About to jump

[SunEagle]

I just got a similar quote, from their website by typing in my address. It is one of their cookie cutter systems. To be clear, the total price is $32,800 for a 16.32 kW system. Any way you look at it, it is $2.0098039 per Watt.

Seems low to me. Is there any "gotcha's" once you sign with them?

[Ampster]

Seems low to me. Is there any "gotcha's" once you sign with them?

It was specific to my location so I don't know if you would find comparable pricing for your location. I already have solar on this house so the exercise was just to give a data point to answer the question that @Solarix posed. I do plan on acquiring a new home in the next six months and will look at this option.
The last system I purchased three years ago was $3.50 a Watt but did include a new service panel. Now that I have been in the area for a few years I have a resource to accomplish that at probably less than Tesla would charge but the capacity of the existing service panel and busbars is the first issue that would need to be underwritten. I spend enough time on other forums to know how to work the Tesla system so I could deal with that, but any other reader would have to factor that into their decision matrix. Then there is the risk of an inverter going bad and losing production while Tesla takes their
time replacing it but for $0.10 a Watt I could buy a spare inverter and swap it out myself if that was an issue. That could be an issue for other readers because there are clear issues of lack of responsiveness on the back end of some installs.
I am not sure I could do it myself for that price and at my age working on roofs is off my list so I would definitely consider this hypothetical if I had the need and the space.
I would look at the contract and hold back some funds until the PTO was received. I have had over forty years dealing with contractors so I may be willing to underwrite risks that others may not be comfortable with. It all depends on where you are standing.
Can you think of any more gotcha's?

[Cshama]

I just got the finalized quote from Tesla.

20458kwh produced from an 18.36kw system.

Gross price $33,128

Net price $19588

[Ampster]

I just got the finalized quote from Tesla.

20458kwh produced from an 18.36kw system.

Gross price $33,128

Net price $19588

That is $1.81 per Watt. Did that come off the website or after a conversation or site visit?
The production number looks conservative but I don't know your site specifics.

[SunEagle]

It was specific to my location so I don't know if you would find comparable pricing for your location. I already have solar on this house so the exercise was just to give a data point to answer the question that @Solarix posed. I do plan on acquiring a new home in the next six months and will look at this option.
The last system I purchased three years ago was $3.50 a Watt but did include a new service panel. Now that I have been in the area for a few years I have a resource to accomplish that at probably less than Tesla would charge but the capacity of the existing service panel and busbars is the first issue that would need to be underwritten. I spend enough time on other forums to know how to work the Tesla system so I could deal with that, but any other reader would have to factor that into their decision matrix. Then there is the risk of an inverter going bad and losing production while Tesla takes their
time replacing it but for $0.10 a Watt I could buy a spare inverter and swap it out myself if that was an issue. That could be an issue for other readers because there are clear issues of lack of responsiveness on the back end of some installs.
I am not sure I could do it myself for that price and at my age working on roofs is off my list so I would definitely consider this hypothetical if I had the need and the space.
I would look at the contract and hold back some funds until the PTO was received. I have had over forty years dealing with contractors so I may be willing to underwrite risks that others may not be comfortable with. It all depends on where you are standing.
Can you think of any more gotcha's?

No it sounds like there are no strings attached. I hope they are being truthful with their price. Last time I checked in my area the cost was more than $3/watt, mostly because it included micro inverter. I will be looking again this year to see if the price has come down but with my low cost per kWh and my typical yearly usage even with full Net metering I calculate way over 10 year payback.

[Cshama]

So I have been speaking to other solar providers today. The latest quote was $53,000 after incentives compared to $19k from Tesla for basically the same output. That was from sunpower.

2 local outfits are going to give me pricing very soon.

I also reached out to my tesla project adviser today. He seemed very cool and actually advised me not to get the powerwall as it would delay the project and I really didn't need it. He also asked for a small redesign that I wanted.

