By Carole Hawkins, [email protected]
Bill Rights would have bought his new home in Madeira even if it hadn’t come with six solar panels included.
But he admits as a shopper, it was a feature that caught his attention.
“When I saw it, I thought, this is interesting — solar,” he said. “It made it a no-brainer to go ahead with the purchase.”
Now Rights says he’ll never buy another home without solar panels.
Madeira isn’t the first Northeast Florida community to offer them. But it is the first one to make them a standard feature.
With a $10,000 pass-through cost to customers, that could be a risk.
But for elacora, the company building the Madiera homes, solar is about being a good corporate citizen, CEO Brian Paul said.
Homes in all of elacora’s communities either come with solar panels or are solar-panel-ready.
“There are very few things you can put into a home that makes it significantly different from the competition,” Paul said. “We’re just saying we think this is a really great idea. And that we want to promote it.”
The business model for solar panels may be new to Northeast Florida. But not to elacora. The Colorado-based builder has already used them in other states.
In California, there’s even competition from other builders. There are also appraisers there who’ve begun assigning higher values to homes with solar panels.
Elacora decided to make solar panels standard, Paul said, because consumers wouldn’t necessarily pay extra for them, even though most people see solar as basically a good idea.
“Like airbags on a car,” he said.
When elacora first told its Jacksonville construction partner, New Leaf Homes, Madiera would have solar panels, there were questions.
How would it work on a shingle roof or on tile? Did the local trade labor exist to install it?
Lee Arsenault, president of New Leaf Homes, admitted the image that came to mind was big banks of batteries on every house.
But that’s actually a different kind of system, according to Jerry Guthmiller, president of JSG Solar and the solar panel contractor for Madiera.
Battery banks are used for off-grid applications. Ones that provide backup electricity during power outages.
Madeira uses net metering. The solar panels are connected to the grid instead of to batteries.
They feed the electricity produced back to the power company, offsetting the home’s electric bill. On a sunny day, the electric meter actually spins backwards.
The six panels used on Madeira’s homes lower an electric bill about 25 percent, Guthmiller said.
“We’ve already had one resident ask for additional solar panels, and we’re talking to three others about it,” he said.
It’s something Jacksonville’s elacora team has come to be proud of.
“I love it. I do,” Arsenault said. “If you get past the cost and the architectural review boards, what it actually does is it captures the rays of the sun and puts it back into your house.”
Because it is so unique, it’s something that draws the attention of homebuyers, said Vikki Robbins, listing agent for elacora in Jacksonville.
“I would say it’s more of a very pleasant surprise to them,” she said. “I think if they’re balancing the home against a competitor’s, it can be a tipping point.”
That was so for one couple from California, who were used to a lot of energy-efficient features.
“They bought because of the solar panels,” Robbins said. “There’s no doubt in my mind whatsoever, because they were having a hard time finding anything comparable to what they had experienced before.”
When Rights first saw the homes in Madiera had solar panels, he liked the idea and he liked the home overall. But he already had a house under contract in another community.
He crunched the numbers.
A house that cost $10,000 less would save about $20 on monthly mortgage payments.
A house with six solar panels would net a $60 savings per month on his electric bill.
“I’d rather save $60 than save $20,” he said.
He had to apply to Florida Power & Light for the net-metering service and have the company swap out the meter. But elacora had provided the documents he needed and it wasn’t that hard.
Rights has noticed some of his neighbors are thinking about adding more panels to their homes. He is too.
“I think six is a great number to offer to people who are interested in solar. Or maybe, just to see how it can affect your bill,” he said. “Then, you get hooked on solar and you want more.”