You have to spend a lot of money up front to install a solar panel system. This is currently off set in the US by state and federal incentives, so now is the best time….until solar panels somehow go down in price.
You must look at your overall energy needs and minimize your energy usage so you do not have to install too big of a system.
You must look at your budget. Will your savings on electricity in the future off set your expenditure now. Are you going to take a loan out to do this… how will the interest on that payment factor into the picture. You must consider your house and yard for the viability of an adequate system.
Look at the referenced sources for some additional insite. It may well be a good thing for you….I definitely would if my house were better situated for the sun.
I assume you are talking about solar-electric (as opposed to passive heating of the home or heating your water).
Because of the high cost of solar panels, I don’t see it as a practical source of electricity. Here is how I figure this based on my cost of $0.08 per KWHR.
Lets say you got a 3KW utility interactive system for $10,000. If you were able to generate 15kwhr per day, at 8 cents per kwhr, this is worth $1.20, times 365 days = $438 saved in a year (Of course if you are living somewhere other than AZ it probably wont be near this much). It will take over 20 years to pay off the system.
If you had to borrow the money, the interest you would pay on the loan would be more than the cost of the electricity you would save. If you have the money to spend, this would be a slightly better investment than putting it in the bank at 2 or 3% interest but if a solar panel or the inverter fails, you would have to pay to get it fixed. Many of the larger panels (such as you would use for this) will have a long warranty period so it wouldnt surprise me to see them still working well after 20 years. A hail-storm or anything close to a tornado could damage the panels. Perhaps your insurance would cover that but you still have to pay the deductible.
If your electric rate is considerably higher than 0.08/kwhr and/or you actually do live in Arizona (where you get lots of sun), this might be worthwhile to do.
If you are a tree-hugger, the warm feeling you get from saving the planet will make it all worthwhile.
The cost to putting this system together, relative to how much money you’re going to save in electricity, is negligible. We’re talking about UNDER $100. Your electric bill is probably around $40 a month if not more. So this thing will pay for itself in about 3 months time.
But what about how difficult this might be to put together? Well, I’ll be honest with you, if you can’t hammer a nail into the wall, you might have a problem with this. It does require a little bit of intelligence. I can’t lie about that. If you’re totally inept at this stuff, you might either want to pass on this or hire somebody to do it for you. And if you do hire somebody, the extra cost will still be paid back in less than half a year.
If your power company will pay for your extra power you feed back into the grid maybe you can make it work. maybe you can be a micro utility
You have to spend a lot of money up front to install a solar panel system. This is currently off set in the US by state and federal incentives, so now is the best time….until solar panels somehow go down in price.
You must look at your overall energy needs and minimize your energy usage so you do not have to install too big of a system.
You must look at your budget. Will your savings on electricity in the future off set your expenditure now. Are you going to take a loan out to do this… how will the interest on that payment factor into the picture. You must consider your house and yard for the viability of an adequate system.
Look at the referenced sources for some additional insite. It may well be a good thing for you….I definitely would if my house were better situated for the sun.
I assume you are talking about solar-electric (as opposed to passive heating of the home or heating your water).
Because of the high cost of solar panels, I don’t see it as a practical source of electricity. Here is how I figure this based on my cost of $0.08 per KWHR.
Lets say you got a 3KW utility interactive system for $10,000. If you were able to generate 15kwhr per day, at 8 cents per kwhr, this is worth $1.20, times 365 days = $438 saved in a year (Of course if you are living somewhere other than AZ it probably wont be near this much). It will take over 20 years to pay off the system.
If you had to borrow the money, the interest you would pay on the loan would be more than the cost of the electricity you would save. If you have the money to spend, this would be a slightly better investment than putting it in the bank at 2 or 3% interest but if a solar panel or the inverter fails, you would have to pay to get it fixed. Many of the larger panels (such as you would use for this) will have a long warranty period so it wouldnt surprise me to see them still working well after 20 years. A hail-storm or anything close to a tornado could damage the panels. Perhaps your insurance would cover that but you still have to pay the deductible.
If your electric rate is considerably higher than 0.08/kwhr and/or you actually do live in Arizona (where you get lots of sun), this might be worthwhile to do.
If you are a tree-hugger, the warm feeling you get from saving the planet will make it all worthwhile.
The cost to putting this system together, relative to how much money you’re going to save in electricity, is negligible. We’re talking about UNDER $100. Your electric bill is probably around $40 a month if not more. So this thing will pay for itself in about 3 months time.
But what about how difficult this might be to put together? Well, I’ll be honest with you, if you can’t hammer a nail into the wall, you might have a problem with this. It does require a little bit of intelligence. I can’t lie about that. If you’re totally inept at this stuff, you might either want to pass on this or hire somebody to do it for you. And if you do hire somebody, the extra cost will still be paid back in less than half a year.