Solar Beats the Bank

Daox · 09-09-10, 07:54 AM

I found this and had to share. Apparently investing in solar power pays back much better than putting your money in the bank at 4% interest (which does seem low). You NJ people better jump all over this.

Solar Beats the Bank | Buy Solar Panels for Your Home – 1BOG Group Solar Power Discounts

RobertSmalls · 09-09-10, 09:14 AM

1. The uniformed plug-footed giants marching in unison are a bit intimidating.
2. They are claiming an annual rate of return (ARR) of 3.53% for the savings account (they blatantly cheated!), 5.15% for SF, 7.99% for LI, and 8.87% for NJ.
3. Will a balanced portfolio of stocks, bonds, and savings outperform the above ARR's? I don't know, but 8% is not bad in current economic times.
4. Parents of a newborn infant do not tend to have $20k lying around to invest in a lump.
5. I conserve electricity. How will this affect what I save by going solar?

Don't take financial advice from an infographic. Do the math yourself. It looks like a solar system is a bad investment in the absence of market externalities, but incentives can push it into "good" territory, provided you don't sell the house. I doubt it would add anywhere near the installation price to the value of the house.

Daox · 09-09-10, 09:33 AM

All very good points. There is a lot of missing (and apparently bad) info in the graphic. I agree 8% is a good number. At 8% you'd be at ~$86k after 20 years. So, it does go to show solar can be a viable investment under the right circumstances. Those circumstances would definitely need to be evaluated before plunking down the cash for a PV system. Actually a solar hot water setup is a much better investment as the ROI is much quicker.

trikkonceptz · 09-10-10, 09:21 AM

The only flaw I see in this logic is that aside from investing in your home, you would have to have the discipline to put the savings away yourself, and therein lies the problem.

We are not taught to save and would therefore construe the savings as extra cash to spend on the BS we accumulate. Now if there was a program that once you went solar the energy savings based on previous non solar year costs would go into the bank, then yes this would work out great.

Otherwise, very few of us would ever see that money in any amount worth writing home about. It's a shame.

benpope · 09-10-10, 12:48 PM

Even if you didn't save it, you would presumably get the benefit of being able to spend the money on something other than electricity.

Xringer · 09-10-10, 10:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trikkonceptz

We are not taught to save

Just curious, how did that happen?

The only way I can see PV being a good investment, is one of three things:

1. The price of installing a few KW of PV on your roof drops by a factor of 10.

2. You are living off-the-grid, because the power company wants $96,000
to run power lines to your home in the boondocks..

3. Cap-n-Tax passes, CO2 is outlawed & etc. / government bureaucracy
increases the cost of a kWh to 96 cents.

st2288 · 10-07-10, 08:45 AM

I was one of the lucky ones to take advantage of the LIPA (Long island power authority) last year solar program. They offered $3.50 watt rebate. After all the rebates (fed and state). I paid less than $1.00 a watt INSTALLED!!.
This year LIPA offered $1.75 a watt and it went out of money for the program a few times already.
So far I banked over 900kw since April. I should recoup all my initial cost in 4 years or less. I didn't figure it the cost of heating since I will using split air heat pump. It will be a lot faster when I figure out after this heating season.
After 4 year, I will be making money on this (min $150.00 a month providing the elect. rate stay the same $.21 KWH) not counting the heating cost ($3.00 a gallon of heating oil).
The bottom, at least for me, it is better than any investment out there. Plus I eliminated over 13,000 lbs of carbon in 7 months.

strider3700 · 10-07-10, 11:18 AM

at $1/watt installed I'd be on the phone screaming to get it done right now. There are almost no incentives up here though so installed price is much closer to 10 times that the last time I checked.

Daox · 10-07-10, 06:39 PM

Agreed! $1/watt is crazy cheap.

