[alancarp]

- Spend $6-to-10,000 to fix up your roof
- Spend $25,000 on a solar system
- Save $300-ish per month on an electric bill
- Wait for 6-ish months to cash in those tax credits
- Wait 20 years for the break-even point on the expenses (though admittedly with electricity price inflation, it could be sooner... my rates exploded by 1/3rd this Summer)

- Having the last laugh over inflation? Priceless... except you aren’t the one laughing.

[Red Badger]

I am surprised she didn’t advise people to go out and buy an electric car!.......................

[Tell It Right]

My break-even point is 12 years from now, assuming a 3% inflation rate for all the energy sources I now avoid either completely (natural gas) or almost completely (electricity and gasoline). And that includes the cost for everything: solar equipment, other energy improvements I made to the house, and the cost/savings differences in replacing one of our old used ICE cars with an EV (vs another used ICE car like we were about to do for her anyway).

It also includes paying interest on the HELOC loan I got for the house improvements and the car loan for the EV (almost none of this was out-of-pocket). It's also based on the past year's worth of data from having solar since spring of last year, and assuming my calculations for the upgrade done this year are as accurate as last year's were (I predicted 50% to 60% of all power to be free, it was 58.5%, now I'm predicting 85% to 95% including charging the EV, so far it's been 91.4% but we're admittedly early since the solar additions).

But I didn't get any bit of my information from the gubment's bullcrap DOE website. This works only if you're willing to do your own homework and take personal ownership in how much energy you can generate on your own, figure out how to quit wasting energy while at the same time not reduce your lifestyle one bit, while also doing a deep dive in the financial planning for it.

If you think about it, energy use is like financial planning. Dave Ramsey likes to say that if you don't make a plan for where all of your dollars go then you're liable to give away money to people lying to you with their bullcrap advertising. I decided the same for my energy consumption: I didn't like being limited in my energy use by the whims of the Dims, be it by dictate or pricing. It's not just a gasoline vs EV argument or solar vs coal thing -- it's a freedom thing. The Dims already show they try to punish people for doing the very things the Dims pushed people to do. Just like the Dims now punish people for using natural gas even though they're the ones who pushed both residents and power companies to switch from coal to natural gas -- the Dims will do the same with EV owners who switch from ICE cars (they're already making power more expensive), and for power utilities who switch from natural gas powered plants to solar or wind (they're already jacking up costs for solar and wind and also adding regulations to make those more expensive).

This is unless you generate on your own most of the energy your family needs. Because I don't put power onto the grid I'm not subject to their regulations for solar. The "solar buyback" isn't part of my plan because I don't sell power to the grid. Thus I'm not being cheated like solar users in California when PG&E changes the sine wave during peak hours to intentionally make inverters disconnect from the grid (a safety precaution of inverters detecting dirty power) so they don't have to sell as much power to solar owners in Commiefornia. (It's also PG&E's way of justifying to the state how much more "dependable" their bullcrap 3rd world undependable power is than homeowner's solar power and, thus, power consumers should pay more for PG&E's power and PG&E shouldn't have to pay as much to home solar users for "less dependable" power.)

[Bearshouse]

- Wait 20 years for the break-even point on the expenses (though admittedly with electricity price inflation, it could be sooner... my rates exploded by 1/3rd this Summer)

A roofer friend told me the life expectancy on the solar panels being installed isn't even going to be the 20 years without vigorous maintenance. He will not take roofing jobs that have the panels because the labor and risk is just too large. The normal heat and cool cycle will deteriorate the roof around the installation brackets and then people get a leaky roof around the mounts which will cause enough damage before it's noticed to demand new shingles and decking. Then the panels have to be removed without damage and reattached. He says the risk just isn't worth it.

[fremont_steve]

Your numbers are pretty close to what I paid. I also doubled down and got Powerwalls... I live in the land of rolling blackouts!

[oldasrocks]

Not to forget if you use the right credit card you get 2% back.

Like buying 10 items on sale for $100 off so you have $1,000 extra to buy something else.

[cpdiii]

I in a moment of weakness actually let a solar panel salesmen give me his sales pitch. I am 74 years old. I pointed out to him the return on investment verses my limited life span and the continued payments of the solar installation of which my estate must pay. He most cleverly suggested that after my death “that is not my problem.” He really did say that.

I am glad I let him in to give his sales pitch. He was not very good with numbers and returns on investment. He was very good at indignation when I threw him out of my house. Oddly I think he really believed the crap he was saying.

It was a good day!