Slashdot Mirror
Switching To Solar Power, One Year Later
ThinSkin writes "Slashdot readers may recall Loyd Case's series of articles illustrating his experiences after switching to solar power for his family home. Loyd shared his one month update, a six month update, and now finally concludes his series after one year of solar power. Despite the $38,000 initial cost for the setup, Loyd is very optimistic after a $3,000 savings in one year, meaning that in about 12 years he will break even — though he suspects ten years is a better estimate considering other factors. Other reasons such as feeling 'green,' increasing the property value of his house, and the 'spousal acceptance factor' all support Loyd's decision on why he'd do it all over again if he had to." The article is spread annoyingly over multiple pages, like everything at the site, and the print version omits the graphs.
While I am impressed at this project, all it proves to me is that solar is a LONG way off from a practical, cost effective implementation. Take a look at how much electricity was generated out of his system each month. He says numbers anywhere from 258 KWh (Dec) up to around 1100 KWh (July).
Last month (May), I used about 2500 KWh in my 2000 sq ft home. Yes, I am sure I can be more energy conscious but as you can see, the solar panels would hardly make a dent in my electricity bill compared to the initial investment cost. And what if it's cloudy like the recent 25 straight days of rain we had in May? Heck, 2500 KWh is not even my worst month. We still have July and August coming up. I can easily hit 3500 KWh during those months.
What that tells me is this: No matter how you slice it, the electric company in my area produces cheap electricity a LOT easier than I can on my rooftop.
The other two things I noticed are: 1) he consumes an unusually low amount of energy and 2) PG&E is screwing it's customers with those rates he lists. Wow. Go build some power plants, people. Your NIMBY attitude is making it more expensive.