Comments by "Colorme Dubious" (@colormedubious4747) on "Undecided with Matt Ferrell" channel.

  1.  @christinee24  I'm in the States. I believe some of these "rental" deals are actually lease-purchases. Again, it's up to the solar provider.
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  2.  @CroatAndNettles  Well, then, it might be hard to determine until he has a full year of data to analyze. Also, the bill might not have that level of detail. A fair question, anyway.
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  3. Not everyone has the varied skills required. Maybe the difference accounts for that and for getting it installed in a day as opposed to a month or a year.
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  4. Anything that's permanently attached to your home should be covered by your homeowner's policy. Check with your insurer.
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  5. I had my roof replaced BEFORE getting the panels. Out-of-pocket cost $500 (old hail damage, fully covered).
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  6. Did we miss a major story about the sudden "vanishing rooftop crisis?" America has approximately 120,000,000 buildings, all with roofs. Most people who use electricity are located beneath these roofs while they're using electricity. There is absolutely NO justifiable reason to build solar farms on the ground, and plenty of reasons not to. There are already thousands of farms and ranches that produce electricity with devices that possess smaller footprints and don't create problems for their ag operations. These devices are called "wind turbines" -- and they even work at night!
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  7. This has been done. About 30 years ago, a 3M parking garage in Austin had a solar installation shading its top deck for many years. It was decommissioned and removed for reasons I do not remember. Several surface parking lots in the region are currently shaded by solar sheds, as are a number of parking lots throughout the sun belt. These are mostly utility-interactive systems.
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  8. You've fallen for yet another SCAM. This may be the dumbest idea EVER associated with renewable energy (even in a world where the "solar freaking roads" scam was a thing). WHY would we need this? Spoiler alert: WE DON'T. There are more than 80 MILLION roofs in the United States alone, with more than 300,000 roofs installed EVERY DAY. WE DO NOT HAVE A ROOF SHORTAGE. The people who USE electricity mostly live and work under roofs. That is the ONLY place where photovoltaic installations make sense (solar sheds above parking lots are the "roofs" of very large carports, so my assertion includes them).
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  9. Absolute, unequivocal NONSENSE. It's just another silly scam intended to separate extraordinarily credulous cretins from their money.
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  10. It's 30% of the installed system cost through 12/31/19 (federal nonrefundable credit). Phases down every year thereafter until it phases out in 2025 (IIRC).
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  11. You'd install a smaller system intended to offset just that demand but it'd still be "whole-house."
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  12. Renting is an option with some providers but most people I know purchased their systems, either with or without financing.
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  13.  @christinee24  The free market will probably fill that gap eventually.
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  14. That's kind of absurd. One of the major benefits of residential solar to the power industry is relieving the power company of the burden of grid upgrades.
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  15. Interesting timing re YouTube's video suggestion. My 7.5Kw array is going to be installed TODAY (starting in about an hour and a half). Utility-interactive system. SunPower modules with microinverters. 300 days of sunshine annually here. I retrofitted my house with energy-efficient lighting and automation systems 11 years ago. It'll be interesting to see how all of that works together! [Edited for chronological correction]
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  16. They finished the installation in one day but I can't switch it on until the city authoritarians (from whom I do NOT buy power) and the power company (from whom I do) inspect it. One of those is a reasonable requirement, the other is not.
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  17. That's easy in the southern tier of states: Just do it!
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  18. With net metering, most (probably) of that zeroes out.
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  19. I checked with my insurance company prior to installation. They're covered, as is anything that's permanently attached to my home. The odds of all 23 of my panels being taken out during one hail event are acceptably slim.
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  20. It's not. The credits just shorten the payback period.
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  21. Oil & gas are ABSOLUTELY NOT "renewable" unless you're referring to biofuels. Abiogenesis is a conspiracy-nut "theory" that's ridiculously easy to disprove via the presence of organic markers in petroleum products. There is NO SUCH THING as abiogenic production of petroleum. Some people confuse petroleum migration into old wells for that, but that oil was already in place nearby, it just moved. If you had bothered to "research it," as you suggest everyone else should, you would have learned that. Do you SERIOUSLY think that multi-billion dollar energy companies would be wasting billions of bucks on fracking, oil sands extraction, shale recovery, and other EXTREME techniques if oil just magically produced itself? Put down the Harry Potter novels and crack open a geology textbook!
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  22.  @SaebHalbouni  Is someone smarter there that we could talk to?
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  23. Curb your enthusiasm. Efficiency gains in solar and battery technology are fairly modest. A couple percentage points per year, typically. It matters, but "take off" is a bit unrealistic.
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  24.  @mattbrew11  Negative. We're NOT discussing an auto insurance policy, we're discussing homeowner's. I called USAA and asked. It's covered. Maybe one shouldn't get cheap with toilet paper or insurance!
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  25. @UCzMtgnOEzLv_4rkwQr2w-Sg I unequivocally respect your PV systems experience, certainly, but how many insurance policies have you written? THAT is the topic at hand. MY insurer told me that hail damage to MY new system is covered under MY existing policy (subject to the usual deductibles, of course). That's why I phrased my above post quite carefully. Please note that I wrote "SHOULD BE" and CHECK WITH YOUR INSURER." [Caps added for emphasis] If they'd told me that I needed a rider, I would have added one. I tend to believe what they tell me; they've replaced at least 3 roofs and a car for me without batting an eye. Let me ask you this: When one of your solar clients asks you "is this covered by my insurance?" are you not obligated to tell them to ask their insurer that question?
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  26.  @mattbrew11  So you are NOT an insurance agent, writer, or broker and are prohibited by most state regulatory authorities from advising clients as to coverage and other insurance-related issues. Got it.
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