How much does a solar roof system cost? how much do you save?

Question

How much does a solar roof system cost? how much do you save?

Answer 1

Cost is anywhere from $5k - $25k depending on the size of the system needed for your home. And the amount of savings will come from home many panels you get. The site below may be able to give you some better numbers.

Answer 2

It will take 20 - 30 years to break even.

Solar produces power less then 50% of the day, and you need expensive equiptment to convert the DC from the solar cells to AC for your home.  Even more equipment is needed if you want to sell your electricity back to the power company.

Answer 3

Cost varies $900-$30000.

Check out this PDF for specifics

Answer 4

Unfortunately, in most parts of the US, solar photovoltaic panels don't pay for themselves within their lifetime.

The most recent solar pricing that I've seen puts solar panels at $7 to $9 per watt.   And most parts of the US get between 4 hours and 6 hours of "full sun" per day on average.

That means that a 1000 watt system will cost about $8000 and make perhaps 1,825,000 Watt-hours (or 1,825 kWh) per year.  You probably pay roughly 12 cents per kWh, so the system will save you $220 per year.    That's a 36 year payback for a system that has a rated life of 25 years.   Not good.

Now, depending on where you live, there may be rebates available.   There is a Federal Tax credit that will help you out.  And some states have additional incentives.  

To find a local solar installer (who can give you MUCH better savings & costing numbers) check out the link below.   I've also put a link to a site that shows you all the energy incentives that are available in the US.

Good question.

Answer 5

Below is a blog that guy wrote about his system, the second link is his monitoring data.

For a system like his you're probably looking at around 30k USD.