Posted on 05/04/2018 6:36:58 PM PDT by Simon Green
For seven years, a handful of homebuilders offered solar as an optional item to buyers willing to pay extra to go green.
Now, California is on the verge of making solar standard on virtually every new home built in the Golden State.
The California Energy Commission is scheduled to vote Wednesday, May 9, on new energy standards mandating most new homes have solar panels starting in 2020.
If approved as expected, solar installations on new homes will skyrocket.
Just 15 percent to 20 percent of new single-family homes built include solar, according to Bob Raymer, technical director for the California Building Industry Association.
“California is about to take a quantum leap in energy standards,” Raymer said. “No other state in the nation mandates solar, and we are about to take that leap.”
The proposed new rules would deviate slightly from another much-heralded objective: Requiring all new homes be “net-zero,” meaning they would produce enough solar power to offset all electricity and natural gas consumed over the course of a year.
New thinking has made that goal obsolete, state officials say. True “zero-net-energy” homes still rely on the electric power grid at night, they explained, a time when more generating plants come online using fossil fuels to generate power.
“Zero net energy isn’t enough,” said Andrew McAllister, one of five state energy commissioners voting on the new homebuilding standards. “If we pursue (zero net energy) as a comprehensive policy, we’d be making investments that would be somewhat out of touch with our long-term goals.”
While environmentalists and homebuilders praised the new standards, the proposed rules have some detractors who still support net-zero goals.
“We’re happy they’re making good progress,” said Kelly Knutsen, technology advancement director for the California Solar and Storage Association, a solar-industry group. “We wish they would go further."
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
But but but...what about all the birds who will be blinded and disoriented by the new unexpected reflections from the roofs?
The ChiComs are certainly happy about this. They probably lobbied for it.
haha!!! oh SOOOO well put!! Touché!
Hee hee.
California state, where housing is least affordable, will now add $20,000 to the price of every new home.
You can’t make up how insane the communists are running this Godforsaken state. I can’t wait to retire and leave so I can watch California burn to the ground in a case of self-induced arson.
“California is about to take a quantum leap in energy standards,” Raymer said. “No other state in the nation mandates solar, and we are about to take that leap.” forced to accept a scam the home buyer will pay for
My inlaws sold their Thousand Oaks, CA home , a 1,200 sq ft home, for $800,000.00 last month. Right now they are in CDA, ID area looking for a home while living in their RV.
My inlaws have been in CA since the gold rush.....there were 5 siblings on my FIL side, and 4 brothers on my MIL side.
THEY HAVE ALL LEFT CA in the last 5 years.
They have moved to ID, WY, CO, and NV.
Last time I was at my FIL house, we got into his entire gun collection. Under insane CA laws, we counted up 1,200 years of sentencing in his collection. Completely legal as soon as he crossed NV state line!
One of the biggest problems in crazy CA is the lack of affordable homes. This will make the problem worse.
My neighbor has solar panels. Her electric bill is 20 bucks a month in Florida. If the solar panels are added to the total of the house, Californians will have very low electric bills. It’s a good idea for Florida, Arizona and California. But electric companies will complain about lack of revenue.
Oh brother. They just became 5th highest economy of the world beating Britain.
Whether it be upgrading their grid to supply everyone with reliable electricity or using solar panels to save the State money, Kalifornians will pay the full price and then some...
Picturing a sign on the wall “lean-to sweet lean-to”...
How much does that add to the cost of a new home 25k or so? Who gets the rebate, Builders or Buyers? Dropped into a 30 years mortgage that 25K becomes 75K??
They obviously have no right to make this law.
There is no more private property. You only think it’s yours. You get to pay the insurance and the taxes, but it’s not yours.
That is socialism.
and just what is the storage device? Cali bailing out Tesla.
“My neighbor has solar panels. Her electric bill is 20 bucks a month in Florida”
Your neighbor is obscuring the true cost of solar. They paid a LOT of money to get to that $20. Money which won’t be recouped during the life of the system.
I also live in FL and have done the math for solar. It doesn’t work. By the time it pays off, 25 years, most of the system needs to be changed. And this assumes nothing breaks along the way.
That $20 represents either a grid-connected, full battery system with a large solar array, about $70k. Or a very large panel-only system which dumps a lot of surplus energy into the grid, enough to offset night time, cloudy consumption and costs around ~$45k.
Besides the initial cost the biggest outliers are the maintenance and repair costs (damaged or shorted panels, dirty panels, damaged wiring, etc.).
The $70k cost, divide by 25 (years) is $2800 per year or $233 per month. A large $45K system is $1800 per year and $150 per month. Now add the $20 monthly utility bill.
This is similar to the numbers I ran for my place. My electric bill averages $110 per month so no solar for me.
Just what I want on my overpriced California house, ugly solar panels.
—
That would be your new overpriced California house before the solar panel installation made it really expensive and before the California mandates a specific amount of electricity each hose must collect making it even more expensive:
Such that a run down shack selling for $300K (1) before solar installation (which would be a fixer-upper any where else selling in the low $70s) becomes a run down shack for $400K and then becomes a run down shack for $800K.
Go California!! Go Jerry!!!
1) prices may vary and be higher in your area
Where do you get the $70K number? We just installed a solar system for a little over 1/3 of that. Our home is 2350 sq ft.
Prior to solar, the bill was north of $200/mo. The cost of the system, including a battery, runs about $125/mo over a 20 year period.
Our bill last month was -$18.
The $70K is for a larger battery system for off-grid or down-grid usage.
$200/month is pretty high for residential. Have you considered a variable-speed pool pump? I installed a 3hp Intelliflo and it cut my elec bill $30 per month and pool is cleaner.
If you paid ~25K for the system that’s $108/month over the 20 years. A good deal vs. the grid bill but when evaluating the $18 bill you have to consider it’s spring. My March bill was half what I paid last August. IOW if you’re paying $18 into the grid per month this time of year it may be >$100/month in summer.
You may want to wait a complete year on the solar to see what yearly electric costs average to then factor that into the solar cost to see what the true monthly cost for solar is.
This is where I get the 45K install. I didn’t want the basic $25K residential. I wanted a standard $25k residential system plus enough additional capacity to zero-out the yearly electric bill. Most power companies just run a negative balance rather than cut the homeowner a check so the ‘free electricity’ continues when the system goes down for maintenance/repairs. The larger system also allows for going offgrid later when (if) battery prices go down.
At
Yes considering that all of Hawaii’s energy comes from diesel fired generators. And at 36 - 40 cents a kilowatt this is a huge savings just from hot water.
Lived in Lake Tahoe for a dozen years including ‘82/83. Of course solar won’t work everywhere but you would be surprised how fast the snow melts off a panel. But big trees and big snow don’t help so all solar hot water systems have back-up. If ya had free hot water for 1/2 of the year would you be happy?
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