So far I am very impressed by tesla. The whole process has been very easy and competent. Maybe the horror starts later

But right now I am moving forward with them. I would consider a 30% difference in pricing but 150% is crazy.

[Truenorth]

It wonder if the quoted production may be on the optimistic side as I have a 19.5kw system and over the past 4 years the production has been in the 15,000 to 16,200 kWh range. But I do have some seasonal shading and we also get at least 3 months where the panels are usually covered in snow, so other areas most likely do a lot better.

Good luck on your new project!

[Ampster]

It wonder if the quoted production may be on the optimistic side as I have a 19.5kw system and over the past 4 years the production has been in the 15,000 to 16,200 kWh range. But I do have some seasonal shading and we also get at least 3 months where the panels are usually covered in snow, so other areas most likely do a lot better.

That is easy enough to check using PV Watts.

[Ampster]

So ,,,,,,,,,,, Maybe the horror starts later

But right now I am moving forward with them. I would consider a 30% difference in pricing but 150% is crazy.

I think your advisor's input was good. I spend some time on the Energy threads on the Tesla Motors Club forum and the installation delays seem to come mostly because of shortages of PowerWalls. As with everything, there are anecdotal examples but many of those seem to get resolved with the help from that community.

[Cshama]

The last major storm cleared out my remaining trees during my house. As long as pvwatts is accurate it should be ok

[oregon_phil]

But right now I am moving forward with them. I would consider a 30% difference in pricing but 150% is crazy.

The devil is in the details. The Tesla contract says they can start and complete your project up to approximately 90 days from now. And you are responsible for all known and unknown property conditions at the installation location. Their website says they will start designing your system after they gather remote aerial imagery of your home. Is somebody going to show up at your house to do a technical review of your installation? This is where a lot of the details are resolved and explained to you. Future customer service is something very important to me. These systems have a lot of technology built into them.

I personally would want more input and discussion with the solar company than what is presented by Tesla. I think you would get that with a larger local company. If I was buying something like a dishwasher, I wouldn't be as concerned.

[Cshama]

I still haven't heard back from 2 local companies on pricing. But if they are the same as sunpower I will take my chances with Tesla.

So far their customer service has actually been good. The guy I spoke to was very responsive. I will hopefully get a redesign shortly from them.

[Cshama]

I just got my first local quote. Again $53k for a very similar system. Again $34k more the Tesla.. I would have considered 50% more to go local but this may be too much

[khanh dam]

1. $420 a month is crazy high, get an energy audit and figgure out why your home is so ineffcinet. If you have electric water heater replace with heat pump. if you have old hvac replace with more effcient. those 2 things will reduce solar bill and have quicker return on investment. no brainer. not as sexy as solar, but effective.
2. get a standing seam metal roof, that way they can use s5! mounts and not have to make any holes in the new roof.
3. Read reviews of home depot, lowes, any big bank, any big company, lots of negative reviews, no big deal.
4. Even if tesla's service is bad and you loose a few months of power production that would be $1200 dollars, a drop in the bucket compared to the $34K local companies charge.
5. the inverters and panels tesla use are most likely just as good as what local providers use.
6. reread points 1 and 2.
then go with tesla. Tesla dropped thier prices months ago Exploring Tesla solar panels game changing price - YouTube
heck even if you need to get service 8 year latter for a ground fault that cost $500 to fix, you are still ahead. bottom line even factoring in potentially bad service and potentailly bad install ( which I think is wrong) tesla will save you thousands. Solar is not that complex to repair. A bad install will never take out an entier system. the failure points are small and would only effect one electronic device.

as far as 90 days install and blah blah blah warranty blah balh, almost all solar companies do that. no biggy.

[bcroe]

$420 a month is crazy high, get an energy audit and figure out why your home is so inefficient.

Agreed, do see about exactly where the energy is going, and if waste can be minimized. Doing that
here (at 42 deg lat) for several years got the electric down below 5000 KWH a year, or $50 a month.
THEN I added solar and went all electric. Bruce Roe