By: Coleen Smith
Submitted: 2009-12-03 00:39:25 | Word Count: 523
I’m going to define the cost in terms of years to break even. You are currently paying the electric company every month, right? So if you pay for solar panels up front, then you’ll stop paying the electric company, or at least significantly reduce your bills. How long until you’ve saved enough on electric bills to match the price you paid for the system? After that, you have free power, except for occasional maintenance of the equipment. Still, there is no one size fits all answer to this question. You’ll need to look at a variety of factors for your specific home and your family’s needs.
How Many Panels Do You Need?
[ advertisement ]
Let’s start with the size of the system. First, collect your electric bills for the last year. They probably fluctuate a lot. Most people find that running the air conditioner in the summer drives up the electric bills.
You could get a system that will supply all your power needs, your average monthly needs, or something less than that. You may be limited by the amount of square footage of roof that would be amenable to holding photovoltaic panels. There are some fixed costs to the any system, so you’ll often get more kilowatts per dollar with a larger system. However, there’s no sense in producing more power than you can use – unless your power company will buy it back from you. The power company usually charges less for the first kilowatt you buy each month than for the last one. This penalizes people who don’t conserve. This means that if you can just reduce your dependence on the power company, you’ll save a lot of money. In most cases, I recommend installing a system that will supply the number of kilowatts you need during the lower use months. You can buy any amount you need over that, and you’ll pay the lower rate. You ll need to take this into consideration later when you re figuring out how much you won t be paying to the power company. You ll be paying much less than you are now, but it won t be zero.
Go online and find a calculator like the one at recsolar.com. It’s best if you can find something similar in your area, since labor costs vary. With this tool, you’ll find your home on a map and draw an area on the roof where solar panels could be installed. You’ll need to tell the tool the approximate pitch of your roof and whether you get a lot of direct sunlight or if there are obstructions. This will help the tool determine how much energy each panel will produce. The tool will then give you an estimated price. The one I used gave me the price for a Premium system, but also offered a Value and a Starter system. You’ll need to see which size you need to cover your lowest month. (Unless you’re looking at a larger system with an eye to selling excess power to the power company.)
