just getting higher

and higher and I needed to do something

about it damn in fact the highest Bill

we've ever had was

$892 of June of 2022 getting solar can

be quite an investment and a lot of

people are interested in solar but don't

know if it's actually worth it and I had

the same questions before I got solar a

year ago now we can really see if it was

worth the cost and how much savings I've

actually had from release I'll also go

over the return on investment and if I

think it's worth it

overall so the cost of this solar system

was $20,000 so that got me 20 solar

panels all of the electrical involved

with installing solar panels and the

solar inverter so I opted not to get a

battery because they're quite expensive

and I applied within the time frame of

NM 2.0 which basically means I can sell

my extra energy back to the Grid at the

price I buy it for after April of 23 if

you applied to get solar panels you

could only sell back your extra energy

for a fraction of the price that you buy

it for so pre April 2023 it made more

sense to not get a battery but if you're

getting solar after April 2023 it makes

more sense to get a battery this is the

size of the system and it's about what

we could fit on this roof it's not that

big of a house a system of this size can

produce around 13,000 kwatt hours per

year in reality it ended up being closer

to 12,000 kwatt hours because it was

pretty rainy this last year and we knew

going into it that this was a slightly

smaller system than needed and we were

still going to have a bill from our

utility company for both fixed fees and

a little bit of the electricity so a

common misconception with solar is that

if you get it you will have no electric

bill at all and that's just not true as

long as you're connected to the grid

you're still going to have some fees you

have to pay how much they are depends on

how big of a size you get and if you get

batteries so these are the fees that

you're going to have to pay to be

connected to the grid each month

regardless of how big your solar system

is and then if you have a smaller system

size you are going to use some energy

from the grid so you're going to have a

larger bill just being realistic $20,000

is usually not going to fully cover your

utility bill unless you have a very

small house you know there are some

situations where it might work but here

in the California desert not how it

works I didn't get any batteries

anything like that those can be like 8

Grand a pop sometimes you need multiple

of them so it is a smaller solar system

but it actually had a pretty big impact

on the bill not to spoil it but um let's

let's get into

it so for some context you need to see

what we were paying before we got solar

these were all of our electric bills in

2023 you can see very high for such a

small house electricity is just very

expensive in the California desert

because it gets so hot we have to run

the AC often and the pool pump and hot

tub also consume a lot of electricity

year round overall it's usually

somewhere around 1400 kwatt hours per

month the system was turned on Midway

through January so that month was only

like half solar the following month was

when we could really see how it impacted

the bill February was the first month

where we could really see the impact of

solar the total bill was $280 in the

previous year it was $557 so this was

actually a 50% decrease exactly which I

was very pleased with here is what the

electric bill ended up being the rest of

the months of the year as you can see

once the solar was fully turned on it

was never more than $300 a month which

is really good and December is not fully

complete but I'm going with the same

numbers as December because it should be

pretty similar and here's how each

monthly bill compares to when we didn't

have solar in 2023 you can see it's

usually about 50% lower but actually

sometimes more March and April is

actually when we saw the biggest

decrease and I think that's because

that's when most people are at the house

using a lot of electricity but most of

it was just being generated from the

solar you'll notice a big difference in

the cost from winter to summer in part

because of course we're using the AC way

more in the summer but it's also because

the utility company increases the rates

slightly in the summer so the time of

the year you're using the most

electricity you're also paying the

highest rates the only month that I'm

confused by is September it actually was

pretty similar in September and I really

don't know why I've been looking at each

bill and I just can't really figure out

why in September I'm like hello were the

panels turned on I mean I know that's

not how they work but I think it's just

that in 2023 for whatever reason not

much electricity was used that month I

really don't know why we must have let

it get really really hot in the house

September of 2023 so on average the bill

went from $620 a month to

$253 a month so much lower it's actually

a 60% decrease on average so it ended up

being even better than I expected I was

hoping for 50% and we got 60% which I

was happy about and now the final total

over the course of a year so 2023

remember we spent about

$7,400 on electricity and this year in

2024 it's looking like the total is

going to be 2,

$916 that's actually really good a 60%

decrease on our electric bill that is a

$4,500 savings like that is actually

pretty major for our Airbnb even better

than I expected it makes it so that it

will take 4.4 years for the solar panels

to pay for themselves essentially and

then of course you still save after that

so over the course of 30 Years it'll be

tens of thousands probably like six

figures worth of savings by having these

solar panels over 30 years with solar

panels it would be about $90,000 this is

without inflation and without solar

panels it would be over $200,000 so a

total Savings of

$133,000 over 30 years when you factor

in inflation though the savings is even

higher it's about

$212,000 so how did selling back to the

grid impact the savings honestly it

didn't impact them as much as I thought

it would this column right here shows

how much we were able to sell back to

the grid each month and total it was

about $700 for the year the interesting

thing is in the summer I wasn't able to

sell anything back to the grid I assumed

that's when I would sell the most back

because the days are longer you generate

a lot of electricity and there's usually

like not anyone here at the house in the

summer anyway but it turned out that we

still ended up using a lot I think

because the pool pump is always going

the hot tub is always being heated the

AC is still on making it a little colder

in there the thing is in the summer it

can be anywhere from 110 to 120° outside

and we need to make sure it's under 90°

inside or else wood will start getting

warped anything that has a wood laminate

will start to peel and I've also heard

that it can damage drywall over time

yeah I was a little disappointed that we

weren't able to really make some money

in the summer but that's how it turned

out in total we ended up selling back

$75 to the grid that today you wouldn't

be able to you would get about 25% of

that because I got in before that end M

3.0 deadline I'm able to sell it at a

slightly higher rate you're able to sell

it for the same rate you buy it for but

not really because you're really only

able to sell it back for the lowest rate

you buy it back for so I can sell it

back to them at the super off peak rate

I looked at every single bill for the

year and it's always pretty much being

sold back at the lowest rate super off

peak never really at mid peak or off

peak even but is solar worth it for you

honestly there's so many factors to

consider first of all some places

electricity isn't that expensive

Washington state for example not really

that worth it to get solar because

electricity is really cheap there and

it's also really cloudy but somewhere

like California Hawaii these states

where you get a lot of sunshine

electricity is super expensive it

becomes kind of a no-brainer as long as

you're going to keep the house for a

long time like if I was going to sell

this house in 5 years it wouldn't really

make that much sense there's also

leasing solar there's financing it

there's a lot to consider but I go way

more in depth on the different options

in the other V video I made I even

interviewed my solar provider so if

you're wondering like which solar might

be right for you that's a better video

to watch this was more to just see how

mine panned out and I'm really happy

with the result um I hope that you guys

enjoyed watching I hope that some of you

end up going solar CU it also is great

of course knowing it's clean energy I

charge my car with it like it's it's

awesome I'll link the other video and

I'll also link my solar provider if

anyone wants to talk to him cuz they do

solar like all over the US and hope that

you guys enjoyed watching this one I'll

see you in my next video bye