California Officially Becomes First in Nation Mandating Solar Power for New Homes

Megalith

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The Golden State’s Building Standards Commission has approved legislation that requires any California home built in 2020 or later be solar powered. “Energy officials estimated the provisions will add $10,000 to the cost of building a single-family home, about $8,400 from adding solar and about $1,500 for making homes more energy-efficient. But those costs would be offset by lower utility bills over the 30-year lifespan of the solar panels.”

“These provisions really are historic and will be a beacon of light for the rest of the country,” said Kent Sasaki, a structural engineer and one of six commissioners voting for the new energy code. “(It’s) the beginning of substantial improvement in how we produce energy and reduce the consumption of fossil fuels.” The new provisions are expected to dramatically boost the number of rooftop solar panels in the Golden State. Last year, builders took out permits for more than 115,000 new homes — almost half of them for single-family homes.
 
I hate when stuff is mandated. How much maintenance costs does this add to owning a home? I know solar panels decline over time. Do you need to have them cleaned?
I checked into getting solar where I live - still very expensive and not cost effective yet. Energy is cheap (compared to other parts of the country), plus we have seasons in which solar would not work that great.
 
Let's face it, pretty much only the rich can afford to BUILD a home in CA. That's precisely why this was passed; it will have little to no effect on the people who struggle to pay their rent or mortgage in a state where the median home price is over $600,000 and contains nearly 1/4 of the country's total homeless population.
 
Some thoughts on this: 1) when first building the home is the cheapest time to add a solar roof; 2) California tends to get more sun then quite a few other states (but I wonder how this will work for mountain homes built facing a direction that receives little light and/or will be snow covered for months out of the year); 3) will generally pay for itself eventually, especially with the electric rates many Californians pay; and 4) as has been mentioned by at least one other poster, homes in California are so expensive that this adds a much smaller percentage increase to the overall cost of a home than most places in flyover country.

Separately, requiring this for new warehouses would also seem to make a lot of sense.
 
When's California just going to fall off into the ocean?

They want to let the Mexicans in so bad, I saw we give California to Mexico and be done with it.

But then who would pay the welfare red states' bills for them? You should be more careful hating your daddy, he might start beating you physically instead of just beating you at everything else.
 
I hate when stuff is mandated. How much maintenance costs does this add to owning a home? I know solar panels decline over time. Do you need to have them cleaned?
I checked into getting solar where I live - still very expensive and not cost effective yet. Energy is cheap (compared to other parts of the country), plus we have seasons in which solar would not work that great.
Power plants are not cheap and suffer from NIMBY issues. California already suffers from rolling brownouts during high demand due to poor planning and closing of non-preferred power plants(fossil fuel or nuclear. Seems like a decent "kick the can" down the road solution and saving consumers the hassle of brownouts and saving money long term on utility bills.

I don't understand how anyone can live in that state. The amount of bs that home and business owners deal with.
They aren't, businesses and people are leaving the state on the regular. Unfortunately, they are bringing their bad ideas with them and making their new states a little less great every year. https://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/great-california-exodus-closer-look-5853.html and https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016...000s-businesses-are-fleeing-states-california

*edit-oxford comma is important!
 
Some thoughts on this: 1) when first building the home is the cheapest time to add a solar roof; 2) California tends to get more sun then quite a few other states (but I wonder how this will work for mountain homes built facing a direction that receives little light and/or will be snow covered for months out of the year); 3) will generally pay for itself eventually, especially with the electric rates many Californians pay; and 4) as has been mentioned by at least one other poster, homes in California are so expensive that this adds a much smaller percentage increase to the overall cost of a home than most places in flyover country.

Separately, requiring this for new warehouses would also seem to make a lot of sense.

I agree but it also introduces challenges with fire fighting https://www.firerescuemagazine.com/...erations/tackling-solar-power-challenges.html
 
And this is the state that recently decided to allow public utilities like PG&E to raise rates to cover the cost of the forest fires they start . . because their insurance cannot cover all of the losses and the politicians do not want the utilities to go under.

So let's see, if I am forced to use solar and can then ditch the electric (for which the bills are going to be higher for the reason said above), is the state going to mandate next that I must have electricity from the power line to support keeping a potentially careless utility in business?
 
And this is the state that recently decided to allow public utilities like PG&E to raise rates to cover the cost of the forest fires they start . . because their insurance cannot cover all of the losses and the politicians do not want the utilities to go under.

