With electricity rates rising and a new data center being built a few miles from my front door, Nick Indge decided it was time to jump in the deep end and install solar power. If you've considered making the leap yourself, you might learn from his experience.

For years, I’d debated whether residential solar would make sense for my home. The math never quite clicked, and I refused to go into debt by signing a $30,000 contract or leasing agreement with a door-to-door solar sales company. It wasn’t until the end of 2025 that the market finally forced my hand.

The combination of a steady, upcoming increase in electricity rates, the impending January 1, 2026, expiration of federal tax rebate incentives, and battery tech actually improving in recent years made a far-off “maybe one day” dream into an achievable DIY project. The announcement that a new hyper-scale data center was going in a few towns over made the decision to finally jump in a no-brainer.

Many of my tinkering projects are driven by curiosity. I like to see if I can accomplish a goal without paying as much as expected, and I’m admittedly motivated by the feeling of getting away with an unexpected hack. Channeling a little ingenuity and effort feels like an arrogant middle finger at being told what I have to buy, and nowhere was that feeling more satisfying than in this solar project. If you’ve been thinking similarly about making the leap to solar power, I know how intimidating it can be. But in my experience, the squeeze was well worth the juice I got in return.

  • Canaconda@lemmy.ca
    21·
    27 days ago

    So to do an accurate property value assesment (what you’re doing) you’d need to provide at least 5 examples from each of those regions, only including comparable properties. In other words you need to isolate that it was the solar panels and not a litany of other potential factors.

    I’m not saying solar doesn’t improve property value.

    I’m saying you cannot take one example and apply it to an entire market. Which you just did x6.

    • livligkinkajou@slrpnk.net
      3·
      27 days ago

      So to do an accurate property value assesment (what you’re doing) you’d need to provide at least 5 examples from each of those regions, only including comparable properties. In other words you need to isolate that it was the solar panels and not a litany of other potential factors.

      Exactly, and all studies take that into account and use the same hedonic price models which most appraisals rely on.

      Apologies for not providing links to some of those locked papers, as Anna’s Archive is down right now, otherwise you could also dive further into their methodologies

      I’m saying you cannot take one example and apply it to an entire market. Which you just did x6.

      Which is not the case with these studies, as explained above, so once again, perhaps you are the one trying to generalize your local market to everywhere else?