We’re enduring a heat wave this week in the Washington, D.C. area, and it’s not even summer. All the sunshine and heat has me thinking about solar power: It makes a ton of sense, but is it economical? Can I afford it? Turns out that solar hot water is the place to start.
Yes, a solar hot water heating system is the most affordable option. It costs a lot less than the solar photovoltaic panels that produce electricity. There’s a great Web site, co-sponsored by the Department of Energy, called findsolar.com. It’s got a calculator that estimates the cost of a solar system for your home in your geographic location.
The calculator says I could get solar hot water installed in my townhouse for only $2,000 (after $2,000 in state and federal rebates). It would heat 80 gallons per day and I’d recoup the costs in about 6 years — or less than 1 year if you take into account how much it boosts my home value. At $2,000, that’s less than half of what we paid to get new windows (another energy efficiency home improvement) a few years ago.
Solar hot water’s not so exotic, either. Israel has required all new homes to have it since the 1970s, and now Spain does, too. China apparently has 30 million homes with solar hot water, according to Wikipedia. Maybe it’s time we caught up.
So solar hot water is in the realm of affordability. Solar panels to produce electricity, however, are much more expensive. For my home it would be $40,000 to put up panels that would produce half of the electricity that we use, and that’s with $5,000 worth of state and federal rebates. We wouldn’t recoup that cost for 20-28 years. Or we could get panels to produce 25 percent of our electricity; that would only run us about $20,000. That’s a big investment.
There is another financing option, however, called an energy efficient mortgage. If you haven’t been burned by the sub-prime mortgage debacle in recent years, you might inquire about these “green mortgages.” The Federal Citizen Information Center has info about energy efficient mortgages on its Web site. It seems you can finance at least part of the cost of an energy-related home improvement, such as installing solar panels, but I don’t know all the ins and outs of how it works or how much financing you can get. MSNBC highlighted green mortgages in an article back in April (”How to cultivate a ‘green mortgage’“).
You can get an energy efficient mortgage if you are buying a home or remodeling and refinancing a home. There is help out there. See also the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency for a listing of state, local, utility, and federal incentives that promote renewable energy and energy efficiency in your area.
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A Novel Solution in Berkeley
The city of Berkeley, California has an innovative new program to help residents go solar. They’ll loan residents the money to install solar electric and water heating, and residents will then pay it back via annual amounts on their property tax bill over 20 years. E Magazine featured a news brief about the program in its May/June issue. The story quotes Dan Kammen, who leads the University of California, Berkeley’s Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, as saying that instead of paying for 20 years of energy up front, homeowners pay in installments. It makes sense. After all, he says, “How many of us would have a cell phone if we had to buy 20 years of minutes up front?”
Solar power is the future.
Solar power really helps save energy…
I would hope that all mortgage lenders and brokers take a look because solar is the the way of the future.
Without doubt alternative energy homes is the only way forward. Not only because of the rising cost of energy but also because future of our country are currently in the hands of the others which have us “over a barrel” if you can excuse the pun.
Solar panels have been around for long enough now to take a reasonable stab at the cost savings available. AAs the cost of energy continues to increase alterantive energy sources become a more and more cost effective and the timescales for return on investment get shorter.
I am going through the process of designing my own home right now and alternative energy is high on my agenda. I want a decent size house so I know how crucial keeping the running costs down is going to be. Six years ago I used to own a 550 year old period cottage, boy am I glad I sold it because with todays energy prices I could not afford to live in it.
Great article thanks
Terry
olar hot water heating system is the most affordable option. It costs a lot less than the solar photovoltaic panels that produce electricity.
In the average home 80–90% of the energy used to heat water goes down the drain. A water based heat exchanger can capture a lot of the heat in drain-water and put it to use pre-heating the water going in to your hot water supply . One type, called a “gravity film exchange drain-water heat recovery system†has been found to save 25–30 percent of total water-heating energy. This technology is compatible with all types of water heating systems, but it is especially suitable with on-demand water heaters and solar thermal systems. Prices range from $300–400 and paybacks are in the range of 2.5 to 7 years, depending on how often it is used. For more information on this technology
Solar power is the future. Greetings from Poland.
Using solar energy may be great for some where sunny but here in the UK we dont see much sun.
An easy way to reduce your heating bill is to replace your heating controller. A intelligent system can monitor areas of your property, the outside tempreture and will control your heating more efficently.
An example of one can be found on http://www.heatingsave.co.uk
John
New materials in PV systems are coming out of the labs nearly every day, and these technological breakthroughs are showing exponential improvements in solar capturing efficiency. These innovations, plus the conscientious effort to move towards hybrid solutions that combine passive and active systems are truly defining and validating solar as a viable, renewable energy source. Tom, thanks for your attention to this topic and to this timely article.