Solar Panels
We’ve had solar panels on our roof for about 6 months now, and they’ve been operating for about 3 months. I’ve had quite a few questions about them and will attempt to answer some of these questions here.
The most common question has been “How are they working out?” I assume people are wondering whether we are recouping the money we spent on them. Well… since we are leasing the panels for 15 years we pay about $40 per month with no upfront cost. Our February bill was the first full bill with the panels turned on. I did the math and we would have spent $21 dollars more on our power bill without the panels. So we spent $19 to help save the environment. Our March bill would have been $27 more so we spent $13. At this rate we will at least break even. With the electricity price increasing in May and the day length increasing as well we may even make a little money.
One of the benefits of the lease is that the monitoring is provided free of charge (I’d have to pay for monitoring if I purchased the panels outright). Monitoring the panels refers to the inverter sending production information to Solar City. They in turn publish my production information on a website that they monitor in case the panels start to fail, and allows me to see how much electricity has been produced on my roof. Anyone can see this website: Link.
It seems that many people are skeptical of it being a wise financial investment to put solar panels on their roof. Rumors and heresay permeate the atmosphere when it comes to new technology. I can’t say for sure, I haven’t had them for an entire year, but even if all we do is break even, we’re helping the environment with no out of pocket expense. We are also hedging our power bill against further rate increases from SRP; rate increases that have become an annual occurance lately.
