Carlist's Lou Ann Hammond fills up at the plug
Lou Ann Hammond is getting ready to drive the future. Solar panels, a smart meter and - at some point - a plug in car like the Chevy Volt or PHEV Prius. Gritty planning details are in Hammond's post over at Carlist, which is worth reading.
Hammond lives in Placer County, California and gets electricity from Pacific Gas and Electric. All California customers will soon get a smart meter for their house, which communicates with a satellite and bills them based not only on electricity usage but also by when that juice is used. As you can read in the original post, Hammond expects to spend almost $27,000 on energy over the next decade. Sure makes a lot of sense to try and figure out how best to spend that kind of money, and Hammond does a lot of number crunching (but doesn't get to obvious answers) on whether or not to install $35,200 worth of solar panels on the roof. Hopefully this will be a question we can all reasonably ask ourselves in the not-too-distant future.
[Source: Carlist / Lou Ann Hammond]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
why not the LS2/LS7? 2:51AM (10/30/2007)
The math is just totally messed up in that article. $8.80 per KW system? So if I put in a 6KW system (as they say is common), I get $53?
This just doesn't make sense.
All in all, I do see It would only cost me like $8K for a system to cover my electric bill (I only pay about $35/month). Maybe I should do this.
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susan.kraemer 2:26PM (10/30/2007)
Wow, thats a tiny bill. Better way to estimate your cost/benefit ratio is by kwhs used per month. How many KWH per month do you use?
What state are you in? What is your states inflation-rate in electricity?
California's was 6.5% yr but PG&E warns it will be much higher than that because global warming will reduce our hydroelectric potential by 50% (because less snowmelt) and will slow nuclear (and coalplants for other states)in summer (droughts mean water shut-offs for steamdriven electrical plants during droughts) so when you estimate future electricity costs, it is wise to compare using a electricity-cost inflation rate higher than your state's past elecricity cost inflation rate.
This solar estimator is more accurate than the findsolar one. http://sunpowercorp.cleanpowerestimator.com/default.aspx
I currently pay $100 a month, and if I put in a generous 5K system, 3K for our house and 2K for the EV later, I would pay about $100 a month with a solar loan at 1%(Some cities are financing solar with low or 0% loans to reduce global warming.) for $8 Watts from Solar City.
Berkeley is offering a similar idea, but whereby the monthly payments roll over to the new owner if you sell before the 25 years are up:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/26/MNAIT0DQO.DTL
(or at 7% interest my $15000 solar loan would cost about $115 a month)
Solar:
My $100 a month stable cost for the 25 year loan period. (Then free)
versus
PG&E:
A gradual rise from $100 a month now to $450 a month (assuming merely 6.5% inflation)in 25 years, or add in the global warming-caused additional increases in my electricity costs could be $600-$800 a month by 2025.
Up to $100 a month.
versus
Up to $800 a month.
Solar is energy security.
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bioburner 7:52PM (10/30/2007)
I'm thinking the going price for solar is $8.80 per installed DC watt. Thus a 6 kw system would cost about $54,000. A hand full of states will rebate half of the upfront costs, so if you live in a "solar power friendly" state the 6kw system will cost you about $25,000.
The attached article does raise some good points. More electric companies are offering or switching to time of day billing which will jack up the price of electricity during the day light hours which will make the solar option more competive.
And as I've suspected the article points out that only 73% of the country's light vehicles will be able to charge their batteries with off peak power with out building more power plants under scores the importance of getting solar power moving in this country.
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