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> Please understand that none of them bought their system. They were sold a small leased system that was barely adequate. So, they end-up with something like a

> Please understand that none of them bought their system. They were sold a small leased system that was barely adequate. So, they end-up with something like a $150 to $200 per month lease payment, So these neighbors are paying the full cost of their 3kw to 5kw systems every 2 to 3 years? Sounds like they're right to be pissed if they didn't knowingly opt in to being early adopters in 2008, but the problem isn't the solar panels. Even with that, they're still only paying a little above retail for their electricity. If the bill is causing hardship then maybe the solution is to stop using an order of magnitude more electricity than is necessary on luxuries?

robomartin 4y ago
My guess is millions of people were scammed into these ridiculous leases. People here regularly aren’t $500 to $600 per month for air conditioning. It isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity. Solar companies showed-up and sold people on $200/month leases. In that context it was a deal. Not so if you did the Lon-term math...but people don’t do math...even in conversations here on HN. Rates went up and they got screwed. I bought my system, engineered and installed it myself. Even with that we get true-ups of a few hundred dollars every so often. Some of my neighbors have seen $2,000 true-ups. And it is going to get worse.
- moloch-hai 4y ago
  It will get continually better as prices continue downward at exponential rate, as they have done year after year. People taken in by hucksters of any stripe suffer. There is nothing unique to or characteristic of solar in that. People who have shopped carefully are doing extremely well with solar, especially for recent installs.
- Schroedingersat 4y ago
  There's a world between running a 3.5kW output mini split in the room you spend most of your time in for 2-4 hours a day over the worst 6 weeks (which costs about $50/yr) and running a 20kW output central system 24/7. Only one of them is a necessity and only for people with health issues. And again, having your society be full of scammers has nothing to do with the viability of solar. Nor is signing a lease whereby you pay full retail cost for the electricity generated actually a step down from not having the system installed.

robomartin 4y ago

My guess is millions of people were scammed into these ridiculous leases. People here regularly aren’t $500 to $600 per month for air conditioning. It isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity. Solar companies showed-up and sold people on $200/month leases. In that context it was a deal. Not so if you did the Lon-term math...but people don’t do math...even in conversations here on HN. Rates went up and they got screwed. I bought my system, engineered and installed it myself. Even with that we get true-ups of a few hundred dollars every so often. Some of my neighbors have seen $2,000 true-ups. And it is going to get worse.

moloch-hai 4y ago
It will get continually better as prices continue downward at exponential rate, as they have done year after year. People taken in by hucksters of any stripe suffer. There is nothing unique to or characteristic of solar in that. People who have shopped carefully are doing extremely well with solar, especially for recent installs.
Schroedingersat 4y ago
There's a world between running a 3.5kW output mini split in the room you spend most of your time in for 2-4 hours a day over the worst 6 weeks (which costs about $50/yr) and running a 20kW output central system 24/7. Only one of them is a necessity and only for people with health issues. And again, having your society be full of scammers has nothing to do with the viability of solar. Nor is signing a lease whereby you pay full retail cost for the electricity generated actually a step down from not having the system installed.