It may not have happened to you yet, but in our last heat wave, when we received our first shocker of an electricity bill, the first thing that came to mind was… THIS MADNESS MUST STOP!!!
Here are the reasons why we’ve decided to have solar panels installed on our home:
Facts:
Utility customers will be paying more in the coming years, mainly because as people realize how much they can save and go green by buying solar, the current customer base shrinks. So in turn, they raise their rates for the conventional user who still relies on them to feed them electricity each month.
The truth is, not everyone can eliminate their electricity bill and some people don’t have a high enough bill to justify the expense. Also, common area homeowners or people that live in condominiums and renters are stuck with conventional electricity either way, but then, someone has to pay for the price hikes to support the utility companies, and that’s yet another problem that doesn't need explanation.
So, here’s the kicker and why it makes sense for homeowners that have utility bills that are too high. If you save the cost of your electricity bill by going solar,
it also frees up funds you can invest. So, for us, I looked at it as an automatic “return” on my investment.
Here’s what I got:
Once our solar panels are up and running we hope to get our energy bill close to zero, so our “savings” each month (for example is $350) times 12 (months) for an annual return, (is $4200) then dividing that amount by the cost of getting solar installed, gave us a 15% return. That doesn't even consider investing the savings each month in something else now, instead of energy.
The cherry on the top is that compared to the less than 1% interest we were earning on our money having it in a savings account, we just got a 14% annual increase of earnings on our money. And that’s not just this year, that’s every year for as long as we own our home. We went with a company that is giving us a 25 year warranty on the panels, too.
Never mind that the government gives you an incentive in the form of a 30% tax credit of the cost until 2016. If I took that into account though, the overall returns are even higher.
In summary, now you know why going solar is a no-brainer for homeowners. Still, think you can't afford solar? Try winning it then.
If you are a legal resident living in New York, California, Arizona, Colorado or Hawaii, you can enter this SunPower's Sweepstakes today. You have until December 19th.
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