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Greener than thou.

Solar panel in tug of war with old refrigerator Tossing an old refrigerator is greener than installing solar panels? You're got to be kidding, right? Solar is green. Solar is cool. Solar is NOW! Refrigerators are like, boring, boring, boring. How can tossing something as retro as my garage beer refrigerator be greener than solar.

Well, if you will bear with me while I haul out some dusty old ideas from economics...<cough, cough, blowing dust away> , I'll try to explain it to you. It's somewhere around here with the slide rules and punch cards...Ah, Here we are, Life Cycle Costing.

It's the magic bullet the California Energy Commission uses to explain why they make builders use better insulation levels or use insulated glass in new construction. The principle is that it's unfair to efficient technologies to only look at the initial cost. For example, R-30 insulation costs more than R-13. Likewise, well-sealed windows with low-e glass cost more than single pane, leaky windows. If builders only considered initial cost, they wouldn't build energy efficient homes. However, when you look at a reasonable time frame and add in the cost of energy, the higher insulation levels and better windows make economic sense.

It made enough sense for the California Energy Commission to mandate that builders take life cycle costs into consideration when they built starting back in the mid 1970's. Today California uses less residential energy per capita than any other state. It's mainly because of life cycle costing. (see chart at the bottom of this post)

So let's take a quick look at the old refrigerator vs solar panels is the same type of argument. If we assume that a new refrigerator uses about 450 kilowatt hours per year and our old garage-based beer cooler uses 1,000 kilowatt hours per year, we see that investing in a new refrigerator for $1,000 bucks saves about 550 kilowatt hours every year for the ten year productive life of the refrigerator. That's a cost of about 20 cents a kilowatt hour or $1,100 over that time span. Not great, but not too shabby. The cost savings basically paid the entire cost of the refrigerator

I'm not going to take you through the whole calculation about sizing photovoltaic systems including modules, batteries and inverters, but as a rule of thumb, a 1 kilowatt peak solar system will generate around 1,600 kilowatt hours per year in a sunny climate and about 750 kilowatt hours per year in a cloudy climate. That means that for a system that would generate the extra 550 kilowatt hours over a year to run the less efficient refrigerator you would be spending between $4,000 and $6,000 (rough approximation). Over the 20 year payback of the solar installation you would definitely get your investment back in avoided electricity costs and tax credits.

I thought I knew the answer to this question before I started, but I'm going to declare this a green tie. Tossing the old reefer into the recylcing pile and buying a new one is a better use for $1,000, but mainly because you can't get a fully functioning solar installation for that price. If you had $20,000 to invest for the long term, installing a PV system for your home or business could eliminate your electricity bill...forever. That's pretty green.

Thanks to Paul from Las Vegas for triggering this post.

Where does your state stand?

Ranking Highest	State	Population (thousands)	kWh (millions)	kWh per capita
1	Wyoming	509	14,138	27,787
2	Kentucky	4,173	89,351	21,414
3	District of Columbia	582	11,816	20,301
4	Alabama	4,548	89,202	19,612
5	South Carolina	4,247	81,254	19,132
6	Tennessee	5,956	103,905	17,446
7	Louisiana	4,507	77,389	17,170
8	North Dakota	635	10,840	17,081
9	Indiana	6,266	106,549	17,004
10	Arkansas	2,776	46,165	16,632
11	West Virginia	1,814	30,152	16,621
12	Mississippi	2,908	45,901	15,782
13	Nebraska	1,758	26,976	15,343
14	Idaho	1,429	21,853	15,288
15	Oklahoma	3,543	53,707	15,157
16	North Carolina	8,672	128,335	14,798
17	Texas	22,929	334,258	14,578
18	Georgia	9,133	132,265	14,483
19	Montana	935	13,479	14,420
20	Delaware	842	12,137	14,419
21	Iowa	2,966	42,757	14,418
22	Virginia	7,564	108,850	14,390
23	Kansas	2,748	39,024	14,200
24	Ohio	11,471	160,176	13,964
25	Missouri	5,798	80,940	13,961
26	Nevada	2,412	32,501	13,473
27	Washington	6,292	83,425	13,259
28	Minnesota	5,127	66,019	12,877
29	Oregon	3,639	46,419	12,756
30	Wisconsin	5,528	70,336	12,724
31	Florida	17,768	224,977	12,662
32	South Dakota	775	9,811	12,661
United States	296,507	3,660,969	12,347
33	Maryland	5,590	68,365	12,231
34	Pennsylvania	12,405	148,273	11,952
35	Arizona	5,953	69,391	11,656
36	Illinois	12,765	144,986	11,358
37	Michigan	10,101	110,445	10,934
38	New Mexico	1,926	20,639	10,716
39	Colorado	4,663	48,353	10,369
40	Utah	2,490	25,000	10,039
41	Connecticut	3,501	33,095	9,454
42	Vermont	622	5,883	9,452
43	New Jersey	8,703	81,897	9,410
44	Maine	1,318	12,363	9,378
45	Alaska	663	5,913	8,915
46	Massachusetts	6,433	57,228	8,895
47	New Hampshire	1,307	11,245	8,605
48	Hawaii	1,273	10,539	8,277
49	New York	19,316	150,148	7,773
50	Rhode Island	1,074	8,049	7,497
51	California	36,154	254,250	7,032

Posted by Dave Roberts on 03/18/2008 01:25 AM

Comments (9)

photovoltaic, energy star

Post is included in group: ECO-All-Stars~ GREEN Resources, Trends & Friends

9 Comments on Greener than thou.

Just goes to show us that there is no one quick answer to these complicated issues.

