Aside from saving about $280 in electric charges each month, the Lichtenfelds receive $9,100 a year from selling clean-energy certificates.
"As far as we are concerned, a total income of $12,460 a year," he said.
The system cost New Jersey, which encourages and supports alternative energy with credits and other incentives, and the Lichtenfelds - homeowners have to kick in their share - $86,000.
Now, the couple had been given to understand that solar panels, if done correctly, would add substantial value to a house. And, based on government and housing-industry documentation, I have written scores of articles over the years saying the very same thing.
But that fact hasn't been passed on to appraisers in the field. Isaac Lichtenfeld says he has been told that solar panels add no value because there are no comps - that is, comparisons of similar homes.
Lichtenfeld reports that state appraisal guidelines say the value of a property increases $20,000 for each $1,000 of annual electric savings, which in his case is about $67,000.
The Appraisal Institute, the national industry's standard-setting group, provides no such guidelines, however, even though a bumper crop of solar-related websites says it does.
That's because one site misreads something and other sites repeat the mistake. I contacted Ken Chichester of the Appraisal Institute in Chicago to determine the reality.
"One of the challenges that appraisers face in 'green' valuation is the lack of available data and standards," he said.
While the institute is an innovator on green valuation in many ways, "I'm unaware of any appraisal standards regarding valuation of solar electric systems," he said.
Although I can't defend appraisers in every situation, based on what Chichester said, when it comes to solar, they are without proper tools.
The absence of these standards, Lichtenfeld contends, is "constraining an industry."
