My Eye Hurts

I was out estimating a job with my dad Sunday morning and on the way back I saw the most ugliest thing. We were driving down Willow Grove Ave. in the Wyndmoor area, and all of a sudden I got this sharp pain in my eye. On a side street off of Willow Grove Ave. there was this beautiful home, about 2000 sf, and atop there were these hideous solar panels attached to the roof. Now for me to be concentrating on driving, looking straight ahead and see these panels extending from the roof on a side street, you know it's pretty bad. They weren't installed flat to the roof either, they were raised at like a 45 degree angle from the roof like the picture shows. I understand that the solar panels have to be installed at the proper angles to maximize efficiency, but why would anyone in their right mind have solar panels installed on their home in the first place.

I thought to myself, maybe these things have a large payoff. So I did some research to find out that these things are USELESS. I read an article of a pro-solar panel advocate who used to install the panels for a living, and read some interesting points. This is the article( http://www.blog.thesietch.org/2008/01/04/ask-the-sietch-adding-solar-panels-to-your-home/ ). He states that it can take up to 25 years for this system to pay off. He brings up a good point that non-renewable energy systems never pay off. This is true, but who is staying in the same household for more than 25 years to see this payback! The chances are if you have solar panels installed you will never see the payback. The average homebuyer moves about every eight years. That brings up my next point, who the hell is going to buy a home with those ugly pieces of crap on the roof, who's going to buy a house next door? They'll need to see an eye surgeon every 3 months because their eye will be bleeding from the ugliness. What if you need a new roof? A roofing contractor is going to bid that job through the roof, he isn't going to want any parts of that mess. I understand that utilizing solar power is great from an environmental standpoint, but use them at power plants, not on my roof.