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An Experience with Solar Power

About15 years ago when solar power for individual homes first came on the market, I did a study for my own home and concluded that the economics just did not justify the  cost of the installation. However, earlier this year with subsidies from the federal , state, and local town government as well as the lower cost  of solar panels, I concluded  that time has finally come to install solar power for our own home.  We decided to go ahead with the project. It took one whole month of July for the  construction and the installation  was completed and started to operate on August  6^th 2014. The total cost of the project was about$17000.00. The electricity bill for the  month of July was $188.00,  a typical monthly  cost for our home before solar power (we cook and heat hot water with electricity which accounts for the monthly cost) . For the months of August and September, our  electricity cost averaged US$20.00 per monthh – a saving of some  $170.00 per month.    This means I should be able to save about $2000.00 per year and recover the cost  in  about 7 years. This of course does not include the residue value of the panels  which is  an investment in the home and expected to last more than 7 years as well as the tax deduction I can claim on my 2014 tax return.  In the mean time, we should also feel the satisfaction of contributing to the greening  of the environment. All in all, a good investment in my opinion. Next year I should have more accurate saving figures to report.

Note added 10/18/2014. You need to demonstrate that you get at least 70%% of the available sunshine in order to qualify for the federal and state subsidies. Thus not all house can get such subsideis.

Note added 8/26/2015. Now that I have the solar installation operating for a full year, the total saving turn out to be US dollar1072/year (we use electricity for cooking,  drying clothes, and air conditioning. During the winter months the solar panels were often covered with snow). For an investment of 17,000 dollars. This is 6% solid return!  Not bad for the current investment climate.

Note added 2/24/2016. It turns out that for the 16 months since installation from 8/2014 to 12/2015, I received another check of $1140.00 for selling back to the utility company electricity generated by my solar panel that I cannot use. This together with direct saving noted above definitely makes payback in seven years possible as promised.