Considering Solar in North Texas - hail risk?
Homeowner with CoServ. Summer electric hits $600+/mo (pool, two HVAC, two EVs, 2-story), 7-year-old roof since we bought the house 7 years ago.
Got a Tesla quote lease = $50K buyout at year 5, for $391/mo (+yearly increase til buyout). This is for 2 powerwalls with a 25.20 kW system. Other dealers local cash quotes around $60-65k for similar. Low mortgage interest so opportunity math says solar lease+invest more cash beats upfront cash purchase. If others regret their lease
Three things I can't get clarity on:
A) Texas rates went up 5.7%/yr from 2020-2024 but US 25-yr avg is 2.85%. All this AI/data center demand, is it actually going to keep pushing 5%+?
B) Feb 2021 freeze outage still messes with me. Powerwalls feel like cheap insurance against pool plumbing freeze ($3-15K busted pipes) but our actual outage history is mostly 5-min blips.
C) We are in top 5 of hail claims. 2023 was about $7-8B damage across DFW. Am I just putting this money for a piñata on my roof? :-) "Hey that powerwall saved our pool equipment but we just got hit with a baseball hail rock a month later!"
If you've been through a major hailstorm WITH solar, is it not as bad with Tier 1 panels even when the gof ball size ones do eventually hit?