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Unless you do something about it.
At least, give yourself a fighting chance to pocket tens of thousands of dollars in energy savings by reading on.
If you pay the energy bill in your household, you owe it to yourself.
The figures which will be explained below are current as of October 4, 2009, but there is no reason they should not remain so for some time to come.
This information I have extracted from the web this afternoon.
This will be a two part discussion.
Firstly about the case in question, secondly about what you can do for yourself for even greater savings.
A gentleman has completed the installation of a solar panel array consisting of a total of 4,400 watts of solar panels and related necessary equipment.
The initial cost was $34,531.
00.
There were very substantial rebates from the city, state and federal government which reduced the net cost to $19,250.
00.
This is still a substantial investment, which ends up costing the client $4.
37 1/2 per watt of installed power.
This was a turn key installation which was installed 100% by other service people.
It is estimated that the investment will pay off in between 7 and 10 years, after which time it will effectively be pure profit.
The system life is estimated to be 25 years plus.
There was no discussion regarding the inevitable future energy price increases, which may have an additional beneficial effect for the client.
Evidently, the added value to the property will not be taxed as would any other kind of building improvement.
Plus, the amount of carbon deposited into our atmosphere has been reduced by "thousands of pounds per year".
There was no specified amount.
Factoring in future increases in energy prices, and using a 25 year life span (the panels should last much longer) this client will save in excess of $40,000.
00 over the next 25 years.
That does sound nearly impossible, doesn't it? Please be assured that it will be at least that much, and very likely more.
What can a DIY homeowner do by comparison.
If you were to discover that Mr.
& Mrs.
DIY would save over $50,000.
00, would that get your attention? I know numbers are boring as all get out, but when that $50k is my bank account, I guarantee you my interest would be much more than merely piqued.
Here is the breakdown, as accurately as possible, for the DIY family.
I am quoting figures here from personally purchased items over the past 15 days, so they are right up to date.
An equivalent 4,400 watt system, complete with everything required for a stand alone system, which includes Inverter, DC breaker box, battery bank, monitor, controller and wiring, an allowance of $250 to make a mount system, plus an extra $250 thrown in for good measure amounted to $9,114 Cdn funds.
Deduct about 10% to translate that into U.
S.
funds.
This leaves a cost to the DIY family of $8,203.
00.
My mounts were made from heavy weight sheet metal which was free, so theoretically that estimated $250 could be deducted as well.
We're not finished yet, it gets even better.
It is not necessary to put up that much investment right up front.
In fact, it can be done in small chunks to ease up on the budget.
Not only that, but our client mentioned above may not have had a stand alone system, which would negate the use of batteries, reducing the cost even further.
Truly, there are many variables, but the fact is indisputable that an energetic DIY family can put a massive dent in their energy bill very, very quickly.
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