We need to work on understanding as much of the question as possible before jumping on an answer.

Now if we could get appraisers up to speed on PV solar, something that has been around plenty long enough for lots of hard numbers. If you can show that a three year new system (with a proven 25 year lifespan) saves $300.00 a month in energy bills, that house is able to offset $300.00 of income for a borrower. Something that is that cut and dry should be accounted for, but I'm yet to see it...

Great post!

03/18/2008 01:41 AM

by Michael I. Pulskamp REALTOR®, EcoBroker® (Mainstreet Brokers)

If only there were more sun in Oregon, guess I'll keep my beer fridge!

03/18/2008 02:01 AM

by Keith Berne, Real Estate Broker, Realtor, GRI (RE/MAX Equity Group, Inc.)

I agree with Keith. I think in Ohio I would freeze to death as those 3 sunny days all winter would be a problem for solar power.

I also heard if I keep my beer refrigerator full of beer it uses less energy?

03/18/2008 04:20 AM

by Dennis Swartz (Buyers & Sellers Realty GMAC)

Michael, I think we're going to be getting appraisers and lenders who understand energy efficiency. There's nothing like 4 buck gas to sharpen people's intellect.

Keith and Dennis, you are a riot. Yes, keep your beer refrigerator full, but get a new one. And add more insulation to your attic. Next time Ohio plays Oregon in the Rose Bowl invite me over for a party.

03/18/2008 08:56 AM

by Dave Roberts (Healdsburg Sotheby's International Realty)

Dave - I agree that it is expensive to reap the savings on down the road. As gas will go up, (I know this because they are allready programing us to $4 gas) we may have to bite the bullet and install some of these things you informed us about.

03/18/2008 02:39 PM

by Candy Henthorne- Spring Texas Real Estate (Results Realty)

Hey thanks for the chart - it's quite surprising actually, who uses more energy and who doesn't.

04/20/2008 08:42 PM

by Georgina Hunter Maui Realtor R(S) (Jim Sanders Realty Inc. - Maui)

Hi Dave - GREAT! blog again! You truly have a handle on all this!

CONSERVATION is most important to begin with! Only when our homes and businesses are conserving energy will pv make sense. There is no cents in throwing good money after bad!!! Don't forget to get me an invite to that Rose Bowl party -- I'm not from either state so I will volunteer to be moderator or referee...whichever is needed!

Dennis - what is the trick to keeping the beer frig full? Mine always seems to get emptied!!!

04/20/2008 10:10 PM

by Mary Bigelow, Renewing Your Life! (GreenLife Homes/ Contractor's Building Supply)

Hi Dave~

OK...for a second I was confused here...when you said..."Tossing the old reefer into the recylcing pile and buying a new one ..." =) ......I thought maybe you really were going to toss it....but surely you mean DONATE that refrigerator
Donations are EASY! Donate Online TODAY!

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04/22/2008 07:28 AM

by Asheville's GREEN Land & Homes ECO-Steward Realty

janeAnne, I'm a lot like Popeye. I said what I meant and I meant what I said. Here's the green dilemma.

Imagine that the old reefer is like a hole in your roof. Bad things happen when the hole stays unrepaired. Rain can get in and ruin the carpets and subfloor, and your regular heating bill literally goes through the roof as long as the roof stays open. When you buy a new refrigerator, it's the equivalent of putting on a new roof. You stop both the rain problem and the energy loss. Utilities will thank you, and so will the people who will inherit the house eventually.

Now, your well meaning neighbor asks what you are going to do with your old "hole in the roof" that the roofers cut out when they installed the new roof section. You can either say, "dispose of it properly" by which I mean toss it out into the recycling pile. Alternatively, you can say, "You know that new family with sixteen kids that just moved in across the street? They don't have enough problems making ends meet so I'm going to give them my old "hole in the roof" to wreck THEIR house and STICK THEM with a high energy bill. And I get a tax write off to boot." Hopefully, your kindly neighbor might suggest that instead of handing off your problem to someone else you do the right thing and make sure nobody inherits your mess.

Donating is a great thing for clothes, bicycles, pots and pans, games, exercise equipment, and other items that are part of our collective "stuff". Where I think we go wrong is when we preserve items that are proven energy wasters and polluters. Those items need to be retired permanently.

On behalf of Planet Earth, I thank you for the opportunity to clarify my position...and I still want to talk to you about solar attic fan promotions.

04/22/2008 08:16 AM

by Dave Roberts (Healdsburg Sotheby's International Realty)

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