Posted on 07/03/2022 3:47:24 AM PDT by AbolishCSEU
What is the payback for all the solar panels, inverters, batteries, imspections, et al?
catnipman wrote: “should NG ever fail, it’s back to cave living and wood heating for the tiny handful of survivors, and the shakeout will occur in a matter of weeks ...”
We weren’t looking for a SHTF plan that would provide power for months, just something to get us through a few days without power. Since we already had NG...
catnipman wrote: “i went with NG as well for whole house backup, but derating at my altitude of a mile plus derating from gasoline to NG gives my rig about 15 Kw ...”
That’s a very nice setup you have there. We don’t have to worry about cold weather like you do so a fixed mount outside installation worked well for us.
I surmise this is due to having signed up lots of customers to long term fixed rates before Covid-19, only to see electric rates rise around 40% since then. Since Covid, the monthly visits to the hood have ceased.
Payback/ ROI is determined a couple ways.
The easiest is this: how many years does it take, after going solar, that I have spent less, cumulatively, on electricity versus not going solar? You have to make an assumption about rising energy costs (we used 5%) and you should roll in NPV Checks as well.
Blah, blah blah.
Doing all the math, we will have spent less money by going solar, with battery backup, after about 8 years. FYI, the original figure was 12 years but energy has gone up faster than 5% per year, and money isn’t making money right now, so the payoff is now 8 vs 12 years.
In the meantime we have reliable power, and predictable nearly flat rate costs for electricity. AND we can run the AC as much as we want to on hot GA summer days.
We feel it’s better money spent than upgrading the heat pumps for instance, which are essentially a sunk cost if we did it.
We’re happy with our investment.
I am 61 and hubby is 54. A couple years ago it was 80K here in upstate NY to get a solar system w/o net metering. I run ALOT of computer equipment being in IT.
6 TB NAS, several switches, access points, obihai box, modem, router, two heat pumps, standby generator, security system w/cams, chamberlain garage door opener, 3 UPSes, roku, tablo with external HDD and several workstations.
There is NO way we would get a decent ROI on any solar system given our ages and devices.
Not practical for everyone.
Agreed. Virginia latitudes and South essentially.
You’d need 60+ panels.
No way it’d work for you.
PS, we are in Ga.
I forgot the well pump and sump pump. We live near a swamp
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