08-24-2013, 06:17 AM
At this point the best bang for your buck is to convert to solar hot water and keep the grid. Since we did that our average elec bill is about $100/month. Crunching the numbers it makes more sense to wait for PV in Puna because we don't get the sun that the Kona side has. Once the price of panels drops a little more it will make more sense to convert to PV later. The problem with grid tie systems is that Helco charges you about $20 to tie to the grid, so even if you produce more power than you use, you're throwing $20 away each month. For now. In some areas the elec companies have raised the minimum grid-tie fee so much that some people pay nearly as much as they did for power before they switched to PV.
The price to convert to solar hot water was about $5500, but the net cost after the rebates and tax credits was about $1700. The ROI on the conversion for an average family is 18-24 months. Your ROI for conversion to PV will be 20-30 years, or longer if Helco jacks up the monthly grid tie fee. Since the panels are rated for about 30 years, your ROI will be occurring at about the same time they due for replacement.
There are a lot of people on PW who have made solar work without grid tie, and fairly inexpensively. They also use a lot less power than the average household.
The price to convert to solar hot water was about $5500, but the net cost after the rebates and tax credits was about $1700. The ROI on the conversion for an average family is 18-24 months. Your ROI for conversion to PV will be 20-30 years, or longer if Helco jacks up the monthly grid tie fee. Since the panels are rated for about 30 years, your ROI will be occurring at about the same time they due for replacement.
There are a lot of people on PW who have made solar work without grid tie, and fairly inexpensively. They also use a lot less power than the average household.