09-09-10, 07:54 AM	#1
Daox Administrator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Germantown, WI Posts: 5,525 Thanks: 1,162 Thanked 374 Times in 305 Posts	Solar Beats the Bank I found this and had to share. Apparently investing in solar power pays back much better than putting your money in the bank at 4% interest (which does seem low). You NJ people better jump all over this. Solar Beats the Bank \| Buy Solar Panels for Your Home – 1BOG Group Solar Power Discounts __________________ Current project - To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. & To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

09-09-10, 09:33 AM	#3
Daox Administrator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Germantown, WI Posts: 5,525 Thanks: 1,162 Thanked 374 Times in 305 Posts	All very good points. There is a lot of missing (and apparently bad) info in the graphic. I agree 8% is a good number. At 8% you'd be at ~$86k after 20 years. So, it does go to show solar can be a viable investment under the right circumstances. Those circumstances would definitely need to be evaluated before plunking down the cash for a PV system. Actually a solar hot water setup is a much better investment as the ROI is much quicker. __________________ Current project - To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. & To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

10-07-10, 06:39 PM	#9
Daox Administrator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Germantown, WI Posts: 5,525 Thanks: 1,162 Thanked 374 Times in 305 Posts	Agreed! $1/watt is crazy cheap. __________________ Current project - To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. & To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

09-09-10, 09:14 AM	#2
RobertSmalls Journeyman EcoRenovator Join Date: May 2009 Location: Buffalo, NY Posts: 344 Thanks: 3 Thanked 17 Times in 15 Posts	1. The uniformed plug-footed giants marching in unison are a bit intimidating. 2. They are claiming an annual rate of return (ARR) of 3.53% for the savings account (they blatantly cheated!), 5.15% for SF, 7.99% for LI, and 8.87% for NJ. 3. Will a balanced portfolio of stocks, bonds, and savings outperform the above ARR's? I don't know, but 8% is not bad in current economic times. 4. Parents of a newborn infant do not tend to have $20k lying around to invest in a lump. 5. I conserve electricity. How will this affect what I save by going solar? Don't take financial advice from an infographic. Do the math yourself. It looks like a solar system is a bad investment in the absence of market externalities, but incentives can push it into "good" territory, provided you don't sell the house. I doubt it would add anywhere near the installation price to the value of the house.

09-10-10, 09:21 AM	#4
trikkonceptz Helper EcoRenovator Join Date: Jul 2010 Posts: 44 Thanks: 3 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	The only flaw I see in this logic is that aside from investing in your home, you would have to have the discipline to put the savings away yourself, and therein lies the problem. We are not taught to save and would therefore construe the savings as extra cash to spend on the BS we accumulate. Now if there was a program that once you went solar the energy savings based on previous non solar year costs would go into the bank, then yes this would work out great. Otherwise, very few of us would ever see that money in any amount worth writing home about. It's a shame.

09-10-10, 12:48 PM	#5
benpope Helper EcoRenovator Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Little Rock, AR Posts: 95 Thanks: 16 Thanked 13 Times in 12 Posts	Even if you didn't save it, you would presumably get the benefit of being able to spend the money on something other than electricity.

10-07-10, 08:45 AM	#7
st2288 Helper EcoRenovator Join Date: Sep 2010 Posts: 66 Thanks: 6 Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts	I was one of the lucky ones to take advantage of the LIPA (Long island power authority) last year solar program. They offered $3.50 watt rebate. After all the rebates (fed and state). I paid less than $1.00 a watt INSTALLED!!. This year LIPA offered $1.75 a watt and it went out of money for the program a few times already. So far I banked over 900kw since April. I should recoup all my initial cost in 4 years or less. I didn't figure it the cost of heating since I will using split air heat pump. It will be a lot faster when I figure out after this heating season. After 4 year, I will be making money on this (min $150.00 a month providing the elect. rate stay the same $.21 KWH) not counting the heating cost ($3.00 a gallon of heating oil). The bottom, at least for me, it is better than any investment out there. Plus I eliminated over 13,000 lbs of carbon in 7 months.

10-07-10, 11:18 AM	#8
strider3700 Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Vancouver Island BC Posts: 745 Thanks: 23 Thanked 37 Times in 30 Posts	at $1/watt installed I'd be on the phone screaming to get it done right now. There are almost no incentives up here though so installed price is much closer to 10 times that the last time I checked.