Quote:
|
Originally Posted by aries63
... MANY years for any system I install to pay for itself ...
but wouldn't there be significant added value to the house how
much more would people pay for a house that had solar?
|
Diddly.
It's like any other "improvement" to a house. It's in the eye
of the beholder. "Improvements" to a house have poor returns
when it comes to resale value. If you are planning to sell your
house in the near future, get a solar system that you can take
with you in your next house. It is, after all, a bolt-on thing.
Buying solar is like buying a new computer. Buy it when it makes
sense for you. Buy it when
you can afford it. Waiting for
the perfect time means you never do it.
Of course, if your house has crappy windows, I would argue that a
better investment would be in replacing your windoes. The same goes
for insulation. I would only put a solar system on a house that is already
'buttoned-down' nicely. If you have gobs and gobs of electronics and
like to leave the lights on all the time, the scale tilts to solar a bit more.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Zoidberg
20% APR, guaranteed, is a pretty darn good way to invest your money.
|
Note that in calculation of payback you have to account for
opportunity costs. What would you have made had you just
taken the capital investment and bought high-grade bonds?
ie. If you spend $30,000 on a system after all tax benefits, etc
are accounted for, then you have to look at the fact that you
could have earned $135/month ( before taxes, of course ) on
such an investment. For me, $135/month pretty much takes
care if all my gas and electric bills.
That is a scalable number. If it costs you $10,000 then figure
you gave up $45/month. For a $10,000 investment to pay you
20%, it needs to return $165/month. I leave it to others to
prove that kind of return via examples and such.
Putting in solar is like buying a Prius. It's also a
statement. There
is nothing wrong with it, but most of why you do it is for personal
satisfaction. That's not a bad reason either.
Also note that I do not, in my wildest dreams, think that my utility
bills are going to stay flat or even increase slowly over time. I think
we are all going to be in for a shock sooner rather than later.
Every time the price of oil goes up, people think;
evil Exxon! when
Exxon has pretty much nothing to do with what we are paying.
We buy oil in dollars. Coal gas and oil are all international commodities.
The dollar is just the least crappy of all the crappy currencies in the world.
Once your solar panels are in place, you are insulated from a lot of that.
A solar system isn't trouble-free, but it doesn't require much to keep it
working for decades.
I just saw this after I hit [Save] on the above:
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Poncho_NM
If I thought I could see a real 20+% annual percentage of rate (APR) rate of return
I would seriously consider investing 20 to 30 thousand dollars on my two NM residences.
|
Don't you have tenants in those other residences? Don't they pay the
utilities there? I think the 20% ROI assumes a reduction in the utility
bill which, by definition, you, the landlord, wouldn't see.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
