[Dad was my hero]

I have solar on my house, the only way to "store" the energy for use off times is batteries, the conventional way is using quite a few "car" batteries that I'd have to store somewhere (like enough to fill a wall) and they have about a 10 year life span so when they are done I have to buy new ones and pay for the old ones to be disposed of. One other alternative is the powerwall by Tesla and that isn't cheap either.

So where I am now, my payback for the solar stuff is about 7 to 8 years, if I add the expense of the batteries to go off the grid it becomes somewhere around 15 to 20 years. Hardly worth the extra expense.

[rktman]

I have enough square footage to put an array on the south side of the house but the ROI might be past when my Best By date. LOL! The folks one house up have them on the roof (even though they had enough sage covered are to have put them) and the pigeons love it under there. Only problem is that the pigeon poop will eventually gnaw it’s way through the tile roof. Yeah, a wall full of batteries would help store it.

[woodbutcher1963]

“my payback for the solar stuff is about 7 to 8 years,”

Is this calculation based on the efficiency of your solar panels when they were brand new or over time?
My understanding(correct me if I am wrong) is that the companies selling the panels typically quote you a payoff based on the efficiency of the panels when they are brand new. Don’t the panels lose their ability to generate electricity over time? How long before they need to be replaced? Do they need to be cleaned? What happens IF the state changes the amount that the utility will buy your kilowatts from you? This happened in Nevada.

The reason I ask is that my daughter is considering having solar panels installed on their property in NH.