Does anyone know why people don’t do this? There is a house that I saw on the news that is so energy efficient that the Solar panels paid for themselves in the first year. Plus on occassion the electric company has to buy the surplus electricity produced back from the home owner.
There was a huge solar movement in Oklahoma a few years ago. One thing they didnt count on was all the hail they get down there.
i wsh, can i do much at 13?
I’ve never heard of a house so energy efficient that it paid for the cost of solar in the first year. Unfortunately from what I’ve seen that is actually available, it takes 15 to 20 years to pay for your solar panels which is about equal to life of solar panels. This means that in the end you actually zero out. With the cost of energy going up these figures are probably a year or so out of date and the gains may be more but not one year. It costs about 15,000 to by solar panels and have them installed. Plus you still have to have backup energy for night and cloudy days. Solar energy is gaining but it still is a few years away from being fully practical for the masses.
Solar energy for homes is great however there’s somet things that have to be taken into account.
If you live in souther california you get enough sun enough days of the year, if you live in some area that you have lots of cloudy days then they don’t do any good.
If the area is prone to hail (Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, etc) then you’re going to have chunks of ice flying at your expensive solar panels breaking them.
People when they’re originally building a home look at the up front cost, this is the reason you see so many people bitching about their heating and cooling bills. If they would have spent maybe 10% more they would have had a much higher level of insulation and would be saving a large amount of money. They’d probably also have more efficient heating, cooling, and electrical systems.
Am i saying it’s a bad idea to put up solar panels, no, if you’re in the right area then go for it, but people want something for nothing and it may look good or be in a good neighborhood but the operation costs are going to be high.