4 Year Update – Are Solar Panels for Home Still Worth It?



4 year solar panel review – Are they still worth it? It’s been almost 4 years since I had solar panels installed on my house. To start comparing quotes and simplify insurance-buying, check out Policygenius: https://policygenius.com/undecided. Thanks to Policygenius for sponsoring this video! In general they’ve been performing pretty close to what was promised, but last year threw us some curveballs. I saw a pretty sharp decline in the amount of solar produced. Since my solar panels are nearing their 4 year anniversary, I thought it would be a good idea to revisit what I’ve learned living with solar panels in an area you might not think they’d be good for, as well as what happened last year. Do I still think getting solar panels was a good idea? Let’s see if we can come to a decision on this.

Watch What you need to know before getting a Tesla Powerwall https://youtu.be/L6_2X_7Yy1E?list=PLnTSM-ORSgi4zR_CA4l6MZkee4XqgKn6Z

Video script and citations:
https://undecidedmf.com/episodes/4-year-update-are-solar-panels-for-home-still-worth-it

Get my achieve energy security with solar guide:
https://link.undecidedmf.com/solar-guide

Follow-up podcast:
Video version – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4-aWB84Bupf5hxGqrwYqLA
Audio version – http://bit.ly/stilltbdfm

Join the Undecided Discord server:
https://geni.us/undecided-discord

👋 Support Undecided on Patreon!
https://www.patreon.com/mattferrell

⚙️ Gear & Products I Like
https://undecidedmf.com/shop/

Great sustainable products for your home:
https://geni.us/buildwithrise

Visit my Energysage Portal:
Research solar panels and get quotes for free!
http://www.energysage.com/p/undecided/

Or find community solar near you:
https://communitysolar.energysage.com/?rc=p-undecided

For a curated solar buying experience
EnergyPal’s free personalized quotes:
https://energypal.com/undecided

Tesla Referral Code:
Get 1,000 free supercharging miles
or a discount on Tesla Solar & Powerwalls
https://ts.la/matthew84515

👉 Follow Me
Mastodon
https://mastodon.social/@mattferrell

Twitter
https://twitter.com/mattferrell
https://twitter.com/undecidedMF

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/mattferrell
https://www.instagram.com/undecidedmf

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/undecidedMF/

Website
https://undecidedmf.com

📺 YouTube Tools I Recommend
Audio file(s) provided by Epidemic Sound
http://bit.ly/UndecidedEpidemic

TubeBuddy
https://www.tubebuddy.com/undecided

VidIQ
https://vidiq.com/undecided

I may earn a small commission for my endorsement or recommendation to products or services linked above, but I wouldn’t put them here if I didn’t like them. Your purchase helps support the channel and the videos I produce. Thank you.

source

26 thoughts on “4 Year Update – Are Solar Panels for Home Still Worth It?”

  1. I am more concerned with the lifespan of the batteries and how the raw materials are acquired to make the batteries. Also, the frequency and cost of battery replacement seems absent from this video. Where do the old batteries go? We all know where the feds got the money to pay out credits and subsidize these projects and unfortunately low income taxpayers get nothing but higher taxes to fund these transfer of wealth schemes. Remove the taxpayer subsidies and artisanal slave mines in Africa and it is a pretty neat energy solution albeit still not very “clean” or financially feasible for everyone in society.

    Reply
  2. Solar panels = milking money out of stupid and naive peoples ! if that shit will worth something they would not use nuclear plants,water plants ,gas plants ….., point of story they are shit and in winter time or rainy ones you will be in shit and you cannot run all your house mascines and needs with this garbage without using electric grid and of course what nobody dont tell you that longevity are 15 years most of this panels ,some sayed 30 but that ones costs more so again you financing companies only which made that shit

    Reply
  3. Solar has been amazing for me, I've had panels for over a decade, the house isn't pointing in the optimal direction and I have a lot of huge trees in the area and I have never cleaned the panels and there has only been a marginal power reduction in that time. I live in Melbourne, Australia, we get about 4.8kWh of raw sunshine per square meter per day where I live so it is good for solar. I only got a 3k system back then due to suboptimal roof location and it was enough to reduce my quarter power bills from $600+ AUD down to $200 AUD despite constantly price rises and me now working from home.

    The suburb I live in currently approximately 70% of houses have solar panels, the uptake in solar has been so significant here that they plan to phase out the coal power plants a lot earlier than was planned because they have been relied on less and less, they are hoping for around 2030 and will just rely on the smaller natural gas plants to provide night time power until there is a long-term solution to storing solar power for night time use.

    I am planning on building a new home and from my experience with solar my plan is to ensure the house is in an area that doesn't have the sun interrupted, the roof is aligned in the right direction and the roof is well suited for maximising the solar panels on it. Our feed-in rates aren't as generous here so I am looking forward to seeing the evolution of sodium battery technology, whilst this will be a big boon for EVs, I think it will be a far greater development for home storage and large scale grid-level power storage.

    Reply
  4. Hey Matt, my name is Greg and I run a Harvey Woods just north of you in Portsmouth.

    If you need a solar installer or have customers in NH, we would love to collaborate.

    We have some disruptive solar tech that you will love. The goal is to rapidly scale PV deployment.

    If you want to connect, reach out!

    Great content. Love your work. Reliable data.

    Reply
  5. I bought for my house in Oregon and lived in House for 5 yrs cost overall 28k I got 9k back in tax return over three years then I sold house added 50k to price for panels and it sold .. I couldn't believe how much that put in my pocket.. I have a new house and plan to install new panels ..

    Reply
  6. Friend of a friend gad a degree in engineering (both of them actually) and the guy in question made a "recipe" for solar panels that wouldn't decay for around a hundred years. Downside was that the initial output was only 75% of the existing solar panels. Would defeat a company's profit perogative to manufacture or consumers to buy.

    Reply
  7. As Realtor Homes values do NOT increase with solar panels, and liens created by solar panels can delay closings. I know this because I've experienced it first hand. The Solar panels weren't a boost for the property I sold. Solar can be a good investment to lower costs but it just depends where you live.

    Reply
  8. Never sell to the utilities!
    They are charging me a thousand dollars a year for my use of their wires to send them cheap power.
    Then those same lines sell me full rate electricity.
    Use batteries!
    Mount it in a trailer and take everything with you.
    My power company held back one year of billing.
    They only give me a credit to spend on their overpriced kilowatts.
    Never put this shit on a house.
    See video.
    He proves my point.

    Reply
  9. No idea if Matt will be seeing this comment, but I wondered if the loss that you noticed, could have been related to the panels needing to be cleaned. I've heard of cases where the expected output had reduced to nearly 15%, but simply needed to be cleaned because of dust that had built up on the panels.

    Reply
  10. I’m a realtor here in Florida in the panhandle and as of right now not much value is being given to homes for solar panels. For example, a lot of homes with panels that cost 40 to 50 K ended up receiving value by appraisers at no more than 10 K. This makes the investment not make sense unless you plan on staying in the home for 10+ years. Also, they 100% increase the cost of your insurance here for most companies. If you ever need a roof replacement It costs more money with the panels on there because they charge for the removal and reinstallation of each panel.

    Reply

Leave a Comment