Buy home solar now or wait for better tech/cheaper/better tax treatment?
Saturday, October 31st, 2009 at
6:21 pm
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Now would be great. You can get a fed. tax credit of 30% of the total installed system cost. In the mean time electric rates are increasing at an average rate of 5% a year. That means in as little as 15 years we could be paying double what we are paying today. There is no need to zero out your bill, even offsetting 1/2 of your usage will save money in the long run.
I have a system that with my rebates and tax credits should pay for itself in the 6th year. I estimate I will save well over $50K over the life of the panels. It is a much better investment than the stock market right now.
My friend here in CO has a lot of answers about tax breaks, etc on his company’s website. They have been doing some great work on major hotels in the state and also do a lot of residential work. Might want to check it out. http://www.altechsolar.com
Go solar now.
The reason people do not use it is because it is expensive. Most solar panels cost in the tens of thousands of dollars. What most people do not know is that there are tax credits that can be earned from using renewable energy sources. These credits can help pay for some of the cost of the solar panels. http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=products.pr_tax_credits
The technology is available. It may seem expensive to people, but it’s worth it. Try to get tax credits for the panels. It’s an easy way to reduce the cost of the panels. Overall, I think it’s worth it.
In addition to tax credits, try building your own solar panels or wind turbines. Building them is always cheaper than buying them, and you can get tax credits for those too, so you end up with an extremely cheap electric bill, and a solar panels that barely cost anything. Another option is to build your own solar panels or wind turbine. It really only takes some initiative. Most people dismiss this option because it seems like only the scientists and engineers can build these seemingly magical sources of energy. A little research reveals that all wind turbines are just spinning magnets with wire around them. The concept is elementary. As for solar panels, purchasing the silicon mixture (the blue metal) and attaching it to the other components is still cheaper than buying one already done, but like I said, it takes some initiative. http://tiny.cc/solarandwind. I think it’s the best way to start, it’s cheap and effective. Then you can move on to wind turbines or solar water heaters.
I already use this technology. I decided to build my own solar panel and was successful. Now it works well, and it helps take some of the electricity cost away. I could not build the wind turbine though. My neighbors were not to happy with a large object obstructing their view. But if it works for you, go for it. As for the solar water heater, that was also successful. It does not heat water during low light hours, but saves me some bucks during a sunny day. I suggest you go for it.
You can chose to wait, but I think the benefits outweigh the costs now.
First of all, if you’re on the edge of needing the money, wait. I assume this is not the case for you.
I’d say get a quote from a professional installer, preferably a few of them, and let them run the numbers for you. They can tell you how much you would ultimately save, if anything, and how long it would take to save it. The finances depend on your location, your energy bill, and local rebates.
Prices of panels have come down about 25% from the same time last year. Even with the dividends of electricity saved, you would ultimately have saved more money by waiting until now instead of installing in 2007. However, I doubt we’ll see the same improvement next year. I forsee a slow erosion in panel prices, unless the U.S. dollar tanks for some reason. As far as tax treatment, I think the federal incentive is pretty good, right now, and given how cash-strapped state governments are, I would not expect state incentives to improve.
A small caution on building your own panels. Both federal and state incentives generally require a grid connection, and that requires passing local building codes. A homemade panel, if you could even make one, would not have the necessary UL certification, and would therefore not be allowed to connect, and would therefore be ineligible for incentives.
Well Photo-Voltaic solar panels isn’t the only way to go solar.
Most of a home’s energy needs are for heating water, residential heating and airconditioning. All of which can be provided for by Solar Thermal panels which is a far more mature and inexpensive technology. You can actually make your own solar thermal panels out of pipes, wood, glass and black paint. People have made such panels with used car radiators.
Once you’ve met your baseline power use, you can met the rest with a much smaller Photo-Voltaic setup in order to have the flexibility of selling unused power to the utilities.
There’s a tenfold price difference between solar thermal and photo-voltaic. I have no idea why so many people are going for pure photo-voltaic panels.
Do it as soon as possible.
No matter whether the technology still improves. I have already built 30 years ago in doityourself solar cells and still I would do it with the same technology again.
If then the technical improvement refers only to the optics point of or the efficiency, but not so much.
I would use at your place many offered doityourself systems, so rather around you solarenergy or also different renewable energy is of use around so rather you save your hard deserving money.
The industry builds too expensive, and the efficiency is not better than with selfbuilt cells.
Visits my web page http://www.just-a-green-life-4u.com
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