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Just came back from my Hawaii visit and noticed a high volume of houses using solar panels. Why?
I'm from TX, and we get tons of hot sunlight like Hawaii.
Solar hot water are mandatory since 2010 (Not positive on the date).
We also have PV, and it saves us about $400 per month. Between that and the tax benefits (I do not think they are still available) we net savings after about 5 years.
Hawaii has the highest electricity costs in the nation.
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I don't know where you live in Texas, but the average cost for electricity in Dallas is around 11 cents per kWh. The average cost for electricity in Hawaii right now is around 32 cents per kWh (varies by island). You can look at your latest bill and do the math.
Where we live we don't need either air conditioning or heating. Those in Honolulu aren't so lucky, so you will see some really high electric bills.
Just came back from my Hawaii visit and noticed a high volume of houses using solar panels. Why?
I'm from TX, and we get tons of hot sunlight like Hawaii.
Does it really save you that much money?
While does have a lot of solar, it sometimes gets skewed for visitors to Oahu approaching the airport when you see house after house with solar - and that is all military/federal government housing.
And while you do save money, for new customers it isn't anywhere near the savings as it used to be since they don't qualify for net retail metering and new installations have really dropped.
I see California as a real leader with solar, 3.3 million homes with solar and at time generates so much electricity the utility has paid other states to take the excess off of their hands......
Absolutely! It saves us money as well as makes us money. We have a big system on both our residence and also on one of our rental houses. We aren't selling the the electricity directly to the renters as electricity, but we are able to get higher rent because the electricity is included.
Both of those systems were installed when tax credits paid for about half the system costs so one is already paid for and the other system has another year or so before it's paid back for itself.
The rental has solar hot water as well as the solar electric. We still need to get the solar hot water on our residence.
Hawaii's electricity rate is multiples of the national average, I think 250% higher. Hawaii's location is more ideal for solar than in the lower 48. because of those factors, any cost offsetting from solar is magnified. Not to mention all those tax incentives that were thrown around by the feds and state.
We have solar hot water. Our electricity bill is about $100/month (has been for over 5 years). If I converted to PV, I wouldn't live long enough to recoup the savings. We spent a few thousand dollars in conservation to save tens of thousands of dollars later.
Our electricity bill is about $100/month (has been for over 5 years). If I converted to PV, I wouldn't live long enough to recoup the savings.
Why don't you think it would pay for itself in just a few years especially with tax credits? Clouds and rain? Wouldn't be expensive to get solar with electric that low to usually pay for itself fairly quickly.
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