Quote Originally Posted by Rick Potter View Post
Is it worthwhile? Do you ever make back your investment? What type or brand is considered the best or most efficient? What questions should I ask? Do they need maintenence, like cleaning? Buy or lease?

Sorry for the shotgun approach, but I know very little about the real world viability of a solar electric system. Years ago I went for a solar water heater, and it never paid for itself before becoming problematical.
There are multiple ways you can get solar power:

1) Buy the whole thing outright (maybe with financing). You can "sell back" electricity to the grid. Note that you only get credits on your bill... you don't get a check from the electric company. This is typically the only option where you'd get tax credits. With this option you also get to control everything about the install (number of panels, equipment used, etc.). Battery storage, etc. can drive up costs & complexity (plus you need room for everything).
2) Company installs for free and owns the equipment, you buy electricity at a rate lower than the local grid. The company decides how many panel's they'll install (i.e. they may not install enough to get 100% of your home's energy usage covered). *Some* companies offer a buy option @ the end of the lease. Of course at this point you're sitting on 10-15 year old panels... I'm not sure if this would make sense. The company handles all equipment problems during the lease period.
3) Buy solar energy from your electrical company directly (for a premium).

The newer panels allow individual cell failures (parallel system) without the entire grid failing like a serial system. Thus, your efficiency goes down but the panel is still useful until you pay $$$ to replace it. There is little maintenance required for the system.

As far as "making back your investment" it depends on your locale (amount of sun), the amount of energy your house uses, and costs & incentives. Let's say you pay $15K out of pocket ($25k - tax incentives). In 15 years, how much money have you saved versus sticking $15K in a decent money market account? Assume that efficiency would decrease over the years and you'd need to replace all the panels in 15-20 years (they'd probably be cheaper then). I ran the numbers for my location in Oregon and it didn't make fiscal sense even though it was cheaper than option #3 (green energy purchase from the Electric Co.). I didn't like the "do what they want to my house" aspect of option #2. If being "green" is important to you then I think it's worth considering... just don't think you're going to see a large financial return on the investment. Obviously LA is a completely different climate so the numbers will be different.

IMO, find someone in LA that has a system and ask them about the costs. There is probably an electric car club nearby... a lot of these folks also have solar arrays.