Do solar panels pay for themselves? Absolutely!
How long will it take for solar panels to pay for themselves?
That’s a trickier question…
But it is an important one to figure out. While most of us know that a solar power system is a worthwhile investment for the home, many potential buyers justifiably worry about the exact cost and savings. Before they make such a big purchase, they want to know:
- How much do solar panels cost to install?
- How much money will I save each month?
- And how long will it take before I reach the break-even point — and start getting a return on my investment?
This article looks at all the factors that are used to work out the payback period, and how you can calculate this figure for solar panels for your own home.
Continue reading on Solar-Estimate.org
This is a sponsored post from SolarReviews.
Solarman says
The article says: “How much do solar panels cost to install?
How much money will I save each month?
And how long will it take before I reach the break-even point — and start getting a return on my investment?”
The simple ROI calculation has now become more complicated due to the electric utilities being allowed to foist tiered electric rates and TOU with electricity price increases during those “peak demand” times of the day, usually are set by the PUC when solar PV is tailing off during the day. So, the TOU is shifted to the 3PM to 9PM time of the day. The electric utilities are also going to court and pushing a change from net metering to net billing. This move decreases the ‘credit’ on electricity the solar PV system gets for every kWh that is pushed back onto the grid. When peak demand times are active, your power credit is less and the electric utility’s peak rates are more, reducing the ‘worth’ of the excess power your system generates during the daylight hours.
Still the simple ROI is a moving target. When the utility raises rates per kWh for something like construction of a new generation plant or the to capture “stranded costs” to decommission an old power plant, the rates go up. When rates increase your ROI gets smaller. At least for now, electricity rates are not going down, only up. The other thing not taken into account is the actual solar PV system over the years. If one does their due diligence and installs a solar PV system that takes care of most of the home’s energy needs daily, then when appliances like air conditioning units, refrigerators/freezers, washers, hot water heaters and such are replaced by energy star appliances, the solar PV system will be able to (store) more energy for later use or push more energy back onto the grid for a higher electricity credit.