I just finished having a 6kw system installed on my home. Awaiting state and power company inspections and hoping to be able to turn on in a couple of weeks.
I built my house on a 5 acre parcel 14 years ago with an eye toward solar in the future (roof oriented south, with large south facing windows for convective solar heating, trees strategically planted for shade without blocking the panel area, etc)
At the time solar was not even remotely cost-effective. Each year it has gotten better, but this year it finally became viable with a local clean energy alliance non-profit teaming up with 2 solar contractors to provide a substantial group discount.
My payback period after federal and state tax incentives would be about 10 years if the power rate from the utility stayed constant. Considering the increases of the last few years it should be well shorter than that.
We have a pretty solid net-metering program which allows an unlimited carry-over of unused kwh's. Our house is heated electrically so we will bank a ton of credits in the summer during our 16 hour days to offset our winter usage. It will completely zero out our power bill over the course of a year.
I really started getting interested after installing solar on our MH 3 years ago. After seeing what a fantastic benefit it was for boondocking, I can't wait to get our home system online.
