Has anyone looked into Residential Solar (Solar City) and if yes, what are your experiences with it?

That is what I figured as well the outright purchase is a better deal than the slow repayment. So for 24k you just have the solar panels I take it and did not go with the battery storage for power at night feature?

SPC Erich Guenther - I just did some basic digging and I know the batteries are expensive. That figure is for a home of approx 1000-1200 Sq Ft with a battery storage...My house would be $85,000 for panels and batteries. I am thinking of a solar generator for under $3,000 self contained unit.

Ahh, OK I'm at 2100 sq feet which is small for Dallas....I know it is considered medium to large in other parts of the country. The one selling point for Solar for me would be the 24 by 7 coverage in case we start getting power outages but they have a pretty good grid in Texas and so far outages not a huge issue. GENERAC has a pretty good Natural Gas line of Generators but thats another 4-5k expense to add that and buy a service package to maintain. Solar City was roughly quoting 33k for Solar Panels in Dallas but again I think that is for a larger home than what I have (3000-4000 sq feet was my guess).

OK, what happens in your contract if your electrical use declines due to you buying more efficient electrical appliances like a new 19 SEER HVAC system. Do you get a refund or is that money lost?

SPC Erich Guenther - the money is lost, kind of. We prepaid for the electricity at a discounted rate to the kWh rate at the time. As long as the rates go up faster than our electrical usage goes down, is still a winning proposition.