ᐅ Photovoltaic Systems: What Has Been Your Experience?

Created on: 9 May 2018 15:26
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Bien-Zenker
Living off the grid. Never paying for electricity and rent again. This is the dream of many of our homebuilding families. We always recommend including a photovoltaic system. Clean electricity is definitely a great benefit—especially when it is self-generated.

Of course, adding a photovoltaic system increases the overall budget for your home construction project. In the long run, it pays off. But is that really the case?

What has been your experience? Are you truly living energy self-sufficient?
KingSong11 May 2018 08:19
Sorry, but I find your "disadvantages" a bit weak.....

- For my KfW153, I have the same interest rates as the bank currently offers.
- I still have the option of early full repayment.
- I don’t care about the feed-in limitation; whether I feed in 60% or 70% is negligible overall! With the 10.5 kW (14 hp) storage system, I will never actually feed in 70% anyway.....
- And the tax office... nonsense as well. If you handle it correctly, you can use a few legal tricks to set it up so that your "own" electricity business operates at a loss over the year, which has a positive effect on your annual tax return.

And not a single argument manages to challenge the most important point: The storage system is FREE!
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munger71
11 May 2018 08:29
Well then, tell us about your legal tricks with the tax office... I also want to install a photovoltaic system, but unfortunately, nobody is giving me a free battery storage.
KingSong11 May 2018 08:32
The storage system is a gift from KFW, not from the tax office...
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Mastermind1
11 May 2018 08:33
Keep dreaming. Go to the photovoltaic forum and read every post where someone got their battery for free... None of the calculations show it actually being free.

Don’t get me wrong, I think batteries are great! But they don’t pay off financially.
... Meanwhile, electricity providers charge exorbitant basic fees for such low consumption.
You end up paying more for the basic fee than for the electricity you actually use...
KingSong schrieb:
Sorry, but I find your "disadvantages" a bit weak.....

- I have the same interest conditions for my KfW153 as the bank currently offers.
- I still have the option for full early repayment.
- I’m not concerned about feed-in limits; whether I feed in 60% or 70% is insignificant overall! I’ll never feed in 70% anyway with the 10.5kW battery...
- And the tax office... also nonsense. If you do it right, you can use some legal methods to arrange it so your "own" electricity business shows a loss over the year, which positively affects your annual tax return.

And not a single argument manages to address the most important point: The battery is FREE!
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munger71
11 May 2018 08:35
OK. But to be fair, you first have to deduct the actual costs of building to KfW40+ standards and creating 2 residential units. The "free" energy storage is basically financed through the costs associated with the KfW40+ requirements... so it’s a bit of an optimistic calculation.

However, that’s perfectly fine. My other half didn’t want something like that installed in the basement, but that’s another story. Which energy storage system are you considering? Tesla is quite interesting in terms of cost.
KingSong11 May 2018 08:37
What don’t you understand? Because I’m installing a storage system, KfW is giving me an additional grant of 10,000, while the storage system costs me 8,000... I call that a gift. Explain to me why this shouldn’t be considered a gift.