Posted on 09/01/2022 8:13:36 AM PDT by Jacquerie
Homeowners adding solar panels study energy savings and break-even costs, but they should also call their insurer: Some increase premiums and some cancel policies.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – As electric bills surge and the federal government offers generous tax incentives for renewable energy investments, more and more Florida homeowners are seriously considering rooftop solar systems.
But in calculating system costs vs. electric bill savings, many would-be solar owners are neglecting to consider how a solar system will affect their home insurance bill – or how difficult it might be to find a company that will insure them at all.
And with insurance premiums skyrocketing for all Florida homeowners, solar customers who can obtain coverage might also find that the price increase will wipe out any energy-cost savings they expected from going solar.
“It’s a big deal and a lot of folks don’t realize that many carriers don’t accept solar panels,” says Dulce Suarez-Resnick, vice president at the Miami-based agency Acentria Insurance.
Oakland Park homeowner Holy Strawbridge learned this the hard way. She installed a modest 8,000 kilowatt system atop her home about two years ago and recently signed up for coverage with Edison Insurance Company. After the insurer sent an inspector to her home, she received a letter canceling her entire policy.
“I was shocked,” Strawbridge said. “I’ve never filed an insurance claim and I’ve lived in this house since 2001.”
The reasons cited in the cancellation letter sent by Edison: Her solar panels are ineligible for coverage due to the age of her roof (11 years) and because she has a tile roof.
Those aren’t the only reasons insurers won’t cover rooftop solar systems. Insurers who do business in Florida offer a wide variety of reasons for refusing to insure homes with them.
(Excerpt) Read more at floridarealtors.org ...
I’m not sure what you mean. You might have “one policy” with different types of insurance as riders on that policy. Or they may put multiple types of insurance under one “umbrella policy”. Or you may not be required to have anything more than simple homeowner’s insurance. Things vary by locality and also by how the particular insurance company you are using decides to handle things.
It would have to be some big-ass hail. Mine have been thru a lot in 10 years. Still look perfect.
Apparently by eliminating homeowners insurance expense.
So if they see a generator in your garage do you get cancelled?
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
One, not three
Flood risk coverage has been separate since the federal government offered coverage.
Wind coverage became separate after Andrew. Many companies in Florida will refuse to sell you a basic homeowners policy unless you buy separate wind risk coverage too.
“So if they see a generator in your garage do you get cancelled?”
I hate it when people excerpt out the pertinent information so they can infer some bogus conclusion ...
A hurricane can devastate a county.
A fire can devastate a house or apartment building.
The capital requirement to cover hurricanes is just too much for many companies, so they don’t offer wind coverage.
The panels we have are both light and tough. The workers carried them to the roof two at a time over their shoulder with one arm, using the other arm to cling to the ladder, and we have been through two hailstorms without damage, including one storm which dropped marble sized ice balls and which mowed down he 4ft corn stalks in our garden.
“Wind coverage became separate after Andrew. “
Wind coverage is not separate. Damage from named storms comes with a page deductible.
The Florida building codes regulate solar panel installations on roofs.
Yes there are a number of ways to maximize potential but it still boils down to the problem of BEING IN THE WAY and dealing with the lifetime problems of roof replacement and maintenance, not to mention about how your home insurer or your HOA feels about them.
Still, IMO, the best place for them is not on the roof, period.
Some companies still offer combined basic & windstorm coverage in Florida I believe.
This is normally done by a company buying reinsurance for windstorm risks.
IF, I put in a system it will be on the barn and never on the house. Also, I would be very hard pressed to ever let any of these solar outfits that prowl around install, first not for nearly 3X the cost of the materials and second because they hire jake-leg goof balls to install and walk away.
My insurance agent says the panels would be insured if their cost is included in the declared insured cost of the structure. Thus far they do not distinguish the panels as a different kind of structure.
I have a friend who is a journeyman electrician and craftsman that has gone behind some of the solar charlatans to secure their meat ball installations and get systems working that never did. They just installed and walked away from a system that never worked. The home owner later discovered they were getting no power benefits at all.
Be careful of the net backs as well. They are not all the same but the Solar sellers will mislead you. Here we only get “credit” for what we use immediately. If we produce excess to our needs at a point in time we get a $ credit at a rate equal to the “replacement cost of power”. In other words, the wholesale cost of power the utility pays, usually less than 3 cents a KWh compared to our current delivered cost of about 11 cents.
Credit for produced power is not as I expected, which is that if I use more power than I produce I only pay for what I use at the end of the month. For example, if I use 2,000 Kwh a month and produce 1,500 I pay for 500... NO. Anything I don’t use immediately is “sold” at the replacement cost. Instead I get a bill for what I used when the panels did not produce enough and a payment at less than 3 cents a Kwh when they produce too much. This generally might turn out well since output corresponds to consumption in sunny weather but there are times during the day when I use almost nothing in the shoulder months but power is still being produced. The worst situation would be pretty fall and spring days with cold nights.
These variations in output and consumption and the fact that you do not BANK power credits in Kwh have a substantial impact on payout. Banking power credits, which I would be happy with, would involve being charged for a net meter reading calculated at the end of the billing period. It is much more complicated to calculate than considering your annual or monthly use minus output equals solar advantage. I am an engineer, I did the numbers and integrated the daily average consumption by the hour for the last five years vs. average monthly solar output as projected by the DOE solar calculator for our zip code. The shoulder months when you would like to be banking Kwh credits just don’t. Instead you get the paltry replacement cost compensation for your excess power and this beats the hell out of your payout.
I expect lots of very unhappy solar system customers if they can figure out what they just bought.
“The capital requirement to cover hurricanes is just too much for many companies, so they don’t offer wind coverage.”
Wind coverage is not separate. It goes with your standard deductible.
“Hurricane” coverage doesn’t. We have a separate. much larger, deductible with a line item charge for that coverage.
I live an in older neighborhood. While out on my walks over the years I’ve seen housing crews bring in particle board because shingles were only stapled to the 2X4’s in the roof frame.
Our bathroom vents all go through the sidewalls. I installed a new fresh air makeup line to the utility room via a duct to the outside wall. (it used to take attic air for combustion).
We do have two skylights. We changed them out when we put on the new roof late last year.
Now we are grappling with insufficient AC to the second floor. It’s always something. I just met with our HVAC company and they are getting me a bid to convert to a dual zone system but I fear that is going to be REALLY pricey.
I think solar panel trees are the way to go, and with a tilt feature to catch the sun better.
The lifetimes of the panels and shingles may not be close, causing replacement timing mismatch.
Good point. Thanks.
Mounting anything on an inherently brittle roof just doesn’t make any sense to me.
Thus, my 25-year warrantied solar panels will probably need replacing before the roof does. And if my calculations are as accurate for the solar upgrade I just did as they were for the first version of my solar system I had for a year, the energy savings will have paid for the cost (including interest on the HELOC I took out to pay for it) on about the 10th or 11th year.
IMHO it's just as wise for us American families to be as energy independent as possible, as it was wise for Trump to make our nation energy independent. I can't keep the Dims from being stupid with our energy. But I can limit how much their stupid energy policies impact my family.
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