Got A Deck? Solar Panels Now A Plug-In Appliance

The cost via Amazon is about $1000 for a single panel which would produce 240 watts at peak; so $5000 to reach the nominal 1000 watts mark (~1200 watts).

I calculated that, where I live and at my monthly power consumption, it would take almost 40 years to break even. Well, that's not counting any tax breaks or savings that might be offered by my power company. Let's say, best case scenario, 20 years. Now the next question: am I still going to be here in 20 years and, more to the point, will these panels still be here in 20 years.

Otoh, I could put that $5000 into better insulation and/or windows with a better R value and probably save the same amount on my electricity bill and I'm pretty sure the insulation and windows will still be here 20 years from now, or longer.

This could be a useful product, but I think it's advantage would be in remote areas where electricity is unavailable or where service is intermittent.

I agree with you Usbport, the costs are too prohibitive, I know people over here in Britain who have mounted these type of solar panels on their house roofs, and it will take 25 years or more to pay them off, when it would have been much cheaper to just buy their electricity from a power company, and used the money saved to insulate their homes. The reason people are being sucked into this type of thing is because our government keeps telling us to do it, and I found out that two of our politicians that sit in our government, have lots of shares in some of these companies, so it is all a con!

Cool idea. However, I am concerned about the solar panels used in the companies video. They don't seem to have any back-panel and seem to be exposed EVA. I would be concerned about buying them as the panels could delaminate, i.e., fall apart after a bit of UV exposure.