So let's see, if I am forced to use solar and can then ditch the electric (for which the bills are going to be higher for the reason said above), is the state going to mandate next that I must have electricity from the power line to support keeping a potentially careless utility in business?
Nope, I'm sure the will also charge you an additional fee to hook into their grid with your solar panels and make it mandatory that you do so.
 

This is where Tesla's / Solar City's magic new solar roof tiles come into play so as not to add too much additional roof weight yes?

As far as the panels being live, how about an external, locked physical breaker switch for firefighters that can shut down (and then ground with a grounding wire) the panel array, that is locked and accessed in the same that water and electrical meters are locked and accessed?

For the security of the homeowner (in case of prankster) and firefighters (to know it's worked), when the breaker is pulled and the panels discharged, this triggers an audible warning system.
 
This is where Tesla's / Solar City's magic new solar roof tiles come into play so as not to add too much additional roof weight yes?

As far as the panels being live, how about an external, locked physical breaker switch for firefighters that can shut down (and then ground with a grounding wire) the panel array, that is locked and accessed in the same that water and electrical meters are locked and accessed?

For the security of the homeowner (in case of prankster) and firefighters (to know it's worked), when the breaker is pulled and the panels discharged, this triggers an audible warning system.

The panels remain energized as long as their is light. https://www.nj.com/burlington/index...battling_blaze_much_harder_officials_say.html
 
This is where Tesla's / Solar City's magic new solar roof tiles come into play so as not to add too much additional roof weight yes?

As far as the panels being live, how about an external, locked physical breaker switch for firefighters that can shut down (and then ground with a grounding wire) the panel array, that is locked and accessed in the same that water and electrical meters are locked and accessed?

For the security of the homeowner (in case of prankster) and firefighters (to know it's worked), when the breaker is pulled and the panels discharged, this triggers an audible warning system.

That is exactly what the systems have. There’s a big box right next to the breakers that emergency responders can access.
 
I'm all for solar power for those that can afford it, and as others have said the best time to do it is during construction. But to mandate it just feels wrong.

Where are those solar roof tiles that Elon promised us long ago?

Personally in TX, to retrofit my existing old house will cost 20-30k. And that still wouldn't be optimal because the majority of my roof faces east/west, not south. Also we have huge trees. But if I won the lottery I'd still do it (maybe).
 
IMO this should happen nationwide. The amount of energy wasted cooling homes with black shingles is insane.
I allways wornded why 99% of home have very dark shingles....then when i bought my frist house and i needed a new roof i looked into a nice metal roof and it was 3x the cost as shingles so i so f it.
 
Technically Miami was first.


https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/south-miami/article162307863.html

July 18, 2017 11:07 PM

Updated July 19, 2017 05:09 AM

Anyone building a new house in South Miami — or in some cases renovating existing ones — will have to install solar panels after the city commission approved a groundbreaking law Tuesday night.

The measure, the first of its kind in Florida, will go into effect in two months on Sept 18.
 
So here's my question without reading too much in to this....

State mandates you get solar panels on your new home you just built... fine.

But what is the process and how is the solar panel supplier selected for this?

There are dozens and dozens of solar panel business' in California alone, big and small. If the state assists with selecting the source of panels for this mandate, then I'd consider that a huge disadvantage to all of the remaining solar power companies not on the list.
 
Last edited:
Technically Miami was first.


https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/south-miami/article162307863.html

July 18, 2017 11:07 PM

Updated July 19, 2017 05:09 AM

Anyone building a new house in South Miami — or in some cases renovating existing ones — will have to install solar panels after the city commission approved a groundbreaking law Tuesday night.

The measure, the first of its kind in Florida, will go into effect in two months on Sept 18.

Damn left-wing extremist nut-jobs. Can't wait for Florida to sink into the ocean.

Did I do that right?
 
I left CA a year and a half ago, never to return. When I bought a Hybrid it was cool and then they tacked on 100 bucks to the license fee. They call it a fee not a tax. What do you think the village idiots will do to a mandatory solar home. " Oh your not paying your fair share, "Kaching." Now where is my train?

When I left, Hepatitis A had reached Orange County from the Southern boarder. Now B & C are there. Along with Measles, Mumps, Polio, HIV, Whooping Cough, Chicken Pox, and any thing else you can think of. Gee I wonder where that came from? So I would not worry about CA they will eventually kill them selves off.

Re solar: my current 5 day forecast is for rain and light snow at higher elevations. I love the four seasons. Is solar efficient around here, not so much.
 
