Plain Talk

You too can have a solar system on your home or workplace. Let’s hear the experts put it simply…

Solar Hot Water Panels

Solar uses the energy from the sun. The sun shines during the day and based upon where you live will determine the amount of time and strength of sunlight we have shining on us.

For centuries, people have understood the value of sunlight as an energy source. Only recently has technology allowed us to exploit this endless power source. So someone finally said “with the sun shining a lot of the time… why don’t we use the energy from the sun to make hot water for daily usage in my house” This was the birth of the modern solar panel.

Two principle varieties of energy harvesting pieces of equipment technology were born from this concept. These are the flat panel and the evacuated tube array. Both have specific advantages and disadvantages that are determined by the location of the installation.

What is the advantage for my going with solar equipment? It sounds expensive? Solar installations are expensive and that is why the federal and state governments offer incentives for people to go with solar technology, you can receive up to 30% from the federal government and 25% up to $5000 from New York State.

Lets assume a normal installation (and this is a lot of assumptions) costs $10,000; you are going to get back from the state government 25%, or $2500, of the cost of the system back in tax credits and you also are going to get an additional 30% on the balance after state deductions for an additional $2250 in savings.

Hopefully no one is lost at this point. We left off with a $10,000 system that with the incentives from the federal and local governments is now costing $5250. Okay, now how do we justify paying $5250 for the solar system.

Without the sun providing the energy, you are using oil, electric or gas to heat the water in you house you are paying for the oil, electric and gas. By going with solar energy you don’t pay to heat the water, because the energy from the sun is free.

Once again, making some major assumptions, imagine the cost to make hot water in your home by way of oil, electrical or gas is $75 per month. This is a result of every time you or your family members take a shower or bath need to run the dishwasher or washing machine anything that uses hot water and can vary. So at $75 per month times 12 months of the year the cost to make hot water is $900 per year. Because you paid $5000 for the solar system you need to see how many times the year cost goes into the cost of the system. That number is 5.5 times.

So, it will take 5.5 years before you will be paying nothing for you hot water. Now it is very important to understand that your rate of return is highly dependent upon usage patterns, weather conditions, and fuel prices, so this is not an exact science. Everybody talks about ROI or “Return On Investment”, the important thing to remember is that this is not a one-time only return. You will be making the equivalent of the cost of producing hot water each year for the life of the system; which is twenty five plus years when well maintained. Fuel is only going up in price in the coming years, so your initial investment become more and more valuable as time goes on.

Solar Electric Arrays

All of the same principals hold true for solar electric as discussed above in solar hot water with a few twists.

As you consider going solar, solar electric seems like an obvious choice, “Power my own house…. No more power outages…” hold on… let’s slow down. Again making some gross assumptions, It is important to realize that solar electric often has an equipment cost greater than ten times that of a solar hot water system, so, though the incentive structure is similar, ‘out of pocket’ is considerably higher. As such, your return on investment is considerably longer.

Money aside (remember that the technology is improving daily as is the price), there are two major system types, Grid-Tie and Stand-Alone systems.

The Stand-Alone system converts solar energy into electricity, stores it in a battery, and then converts it to usable power when demanded by the homeowner. These are complicated systems that require periodic maintenance. These systems are flexible in design, size, and power output. These systems can be easily interconnected with other power generating systems that may exist on the home.

Grid-Tie systems are specialized systems that produce power from the sun and sell any excess power that your house does not use back to your local power company during the day. As you use power at night you buy the power back from the power company. This process is called Net-Metering. At the end of your billing cycle you simply resolve the difference between what you made and what you consumed, this may mean a profit for the owner of the system. These systems are much simpler in design compared to the Stand-Alone designs and as such have little maintenance associated with them and considerably lower initial cost. There also exists hybrid designs which lets you capitalize on the best aspects of each unit design. These are costly and complicated systems.