: How much money can you save using solar pannels for electricity?
I live in Hawaii and the cost of living is very high. I was wondering if I could save a bundle of money installing solar pannels for electricity instead of paying a monthly bill. I know it costs a lot of money to install solar pannels but in the long run inflation will just raise your bills like crazy. I heard in the mainland the cost of living is way cheaper and I am planning to move up there but will installing a solar pannel save me a lot of money if I live in the mainland?
Answers and Views:
Answer by Tom
Short answer is no. The initial cost are still too high for most situations where power supply already exist. Solar is great for locations that currently have no electrical supply because the cost of running power to the site saved offsets the cost of the solar panel somewhat. Unless you can get local tax credits/rebates that I don’t know about, you will never be able to recover the cost of initial setup during the lifetime of the solar panels. Check into wind turbine power generation. It is becoming more affordable every day and last longer than solar panels.
A few things:
Solar panels costs approximately $ 7/watt to install – this is without subsidies, without storage capacity but with the correct inverters and dual-function electric meter. The typical residential installation is based on 5,000 watts (5KW) and costs roughly $ 35,000 to install.
There are (in the USA) federal subsidies for their installation. Some states have additional subsidies. Here in Pennsylvania, those subsidies will reduce that direct cost of installation to approximately $ 9,000 +/-, and will provide approximately 5,000 watts (5KW) of power per hour of direct sunlight. In PECO territory, that works out to $ 0.70/hour.
The payback comes in to 12,587 hours. Figure 8 hours average full sunlight per day (let’s be optimistic) under ideal conditions, that comes to 1,607 days, or 4.4 years. The general rule-of-thumb is just over eight (8) years based on less than perfect full-sun days.
Without the subsidy it comes to 50,000 hours, or 17 years with the same optimistic assumptions, 35 years on an actual conditions.
Translate to your currency and your power rates.
Answer by roderick_youngSolar saves money over a long period of time, if at all. If you plan to move soon, then it’s not likely you will get your money back from installing a solar system of any kind.
If you are in Honolulu, a solar water heater will pay for itself in 4 years, assuming it replaces an electric. Your electric rates are about 15 to 20 cents per kWh. If you’re in rural Molokai and paying 50 cents, the payback will be faster. Try walking your neighborhood (or just use Google map, satellite view), and you’ll probably see that about half the houses have solar.
For solar electric, the case is less certain. Call a local solar company to get a quote. It will definitely take longer to pay back than solar hot water. Hawaii gets a lot of sun, but it also has a lot of scattered clouds, so the average sun per day is really no better than my part of California.
Whether solar saves money on the mainland totally depends on the local incentives. Arizona and Colorado have fantastic incentives. California’s incentives are rapidly declining, but electricity is expensive here, so solar still makes sense in many cases. We have panels on our roof.
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