In 10-20 years, they will determine that the panels contain materials harmful to the environment and can not be disposed of via conventional means. You will then be mandated to pay an additional $8-10k to "properly" dispose of them and "remediate"

Watch it happen.

States of done the same bullshit with underground oil tanks. These will be the next oil tanks.
 
In 10-20 years, they will determine that the panels contain materials harmful to the environment and can not be disposed of via conventional means. You will then be mandated to pay an additional $8-10k to "properly" dispose of them and "remediate"

Watch it happen.

States of done the same bullshit with underground oil tanks. These will be the next oil tanks.

Most likely this. They had gas stations remove perfectly fine steel tanks and replace them with fiberglass ones and tack on hundreds of thousands of dollars expense for no good reason. California environmental whackos are unchecked here.
 
mountain homes built facing a direction that receives little light and/or will be snow covered for months out of the year
Pretty easy on the snow part, my roof is very steep the snow just slides off. Personally I'd never build something that didn't have good southern exposure so to me that wouldn't be a problem. Of course people have been building passive solar houses in the Sierra for 40+ years...though you do still run into A-Frames with huge glass windows facing north--and power bills that look more like bay area rents no doubt.
 
Most likely this. They had gas stations remove perfectly fine steel tanks and replace them with fiberglass ones and tack on hundreds of thousands of dollars expense for no good reason. California environmental whackos are unchecked here.
Yeah because they tend to leak and contaminate ground water...buy hey who cares about safe drinking water?
 
Yeah because they tend to leak and contaminate ground water...buy hey who cares about safe drinking water?

I've been around steel gas tanks my entire life and never saw one leak. I'm sure there were isolated cases of some rusted out 50+ year old ones leaking but that shouldn't mandate the entire state to start pulling perfectly good tanks and replacing them with fiberglass. On top of that they want some pretty convoluted vapor recovery systems that also make no sense at all.
 
I've been around steel gas tanks my entire life and never saw one leak. I'm sure there were isolated cases of some rusted out 50+ year old ones leaking but that shouldn't mandate the entire state to start pulling perfectly good tanks and replacing them with fiberglass. On top of that they want some pretty convoluted vapor recovery systems that also make no sense at all.
Well over the last 30 years I've seen 6 stations have to replace leaky tanks, one was leaking right into Lake Tahoe. The vapor recovery was bad at first, more spills than it probably saved in emissions, but most people have learned how to use them over the years and they click off correctly now --my lungs are grateful when I don't have all those gas fumes to breath in.
 
Well when a 800 square foot house is 375,000 dollar plus already, 10k just doesn't seem that much. I doubt it will be noticed in this particular state.
As a resident of the state in the prime population centers any property for that price would be snatched up.

Anywhere that you can get a place that cheaply you will be commuting quite far for a city job.
 
Power plants are not cheap and suffer from NIMBY issues. California already suffers from rolling brownouts during high demand due to poor planning and closing of non-preferred power plants(fossil fuel or nuclear. Seems like a decent "kick the can" down the road solution and saving consumers the hassle of brownouts and saving money long term on utility bills.
It won't though, since solar power generation peaks in the mid-day but California's (and almost all developed areas for that matter) electricity demand peaks in the late afternoon to mid-evening. For example, a particularly hot day in August:

xRLInvm.png


It actually exacerbates a problem known as the "Duck Curve", a challenge for electricity generation where high solar output in the mid-day forces other generation sources to reduce their output, but are required to rapidly increase their output as the sun begins to set. Expect California's electricity to get even more expensive and more unreliable.
 
IMO this should happen nationwide. The amount of energy wasted cooling homes with black shingles is insane.

This. Unfortunately the planet is probably already fucked because people like all the angry complainers in this thread are too short sighted to see that leading in renewable energy would be a great thing for our economy.
 
This. Unfortunately the planet is probably already fucked because people like all the angry complainers in this thread are too short sighted to see that leading in renewable energy would be a great thing for our economy.


Except for the Fact the Rare Metals for Building Solar Panels comes from mining. So we just end up being more dependent on China. Use your head you people can not have it both ways. Since we can not mine for Rare Metals in America Because it hurts the Earth
 
Except for the Fact the Rare Metals for Building Solar Panels comes from mining. So we just end up being more dependent on China. Use your head you people can not have it both ways. Since we can not mine for Rare Metals in America Because it hurts the Earth

we need to build things that LAST and which an be reused or recycled to near 100%. We cannot sustain the 980ti yesterady, 1080ti today and 2080ti tomorrow forever. We got blinded and we should admit it. We fell for the devil himself.
 
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