subject: Investing In Solar Power Pays Off Now And Later [print this page] Time and money always seem to be the most heavily pursued and sought after life factors that we constantly hear of. Regularly you hear others speak of these factors more than anything else. When it comes to solar power, more specifically through solar panels, once again time and money are the most talked about elements. It is common to see residential and commercial properties with solar panels on their rooftops in an effort to generate solar electricity as a supplement or replacement to electrical use altogether. However, before installing solar panels you must consider, you guessed it, time and money.
The initial investment for solar panels may be considered by most to be expensive with high front-end overhead is later offset by keeping the property long enough for it to pay off through long-term cost savings of electricity. In the United States, there are many rebates and tax incentives that you can take advantage of to assist in offsetting the large front end costs for solar panel systems. Most power companies will offer a rebate for solar panel systems along with other federal program incentives. If you are planning to reside in your home for a long period of time a solar panel system will certainly pay for itself typically within 5-8 years.
A positive certainty to your investment in solar panels is that once you purchase a system, your costs are basically fixed. In other words your cost for those panels is set and will not increase as you have already made the full investment by purchasing the solar panels. The cost of electricity will continue to rise and significant increases are common as most consumers already realize. At some point you will end up paying less than non-solar users for the same amount of energy. How long it takes before you are paying less depends on how much your panels cost and how much you would have been paying if you continued to purchase electricity from your power company.
A ball park figure to install solar power to supply your entire home would roughly cost approximately $20,000 or about $10 per watt. If you are not up for this investment just yet, you can also use solar power to reduce costs for smaller household functions as well. For example you could purchase and install a small solar powered system that could power your computer and a couple of other small household appliances for about $800-$1,000.
A solar-thermal water heating system will have an initial investment of about $5,000 but should pay for itself in about a three year period as your monthly water heating costs are reduced by at least 50%. Other solar powered water heating systems can be used for heating pools and hot tubs as well quickly eliminating the small upfront investment costs.
Of course many homeowners also currently use solar lighting around their homes and landscape. Although this is a smaller example of solar power integration for your home, providing free lighting for your yard and garden is a sensible way to conserve energy possibly leading to other green energy uses in the near future.
by: Thomas Metscher
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