Quote:
Originally Posted by Angel And The Wolf
Unless it's been changed, your electricity billing company must pay for your excess conditioned power that you feed back into the grid, at the same rate at which they purchase the KWs to send to you. That is how you can get a zero or better electric bill. Usually, given a system with sufficient excess KW, the payback/break even period can be as short as 6 years. That's when solar becomes free. https://news.energysage.com/understa...ayback-period/ |
6 years is optimistic. Unless one is willing to DIY the whole thing, 8-10 is more realistic if subsidies from one's state are close to the federal credit.
E.g., power is pretty inexpensive here in Eugene, Oregon at about $0.10, so I'm looking at a payback of close to 8-9 years on my original professionally installed system after 60% combined tax credits given what production I have seen so far. Living where it is 20 cents would obviously cut that in half with similar subsidies. (But only a handful of states compare to Oregon's now expired credit.)
The reality is that even if the payback period is 15-20 years, it's still money ahead through lowered bills, and usually as much as the cost of the system installed lumped on top of the value of the property when sold or refinanced.