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View Full Version : A solar surprise in the mail



Rick Potter
06-24-2015, 1:57 AM
Some members may recall I had solar put on our roof about two years ago. We leased a system, then bought the lease out, saving thousands of bucks on interest over 20 years. That was several thousand cheaper than buying outright, plus the leasing company maintains it for the 20 year lease. That is where it gets interesting.

Part of the lease was a guarantee on how much power the system will produce, in my case about 19,870 KW hours per year. We got the biggest system the Edison Company would allow us to get. So far it is on track to pay for itself in 5 years, and we have produced slightly more power than we use. This convinced us to buy a plug in hybrid over a year ago, and an additional one 6 months ago. So far, so good. No electric bill for two years.

Here, it doesn't matter who installs your system, I believe all the companies sell their contracts to a consortium of basically three companies. Mine ended up at a company called Kilowatt Systems LLC.

OK, enough background. On to my solar surprise. In today's mail I got a letter from the company letting me know my system has under produced the guaranteed amount by about 1400 KWh in the last two years, so they will be reviewing my system and making a few corrections.

Included was a check for $80.85 to cover the shortfall.

Wheeee.

Gordon Eyre
06-24-2015, 11:16 AM
Cool and a nice surprise.

Steve Kinnaird
06-24-2015, 12:02 PM
Mailbox money is always well received
316211

Jim Koepke
06-24-2015, 12:03 PM
Sometimes those are the best kinds of surprises.

A few years ago we had a similar surprise. My father's estate and insurance was still being settled when we moved to Washington. The wife and I were coming home from Portland. We weren't familiar with the roads of yet. I thought we were in the 70mph zone that starts just above the boarder on I-5. The officer who wrote the ticket informed me it didn't start for about another mile.

When we picked up the mail when we got home there was a check from my father's insurance company stating there was a mistake in the payout calculation. The amount was almost the same as the ticket I had just received.

Not as good as having a solar power system, but still a surprise that got my wife to look to the heavens and say thanks to my dad.

jtk