| Dr. Green |
04-18-2010 01:21 PM |
Not only more reasonable, but better if you are doing a solar electric installation (which my store Sustain Ability www.sustainabilitynh.com does)
Solar electric (PV) installations on both PSNH and NHEC served homes are eligible for the 30% Federal Rebate (rebate off your taxes) and the State of NH (up to) $6,000 rebate, but NHEC will also buy your REC (Renewable Energy Credits) for 4.5 cents a kW.
Thus if you put in a 4 kW system (costing around $30,000), you will get a $9,000 rebate from the Federal Government, a $6,000 rebate from the State, and NHEC will pay you $.045 a kW for your credits (after a monthly "Monitoring Fee' of $11, or a net gain of around $8 a month. That might not sound like much, but over the lifetime of the system, that's $3,800+.
So cost = $30,000, Rebates = $18800, Cost to you, $11,200.
What you get for your $11,200 is (assuming the power company doesn't raise its rates over the next 40 years) around $33,000 worth of electricity (that you would have paid directly to then) And of course, rates have doubled over the last ~10 years. If rates just double cumulatively over lifetime of the system (40 years), Your $11,200 investment would save you $66,000 worth of electric bills. That's why ** If you have a good southern exposure ** solar electric is cheaper than buying your power from the power company. |
