Living Green and Saving Energy: My Experience With Solar PanelsPosted by Matthiesen Frank on May 27th, 2021 Saving energy is often a cornerstone of living a greener lifestyle. There are several basic steps one can take that want little or no investment, and they're going to all settle. But after ensuring that the attic was well insulated, that windows were caulked and drafts were blocked, and getting our kids to spotlight what sort of thermostat was set, I was willing to get one of these bigger, and consequently higher priced, experiment. see page decided to set up solar panels in my home. Was it worth every penny? Well, listed below are click here for more info . My house is fairly large, a little over 4000 square feet (there exists a big family, that has to have a large amount of space), hence the photovoltaic screen array that we installed was commensurately large. Where I live, our electricity usage is charged in three tiers. The lowest tier covers what's considered a little baseline usage, the first 250 kilowatt hours inside a given month. The second tier comprises another 500 kilowatt hours, and the third and priciest tier is everything over tiers one as well as. The solar panel array was sized to a target and largely eliminate the third tier during the summer time months when the ac can be running the most. In months when the solar power panels generated more electricity than we used, we've got a credit for that power we delivered back towards the grid, effectively selling that power back for the utility. I admit, I really enjoyed those days when I may go out to see my electric meter spinning backwards. I went through annually of actual bills and separated out the charges for electricity, and compiled the comparisons with the costs, both BSP (before solar power panels) and ASP (after solar power systems). In official statement , our electric bill was 63. In the 1 year post the installation of solar power panels, the utility bill dropped to 76. That was a standard savings of 87. That's not chump change. The huge benefit came through the warmest months, when I would've used a lot of tier three-priced power due to running the AC. I could readily see from taking a look at a year's worth of electric bills that air cooling can be an incredible energy hog, having far and away the most important impact on my own bill. (It is regularly 100 degrees Fahrenheit and more in the summer where I live.) I also remember that through the four month of February through May, my electric bill was obviously a grand total of . Just ! That when compared with 94 within the prior year on the same months. So, were the solar power panels worthwhile? Here is the calculation. After the rebate provided by my city and also the tax credits, my cost for your photovoltaic solar power array was ,299. Savings of 87 provides a payback of approximately a decade. But a way to check out the cost-benefit is calculating the roi. In this case, it really is 9.8%, which is often a lot much better than I can get most somewhere else today. And as electricity rates rise, as they inevitably will, that return will grow. Bottom line: I think my investment in solar power systems was very worthwhile. And I still get the non-financial pleasure of watching my electric meter spin backwards at certain times of the year.Like it? Share it! More by this author |