12-01-2006, 04:14 AM
Okay, a "real life" payback calculation:
We were paying $125 to $150 per month for our electric bills in year 2000 when we were on the grid. We moved to this house and put in $4,600 worth of solar equipment. We've been living here five years so we would have spent (using the lower electric bill number) $7,500 in electric bills at the old house by now. So our solar system paid for itself in just over three years.
Sometime next year we will probably get a couple more panels so there will be another investment to pay off because we started with a very small system. But the "pay as you go" and "build it as you can afford it" seems to work for us.
We were paying $125 to $150 per month for our electric bills in year 2000 when we were on the grid. We moved to this house and put in $4,600 worth of solar equipment. We've been living here five years so we would have spent (using the lower electric bill number) $7,500 in electric bills at the old house by now. So our solar system paid for itself in just over three years.
Sometime next year we will probably get a couple more panels so there will be another investment to pay off because we started with a very small system. But the "pay as you go" and "build it as you can afford it" seems to work for us.
Kurt Wilson