Local user brrent reviews putting solar panels on his house and gets a good discussion going on the process, pros and cons.

Summary:

1. There are a lot of crummy installers out there with slimy salesman. Out of 6, only 2 even passed the sniff test
2. Total out of pocket cost was $30,925 – but about $20k after rebates.
3. Seriously consider doing this when you need to get a new roof. You don’t want to install and then find you need to rip it up to put down a new roof in 5 years. A roof lasts 30 years and panels last 30 years, so it’s good to have them in sync.
4. Don’t go with any installer that doesn’t use Enphase micro inverters. A micro inverter makes each panel operate independently from the array. Without them, if one panel is shaded, the whole array is impacted.
5. A lot of companies will assume crazy electricity price hikes, I’m assuming 4-5% annual increases, and the companies that felt the most honest also used those figures for their payback period. On that assumption, payback is ~10 years.