The original post on this topic took a political slant and (understandably) had to be moved. I wanted to repost it here (in Think Green) because I know some folks don't subscribe to NHB. If you have NHB comments, please fire away but do it here:
http://signs101.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=80625
For all others, please see below.
Back in December of 2009, I began studying solar panels to potentially be used on the building we had just purchased. We ultimately decided to proceed and turned them on 1 year ago. Here are links to the posts detailing the project:
http://www.signs101.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60122
http://www.signs101.com/forums/showt...ighlight=SOLAR
http://signs101.com/forums/showthrea...ighlight=solar
I thought I'd post an update to share how we're doing with them.
Since 5/20/2010, we have used a total of 18,595 kWh of electricity. Of that total, we purchased 1,664 kWh from our electric company and our solar panels generated the rest - 16,931 kWh. That means that 91% of the electricity we used over the last year came completely from the sun.
The average cost of electricity in the US is currently 9.62 cents per kWH.
(http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electri...able5_6_a.html) So the savings on my power bill is about $1600.
I also sold 7 SREC's(solar renewable energy credits) that netted another $1600 and I currently have 3 more to sell which are worth $300 - $600 depending on the market value. At minimum, the SREC's will have generated about $2000 of income over the course of the year.
When I initially calculated our ROI, I projected $3,000 in energy savings and $3,000 of income from SREC's for a total of $6,000 per year. As you can see, the actual amount is $3,600. My break even is now looking like it will come in year 3 instead of year 2 as earlier projected.
Due to a feature story about our project, we received a significant amount of free publicity which has raised awareness about our company in general which I feel has also given us a boost in sales. I don't know how to calculate that into the ROI but it certainly helps!
On earlier posts about the project, some pointed out that the cost to replace batteries were not calculated in the ROI. In our case, we chose a "Grid Tie" system which requires no batteries.
You'll note that I've mentioned nothing of the environmental impact of our decision to install this system. That was intentional because I want to show that regardless of your feelings on this subject, sometimes it just makes good economic sense to be "green".
http://signs101.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=80625
For all others, please see below.
Back in December of 2009, I began studying solar panels to potentially be used on the building we had just purchased. We ultimately decided to proceed and turned them on 1 year ago. Here are links to the posts detailing the project:
http://www.signs101.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60122
http://www.signs101.com/forums/showt...ighlight=SOLAR
http://signs101.com/forums/showthrea...ighlight=solar
I thought I'd post an update to share how we're doing with them.
Since 5/20/2010, we have used a total of 18,595 kWh of electricity. Of that total, we purchased 1,664 kWh from our electric company and our solar panels generated the rest - 16,931 kWh. That means that 91% of the electricity we used over the last year came completely from the sun.
The average cost of electricity in the US is currently 9.62 cents per kWH.
(http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electri...able5_6_a.html) So the savings on my power bill is about $1600.
I also sold 7 SREC's(solar renewable energy credits) that netted another $1600 and I currently have 3 more to sell which are worth $300 - $600 depending on the market value. At minimum, the SREC's will have generated about $2000 of income over the course of the year.
When I initially calculated our ROI, I projected $3,000 in energy savings and $3,000 of income from SREC's for a total of $6,000 per year. As you can see, the actual amount is $3,600. My break even is now looking like it will come in year 3 instead of year 2 as earlier projected.
Due to a feature story about our project, we received a significant amount of free publicity which has raised awareness about our company in general which I feel has also given us a boost in sales. I don't know how to calculate that into the ROI but it certainly helps!
On earlier posts about the project, some pointed out that the cost to replace batteries were not calculated in the ROI. In our case, we chose a "Grid Tie" system which requires no batteries.
You'll note that I've mentioned nothing of the environmental impact of our decision to install this system. That was intentional because I want to show that regardless of your feelings on this subject, sometimes it just makes good economic sense to be "green".
