No regerts here.
He probably has an iPhone too.
And a Toshiba laptop.
They’re kinda like the early Mac fanboys. Obnoxiously touting its advantages and then screaming with fingers stuffed in ears when anyone tries to discuss its flaws. There is so much that’s great about Tesla’s cars but, like Apple fans in those early days poo-pooed the Mac’s shortcomings, Tesla fans try to gaslight you that you don’t need things like buttons or dials or even a manual catch to open the fucking glovebox. Now, apparently, you don’t need a charging cable - think about that for a second.
I hate Musk, but he has disrupted an entire industry and moved the EV game forward decades. Henry Ford changed the game too, and I’m sure I wouldn’t enjoy having him over for drinks either. But I am looking forward to my next car being an EV and, thanks to Tesla’s success, I will be able to buy a quality EV that isn’t a Tesla.
I am also looking forward to the day Musk climbs into one of his rockets and fucks off to Mars; I won’t care if it gets there or not.
He may be further disappointed. If Tesla stock goes much lower, Musk won’t have the downpayment for his mortgage on Twitter.
Kinda like Apple telling me I don’t need a headphone jack. Assholes.
2 Likes
Bingo! Or taking 5 years to add copy and paste.
We joined a solar coop for household solar installation. It’s an interesting idea. The coop puts together a group of potential solar customers, then bids for installation by a single provider. The provider bids prices on a menu of items, including options on panels and inverters, chargers, and batteries. I was on the selection committee (because I volunteered) and we had five choices for provider, and chose Icon, which is a big national company who had also won the bid last year. All of the bids were pretty close on pricing.
Each coop member then meets individually with the provider and signs an individual contract, or not. Kris and I meet with Icon this afternoon about our contract.
1 Like
Great concept. I’m interested to hear about your options and pricing (if you don’t mind).
We signed the initial contract tonight. We’re putting in 2 Tesla batteries at a cost of $24,000. We’re doing 80% of our power usage, or 15.2 kW. The total purchase price is $64,520. We’ll get a 26% credit back on next year’s taxes. If we’d financed through Icon, the cost could have been as high as $94,000. The financing costs are incredible.
If we’d only gone with one battery, we couldn’t have more than 60% of our usage covered, but that would have reduced costs to somewhere around $45,000. Covering 100% of usage would cost about $75,000.
The sales guy said that we should consider a free nighttime power plan.
1 Like
Good grief.
Why?
The cost. I have no clue what you are talking about, but my solar panels cost $7000, and I recently upgraded for another $1500. My electric bill the last 5-6 months has been $0.
Maybe you are talking about a completely different, more sophisticated system or your house is much larger. Mine is 2400 sq. ft.
1 Like
Wow, I dunno. Our pricing is consistent with what we saw when we priced last year. The house is larger, 3500 sq feet, but our usage is pretty average, neither high nor low. I’m guessing you get the tax credit?
Maybe you got fewer panels? At over 15kW I’m guessing Neil got 45-50 panels. I have 43 for just under 14kW, cost $48k before rebates and tax credits.
Fewer than that for sure. I do not know all the technical details; I just know the effect on my bills. The original panels were nine years ago, and the upgrade was 2021. I would not have done it at those prices.
I’ll go back tomorrow and look at the paperwork again. My memory may be way off. If what I said is way, way wrong, and it may be, I’ll come back and post the correct amount. The disparity in the prices make me think I am wrong.
Our 15 kW is right at $40,000 before the tax credit and without the batteries, which because of the coop is about 15% off Icon’s normal pricing.
So, when you guys talk about a 15 kWh system, how does that translate to your actual power consumption? In the last 12 months, I’ve used 24,795 kWh of power, and that’s with the mildest summer in 75 years. How much power would I need from the panels? I know it’s not a 1:1 ratio, but what is typical for this area?
Ok, after an exhaustive search in all the wrong places, I found the paperwork from the original installation exactly where I put the folder during pandemic reorganizing.
Total cost for solar was $14,300 including labor, and after the rebate the City was paying in 2013, the cost to me was $7800. I got a tax credit that year also. I upgraded in 2021 for an additional $1500 or so.
As I said, I do not know the technical details of the system or number of panels and did not take the time to look. My house is two-story, not quite 2400 sq. ft. The difference in prices of yours is likely larger houses/more panels, better, bigger, more sophisticated systems, and mine was nine years ago. I have no idea where y’all live, but some companies (general, not saying solar) charge more in affluent neighborhoods betting the folks will pay it. The first landscaper tried that on me in Mueller because he had done work for us for years in NW Hills.
My solar system has been effective to reduce my bills significantly, and since the upgrade, I have paid $0 for electricity. I could not have afforded solar panels at the 2022 prices you quoted.
At $75,000 it would take me about 25 years of $0 electric bills to break even on solar (at current rates, anyway). If I threw in a couple of EVs that I got for free, and never had to buy gas again, it would probably knock that down to maybe 15-18 years.