Interesting. Either your electric rates in NH are higher than ours in northern MN, you use more electricity, your installation cost are lower, or a combination thereof. Our rates are currently $.094/per kWh plus 12% added for sales tax/franchise fee, etc. Our electric bills totaled ~$1,900 over the past 12 months (house is 3,400 ft2 built in 2005). To breakeven in 7 years at 110% net metering, assuming 4% annual rate increases (rates double in 18 years), the system would have to cost $15,006 [1,900(1+.04)^7 x 110% X 7 years).
Your point regarding rising rates is well taken. The longer the system is installed, the better you will be. Since we haven’t lived in any house longer than 5 years, we’re not candidates for a long-term home investment. And, we live in one of the top 5 coldest cities in the lower 48, so our location is not ideal. I hope your install goes well!
Yes they are. We’re at $0.14/kwh. I also might use more electricity. My house is over 3,000 sq/ft. Cooling that in the summer months can be expensive.
Projected electric rates by 2030 is $0.25. Projected rates by 2040 is $.040. And those estimates are pretty conservative. Some experts are predicting as high as $0.60 by 2040.
Got it. OK, I see where you’re coming from. That’s ~50% higher than what we pay per kWh and, presumably, you use more electricity due to your warmer summers and warmer winters (similar size homes, LEDs throughout, no Bitcoin mining ). If rates are $0.14 (and you assume they will be $0.25 by 2030, with a 7-year breakeven point, that justifies an install cost of over $25K. Yeah, very different economics between our two locations.
I think a lot of other places with lower electric rates can justify too. Especially in the south-west where they get a significantly more amount of sun then we do.
I live in Southern CA and do visit FL often. Here in CA you would think Tesla is giving their cars esp the model Y and Model 3 away for free. Every 5th car is a Tesla. On a weekend in FL, I will probably only see 3-4 Teslas. And this is an affluent (Boca) area for the most part. I do not think it is politics as it is the gas price, $5 per gallon in CA vs $3 in FL.
I looked into EVs but since it would put us in the highest tier (37 cents) it is very close to buying a Hybrid,. I maintain the cars myself so the savings there is not much and the hybrid would probably last longer or have better resale.
On solar, here in CA they are changing the way you get reimbursed and it is making it less profitable. Friend put solar in and right of the bat his home owners insurance went up. Another one put solar up 10 yrs ago but the company is not around any more and the system is not working and nobody can fix it. So, he has to put in a new one.
THe latest figures I can find from the US government show that in the US as a whole; hydropower produces 3.4% of our electricity, coal 13 %, fossil fuels account for 60% and nuclear 18%. If we need to generate moreelectricity in the near future to power electric vehicles, it is going to have to come from fossil fuels because it is the only thing we can ramp up easily. TheWonderful90s is closer to correct on this matter. How does that make you feel?
Thank goodness! My bill dropped in half when the rates came back down. In a recent discussion on this I mentioned we suffered for almost a year at $0.26/kWh. See what happens at the next rate setting…
The numbers make me feel worried, as I stated in another thread here. We are constantly being asked to replace gasoline and natural gas with electricity, with no thought or planning as to where that electricity is supposed to come from. Also a little pi**ed off. My wife and I are thinking about where we will live in our older years, and apparently it will have to be in a different state. There’s legislation afoot here that will ban gas stoves and furnaces in new housing. No gas is a deal breaker for me.
As for what Wonderful90’s said, if I recall correctly he stated that ALL electricity comes from coal, which is absurd no matter where you live. I posed that 2/3 of electricity comes from hydro, which it in fact does where I live. But in a greater sense, I still think mining and burning coal is a bad idea. Why we haven’t been building nuclear power plants left and right is beyond me.
We have the same idiotic no gas hookups in new homes proposal here in NY state… Since 60% of our electricity comes from fossil fuels and natural gas is the cleanest of these, it makes no sense to burn natural gas to produce electricity and suffer conversion losses to heat our homes and do our cooking. I have an electric stove now, for the first time in my life and I hate the stupid thing.
Washington State’s unique geography is well suited for renewable energy sources with high desert plains in the east for solar and mountainous rain forest for hydro as you descend through the Cascades going west.
Conversion losses from what? If you’re talking about switching from burning fossil fuels to electric heating, electric heat is 100% efficient at converting energy to heat. It makes whole house humidification more difficult but from an efficiency standpoint, there’s no comparison to fuel fired furnaces- even the most efficient available today.
Unfortunately, it does make sense from an ecological standpoint. It is far more efficient to clean a couple very large exhaust stacks than to have a million separate little burners going with no provisions for exhaust gases being emitted by them.
Yes. It has growing popularity in Florida. Clearly we get LOTS of sun LOTS of days! The local power companies are installing panels in large fields as fast as they can. One local development, Babcock Ranch was nationally recognized for their use of solar and battery systems.
Our electric rates are also $0.145 per kW-hr and we use A/C 11 months of the year. The rates have only recently jumped 3 cents per kW-hr because of the hurricane damage. It likely will not drop much once past the repairs. Using similar calculations as @Rainflurry, it was not quite a financial advantage at $0.105 per kW-hr 7 years ago. It likely is now… but…
Insurance companies in Florida have taken a beating and there are more than a few that refuse top insure the solar panels even though I have yet to see a solar system damaged from the 150 mph winds we endured from hurricane Ian. It is a knee-jerk reaction not based on the real performance of the panels. I think it will fade over time.
I still want to install a solar system. I have more than enough roof area to reach 100% net metering.
Interestingly, the solar panel conversion efficiency goes down pretty significantly as the temperature of the panel increases. Some of the best days around here are in the fall when the temps start to drop but the sun angle is still high (relatively )
Come over to Naples on the west coast. There are tons of EVs… Tesla, Lucid, Rivian, Mach Es. The numbers reduce a bit as you go north to Bonita Springs or Fort Myers but there are still quite a few. I see at least 10 EVs on any short trip around Fort Myers.
This would tend to transcend politics, as you pointed out. The east coast (Boca) is more blue and the west coast more red.
This article explains the concept of Community Solar, which doesn’t involve the installation of solar panels on one’s roof. The company in which I enrolled is not the one mentioned in the article, as there are apparently a number of these enterprises. I am guaranteed a saving of 21% on the billing from my electric utility.
). If rates are $0.14 (and you assume they will be $0.25 by 2030, with a 7-year breakeven point, that justifies an install cost of over $25K. Yeah, very different economics between our two locations.
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