Solar panels for the house

At $15K+ will you ever see a true savings? Will you be able to sell any overage back to the electric companies?

Thanks and this is what I thought too. I have solar panel companies come by all the time and the first thing I say when I open the door is "if you're selling solar, I ain't buying"....it greatly shortens the conversation

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At $15K+ will you ever see a true savings? Will you be able to sell any overage back to the electric companies?

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I used to be a director at a national solar company, and I was principle level at GE Power, so let me answer for you.

Will you ever see a true savings?
I suppose this depends on your definition of "savings," so I'll use ROI for this. Timelines will depend on how much sun you get, how shaded your panels are, etc. but yes you will definitely get a return on your investment (defined by the delta of solar production against grid consumption as offsets vs your initial installation costs). Chances are the breakeven point will occur 7-10 years after initial install if you have no shade and live in Louisiana.

If you combine tax incentives with this, it will likely be sooner.

Will you be able to sell any overage back to the electric companies?

Depends on if you live in an area with net metering. If you do, your ROI timeline will contract because you'll be compensated when you generate more than you consume.

Other comments
If you go with solar, a DIY-ish set up is your best bet. Unfortunately most solar companies are run by morons who just know how to schmooze investors. Solar wholesale is a great option for this.

Calculating your ROI really depends on a lot of variables. While you definitely will hit break even, when you do depends on a lot of things beyond shade and roof angle. When you use your power matters. For example, to save on energy today it's best to run your appliances at night when it's off-peak. If you're trying to use solar, is night the best time? Of course not.

So anyone saying it's a one-size fits all answer is lying to you. It depends on where you live, how much you can install, how you manage your energy usage, whether or not you get battery storage (which will hurt your ROI), etc.

https://www.rewiringamerica.org/app/ira-calculator

That's a good resource for calculating tax credits and incentives.

https://www.energysage.com/solar/calculator/

A decent calculator for ROI (which has my house at 14 years base ROI).

Edited to add - The division I ran, and my entire project that I owned, was a project that took customer goals and showed them outcomes based on those goals. If your only goal is ROI, rest assured you will more than break even over the lifetime of your panels. But, if your goal is net-zero, that's a different issue. Likewise, if your goal is like mine - energy availability after a hurricane, that's also a different issue. Each of these goals has an effect on the other areas, so it all depends on what your goals are and from there you can craft the best solution for you.

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At $15K+ will you ever see a true savings? Will you be able to sell any overage back to the electric companies?

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I'm going completely off grid with a manual transfer switch for emergency use/repair and will not be selling anything back.

My current meter is listed as agriculture and I'm going to have an 80 amp panel in the barn side (true barndominium) that stays hot.

I'd have new service costs to deal with the local utility if I were to add the Barn to the grid.

There's another item I intend to take care of with the system, When we trenched to the barn, we ran a separate 6/2 back to the existing meter by our well house. I intend to keep our two ponds filled (I irrigate with a tractor pto pump) with the panels and not run the pump on the grid if my batteries are topped off. I have run a 140$ bill in the summer strictly from pump use and the solar setup can allow me to run the well a lot more than what I did in that instance.

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I have run a 140$ bill in the summer strictly from pump use and the solar setup can allow me to run the well a lot more than what I did in that instance.

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This is awesome. Not at the same scale, but this is exactly what I did for my chicken coop for a fan in the summer and a heater in the winter.

I live in a neighborhood though so I don't have the space you do. One thing I'd throw out is consider wind too. There are some good consumer grade wind turbines coming out that obviously run day and night.