Skip to content
Gallery
Meet Rajat
Welcome to Rajat's odyssey
About me
My blogs
Let's connect
More
Share
Explore
My blogs

icon picker
Homeowners, are you missing on 15–21% tax free return on investment opportunity?

Recently I explored getting a solar system for my home. I was wondering the financial viability of this project, so thought to run the financial analysis. In this article, I’m going to share following:
Financial analysis
Why it is a “no brainer” for almost every homeowner
How you may get your most optimum system, competitor pricing
Quick note on my experience so far
Tip to save another $100 on the order plus a surprise savings opportunity
Financial analysis:
Money is important for every big decision, so is the case here. We will consider a couple of scenarios from California here to understand this analysis.
Scenario 1: Average monthly electricity bill of about $110. This may mean about 5000 annual units of use (kWh)
Scenario 2: Average monthly electricity bill of about $150. This may mean about 7000 annual units of use (kWh)
Tesla is currently offering a small solar system for about $8,600 (cost after tax credit) and about $12,500 (amount you need to pay). Annual expected production for this system is about 7000–7500 units which covers for both scenario 1 and 2 actual usage.
Scenario 1: In this case, homeowner is getting about $1300 annual savings of electricity bill (tax free return is what I call it) on a $8600 investment which is about 15% with no tax obligation.
Scenario 2: In this case, homeowner is getting about $1800 annual saving of electricity bill (tax free return is what I call it) on a $8600 investment which is about 21% with no tax obligation.
In both scenarios, I have not even considered the potential further increase in electricity costs.
Why it is a “no brainer” for almost every homeowner:
Life of a solar system is about 25–30 years which may be more than the time you spend in your current home. Hence for every month you don’t go for solar system, you are “wasting" the amount of money you are paying towards your electricity bill.
Can I wait for 2–3 more years? Imagine if you delay this by an year, cost is about $1300 (scenario 1) or $1800 (scenario 2), the annual electricity bill amount.
Hence I feel the more delay a homeowner (with enough roof space) takes to make this investment, the more money you may loose. Lastly, this should add some valuation to your property’s worth definitely and don’t forget the positive impact to environment by generating renewable energy.
Therefore, I feel this is a “no brainer"!
Tips: How you may get your most optimum system?
Sizing done by units used, not monthly electricity amount — For sizing your solar system, I recommend not to go by your electricity bill but actually your annual units used over last year and accounting for any additional changes you may want to do.
Use electricity cost for return on investment — For calculating your return on investment, consider your electricity cost, because that is your sure shot savings thereby, your return on investment.
Other competitors I evaluated are Sunpower and Sunrun and both cost about $12500 after tax credit for an even smaller system.
My experience so far:
Ordering and installation
Order process was very smooth, just place the order by online payment of $100, (now $400 refundable deposit) upload few pictures of your electricity bill, electricity main and sub panels etc. I followed up a bit with them which I think helped me in getting system from order to turn on in 35 days (in August 2020). Yes, you can propose your designs and typically no site inspection is required by Tesla. My installation crew headed by Angel (yes he truly was one 😃) was awesome, did fantastic work. Payment is to be done after City inspection.
2 years after going solar
I have consumed nearly 5000 kWh annually over the last 2 years.
Results:

Sep’20-Aug’21 — $72 solar credit by PGE for excess generation.

Sep’21-Aug’22 — $30 solar credit by PGE for excess generation.

Tip to save another $300+ on the order plus a surprise savings opportunity:

You may use my referral link to place the order and get $500+ referral reward. Here is the link:
https://ts.la/rajat35253
⁠
⁠

Finally, if you want to save another 1.5–2% of your project cost, send an email to
financingbuddy@gmail.com
⁠
with your email address and feedback on this article and I promise I will email you a tip to save that amount of money. I learn from all of you, thank you so much for your time.
Disclaimer: I’m not an employee or related to any employee of Tesla. This article I have written purely to share my learnings and you must do your due diligence before ordering. I’m not liable for any issues between your solar provider and you.
Article updated in Oct’22 to reflect latest numbers.
Want to print your doc?
This is not the way.
Try clicking the ⋯ next to your doc name or using a keyboard shortcut (
CtrlP
) instead.