6Kw going in soon in Aliso Viejo

[russ]

I have no problem taking the tax credit for it. Your choice but yours only - nothing wrong with it

If you are worried about it, just have the installer roll the price of the roof into the dollars per watt price of the panels themselves... and bury it. Stupid advice - thinking you will outsmart the IRS guy causes problems more often than not.

My installer warrantied the roof, for the same 25 year lifespan of the panels.

Glad he gave the warranty - now how much are you willing to bet he is in business after 5 years - or did he give you a forwarding address. Installers warranties and old toilet paper have about the same value and use.

[sensij]

They should.

If you are worried about it, just have the installer roll the price of the roof into the dollars per watt price of the panels themselves... and bury it.

Inflating the price of the system to reap a larger credit is tax evasion. SolarCity and others are being investigated for this practice, although not specifically as it relates to roofing costs. As you suggest, it is difficult to detect and prove. We are each entitled to our own decisions and can be as law abiding as we choose to be. We are each also responsible for the consequences, should our interpretation of the law differ from the interpretation of those who are charged with enforcing it.

[control4userguy]

^Low hanging fruit...

[lkstaack]

People don't all share the same ethics and willingness to take risks with the tax code. Like anything else you file, you will need to have the supporting documents in case you are audited. In this case, you would need to support why you believe a roofing expense qualifies for the solar tax credit. People have speculated that by including the solar and roofing expenses on the same invoice, it is more justifiable. I'm not so sure. If you can find a tax professional willing to officially sign off that full re-roofing can be considered a solar expense, or a person who has made it through an audit with this justification, please let me know.

If the source of justification for including the roof and solar together is a solar sales guy or a roofer, you might want to think about whose interests are being serving by making that suggestion.

Yes, I guess anything is deductible until that time you're audited. My question was innocent and was directed towards what the industry standard is. I would imagine that roof repair directly under the panels would be considered part of the solar instalation because it has to be prepared. Other parts not so much.

[Alisobob]

Glad he gave the warranty - now how much are you willing to bet he is in business after 5 years -

He's already been in business for 15.... and seems to have no shortage of work.

I'm not worried about it.

As far as "inflating" my bill... I didnt have the whole roof redone, and in trying to pull a fast one.... claimed the whole job for the credit.

I had only the areas done, effected by the solar install.

Totally legit.

[Alisobob]

I would imagine that roof repair directly under the panels would be considered part of the solar instalation because it has to be prepared. Other parts not so much.

Exactly....

[Alisobob]

I just looked at my invoice.... it added $0.23 a watt to my project to have the roof done.

I hardly think the IRS is going to scrutinize my credit to the point where they determined I overpaid by $0.23 a watt, and there must be some kind of scam going on...

YMMV

[russ]

Inflating the price of the system to reap a larger credit is tax evasion. SolarCity and others are being investigated for this practice, although not specifically as it relates to roofing costs. As you suggest, it is difficult to detect and prove.

The person has to prove what they did is OK - the IRS just has to sit back. Aftr making an accusation the ball is no longer in their court.

[J.P.M.]

Inflating the price of the system to reap a larger credit is tax evasion. SolarCity and others are being investigated for this practice, although not specifically as it relates to roofing costs. As you suggest, it is difficult to detect and prove. We are each entitled to our own decisions and can be as law abiding as we choose to be. We are each also responsible for the consequences, should our interpretation of the law differ from the interpretation of those who are charged with enforcing it.

Somewhat anecdotal and opinion only: As I became more familiar with the CSI solar rebate data, it became "curious" to me that leases seemed to generally have a higher stated system value than similarly sized purchased systems on a fairly consistent basis. More curious still considering that leasing cos., except Sunpower (for obvious reasons), generally/often used mongrel/Chinese/off brand panels. Kind of made me wonder if somebody was getting amorous with the pooch for a bigger tax credit. Easy to think you see, harder to prove.

Perhaps related to the roof maint. issue and FWIW, leasing outfits in my HOA have never done any roof update(s) on leased systems, before or after installation. I don't know if that says more about their confidence in existing roof integrity or their ability to dodge leaks with shady lease language regarding leaks, or other reasons.

[benah]

nice price

Alisobob,

Seems you got a great price for your system. Would you mind PMing me the company you selected for your install?

thanks

[Alisobob]

Alisobob,

Seems you got a great price for your system. Would you mind PMing me the company you selected for your install?

thanks

Message sent...

[Alisobob]

solar14.JPGsolar2.JPG

PV Watts came very close to predicting my first months production....

757 mwh prediction vs. 743 actual.

There were some cloudy days, and a few rain days.. like today.

But overall PV did a real good job with whats to be expected in the real world...

[sensij]

PV Watts came very close to predicting my first months production....

757 mwh prediction vs. 743 actual.

There were some cloudy days, and a few rain days.. like today.

But overall PV did a real good job with whats to be expected in the real world...

That is pretty much just a coincidence. If you had your system running in September, you'd be telling us how great your performance is and/or how PVWatts is too conservative. For any given month, +/- 30% is a reasonable expectation from the estimator. Over longer periods of time, assuming that the climate in the future is lot like the climate of the past 20-30 years, those +/- deviations should average out.

But yes, PVWatts is based on actual real world data, and every now and then, will produce results that look like it.

[J.P.M.]

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PV Watts came very close to predicting my first months production....

757 mwh prediction vs. 743 actual.

There were some cloudy days, and a few rain days.. like today.

But overall PV did a real good job with whats to be expected in the real world...

PVWatts is not an predictor of performance. It in estimator of long term performance as explained with the reasons why on the PVWatts help/info screens. Your first months production was close to what PVWatts got for the same period, aside from what I'd assume is reasonably good equipment /orientation input, in all likelihood because of a relatively or somewhat close fit to the weather data for the month PVWatts used in it's estimate for the location you input. Most of that weather data comes from something called either TMY2 or TMY3. Those data are NOT average conditions, and a good part of it (in the TMY3 files) is also synthetic, that is, not actual measurements. Again read the PVWatts help screens for further explanation.

For benign climates like So. CA where the variation in weather is less than some other places, the PVWatts estimates tend to vary less from actuals than other places mostly because of that smaller local variation. It is still, however, an estimator of long term performance, not a prediction tool, and not for short periods.

[Alisobob]

Huge rainstorm coming this Friday... Hope everyone stays dry!!!

I'm really happy I had the roof redone at the time of solar install..

Something to consider if you are in the planning stages...