And yes I pay well over in tax for what my credits would be to maximize the savings.
Solar??
- Thread starter NightRide
- Start date
Yes if your payment over 20 years is less than your average bill you are saving money. but its not a lot.
If your average bill is 250, let use 235 since you will typically have a small fee, and the system cost you a net of $29,000 after rebates Your break even is 124 months. After that you are saving $235 a month for the next 176 months (25 year useful life of the system) for a saving a total of $41,360 over the next 25 years, or saving $138 a month over the entire 25 years.
If you take a loan at 3% interest over 20 years. Your payment would be approx $161. If we are still using the same $235 a month savings, you are now only saving $74 a month while you have the loan then $138 a month for the last 5 years. So by taking out the loan you are still saving money over no solar, but a good chunk of it is going to interest.
If your average bill is 250, let use 235 since you will typically have a small fee, and the system cost you a net of $29,000 after rebates Your break even is 124 months. After that you are saving $235 a month for the next 176 months (25 year useful life of the system) for a saving a total of $41,360 over the next 25 years, or saving $138 a month over the entire 25 years.
If you take a loan at 3% interest over 20 years. Your payment would be approx $161. If we are still using the same $235 a month savings, you are now only saving $74 a month while you have the loan then $138 a month for the last 5 years. So by taking out the loan you are still saving money over no solar, but a good chunk of it is going to interest.
What we are missing are your exact numbers, hence "fuzzy math".
Loans are all about the same 25 at 1.99 or 20 at 2.99 with the best quote so far of 45k total cost.
I don’t remember the last time I had an over $120 bill with power… lol
Heating and cooling one room can save you wonders on bills.
I don’t even remember the last time I used my second room other than to let my dogs in the backyard lol.
Then again. This time of year I never even have my AC on..it’s 50s outside so. it’s off and it feels amazing in my house
I just fire up the heater in the morning when I get up. Once it's at 67* off it goes. Natural gas prices are crazy doubled this year too. Never thought electric would be cheaper than Nat. gas but here we are.
Do be aware of your local utility’s net metering structure. And how these rates can change. Majority of the time there is no grandfather clause and what works out today may not tomorrow.
Traditional net metering is going by the wayside. It was easy and affective at first to do a one for one trade. But why (unless gov. Regulated due to SREC obligations) would a power company buy your solar for 10cents when they can produce it or buy it from a large supplier for 3cents?
It’ll only last so long.
Needless to say I’m not sold on it.
Traditional net metering is going by the wayside. It was easy and affective at first to do a one for one trade. But why (unless gov. Regulated due to SREC obligations) would a power company buy your solar for 10cents when they can produce it or buy it from a large supplier for 3cents?
It’ll only last so long.
Needless to say I’m not sold on it.
Consider too the resale value when you do move.
Electric is too reasonable here for me to do it. Now, if I was 20 years younger I might consider it.
Didn't we recently see CA cut way back on buying excess energy produced by solar? If that happens through the U.S. at some point, solar savings falls quite a bit. I, too, am not sold on solar long term. The percentage of solar installations locally is extremely small. JMO.
I think the solar utilization will drive what the states do. CA has solar everywhere so I would assume they have more supply than they can handle other than their peak hours when they get rolling brownouts.
Here in Missouri it is state law the power company has to do net metering on a 1 for 1 basis over the billing period. The net extra at the end of the month is paid out at wholesale rate, which isn't shit. But it offsets our retail rates when we are pulling from the grid at night or when its raining/snowing etc.
Solar? No-lar!
California is on Net Meter 2.0. The CPUC is looking to go for Net Meter 3.0 and it’s a big bust for new solar customers and grandfather clause on systems <19 years since active, IIRC, and after 20 years you pay what new customers pay. There will also be a $10 fee per kW on top of the nominal fees. I hope this doesn’t make it through! This will cause a big disruption for solar purchasing for new customers in CA.
I never considered solar due to needing to financing for a system. I wouldn’t save money. Honestly, I would be paying more money for solar in the winter months due to natural gas usage and more cloudy days. We learned to manage our tiered plan pretty well.
Our utility, PG&E, are now automatically flipping us to TOU plan due to issues with excess energy in daylight hours and not enough energy in the evening and had to manually change back to tiered rates which now cost more.
I’m about to buy a new construction home and since 2018 CA , code for a new construction home is the installation of roof solar. So my new house will come with a 4.95kW system installed and it’s priced in for cost of the home. I’ll most likely add on to the system because other neighbors have added 8 panels with same floor plan.
I have a lot to learn on how to minimize my usage foot print without getting screwed on yearly true-up.
Users who are viewing this thread
