What is a good ROI?
 

I know this will probably vary quite a bit, but I wonder what most people think is a worth while ROI (return on investment or the time it takes for something to pay for itself) for a home improvement? I'm talking anything here from lightbulbs to entire remodeling projects.

IMO, pretty much anything under 5 years is definitly worth doing. If it is a very green improvement I'd be willing to go even longer. As you can see if you read the ER Blog there are at least a few things that have drastically low ROIs (more to come BTW).

So, what is a good ROI to you?

For me the ROI depends a lot of the initial cost.

For CFL I don't care about ROI as I can afford several CFL per month. I think this is my duty and this should be mandatory.

The price for our PV panels is nearly the one of a new car (10% less than a prius) and without the tax credit and the high sale price the ROI would have been 50 years... In these conditions we wouldn't have done it because it would have blocked our other projects during too much time.
The current ROI is 10 years with the first third in 1.5 years. In these conditions this project blocks our other projects by a couple of years.

If your motivation is saving money then I think 5-10 years is OK. If your motivation is ecology then 20 years can be OK. In all cases, the project mustn't block your other projects.

It will also depend on that fact you own your house or not. You can keep your CFL when you move into another house. You will have to let your PV panels when you'll sell your house, but your house will have a more value :)

Denis.

"If your motivation is saving money then I think 5-10 years is OK. If your motivation is ecology then 20 years can be OK. In all cases, the project mustn't block your other projects."

I agree with this statement 100%

Everything I've done so far has been About 1 year payback. Definitely willing to go longer; but low hanging fruit is the place to start. And this way when the savings come in we can use that $ for more ambitious mods.

For me, it's one year or less unless it's a major home improvement like a 30%+ renovation or the purchase of a vehicle. Then it's similar to yours, 5 years.

I remember when we changed all carbon filament bulbs with incandescents, hooked all electronics to a kill switch and set both computers to hibernate. The ROI, including the cost of the computers was around 6 months. That was when Katrina hit N.O. and we've only had to replace two bulbs since then, total.

I think the skirting on this mobile home and the cool seal on the roof will be around a 1 year ROI. This is of course, taking elevated prices of electricity into account. If electricity cost what it did before Katrina hit, it would be much longer.

I use a simple 5 year payback calculation. If the ecomod saves me $10 per month, it can't cost more than $600 dollars. However, I discount the cost of the renovation if it has a cosmetic component I was going to do anyway. For example, I spent $13000 a couple of years ago upgrading the siding and windows on my house. The added insulation and choice of high efficiency windows increased the cost by $6000. I aslo recieved an eco energy rebate from teh gov't for $4500. So the ecomod cost I accounted for was just $1500 - payback time was about 2 years.