IS SOLAR ELECTIRCITY RIGHT FOR YOU? 12/1/11 |
If you want to produce electricity in a eco friendly manner Solar is the most cost effective way for most homeowners. 1. You need somewhere to put it, usually the roof with little or no shade from 10am to 3:30pm. Preferably south facing, east and west facing are also good but you will spend 15% more. North facing does not work. 3. Available funds. I can barley afford my eclectic bill, should I go solar? On that note: "Should I lease since I can't afford to buy?" If I have room for solar, have investment money and have an electric bill over $150 a month what are the advantages of going solar? It is perhaps the best and safest investment you will ever make. I know of no other investment that is tailored exactly to your needs. If you past the test above you most likely can be confident solar is a very good to excellent investment. The money: Size matters: Buying too big of a photovoltaic system is not cost effective. It is recommended that you buy a photovoltaic system that takes you out of tiers three and up. If you have a $300 per month bill we will design a system to reduce your bill by roughly $220 per month. To reduce your bill to zero you would have to have a system twice as big. Investment wise the extra cost is not worth the extra $78 it saves you. With the $220 per month example above: Here at DP Energy Store Inc. and DP Door Co. we are waiting for the new GE solar panels that are expected to reduce the installed price over today's price by 50%. With these new low prices and the low interest rates buying the new (GE solar panels that will be made in Colorado USA) make buying much better then leasing. If you are looking for an easier life as you approach retirement what could be better then having fewer bills. Having your own solar electrical generating panels on your roof means lower bills when you need it most. "What if I sell the house in a couple of years?" Installing solar then selling the house soon after is a gamble. You are betting that the learning curve of the home buyers will have reached a point were the value is understood. At this time the banks, appraisers and most home buyers do not understand the value of solar. As people become more educated in solar and as utility prices rise it's value grows. |
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Business Owners: What about commercial real estate? As a business owner you are entitled to more tax savings. The accelerated depreciation can give you added tax advantages for up to 20 years. If you can get the money together without jeopardizing your cash flow, it is a no brainer. The solar energy tax incentives can pay for 70%. You can actually create a positive cash flow in the first year! Business: incentives; 30% tax credit State incentive: Are decreasing, in November of 2011 they it was roughly $1000 per kWh. Accelerated depreciation: MARCS + Bonus Depreciation. You even depreciate 50% of the incentives that you did not pay for!
Please confirm all incentives with your tax expert. |
Homeowner incentives going on now.
State incentive: Are decreasing, in November of 2011 they it was roughly $1000 per kWh. Please confirm all incentives with your tax expert.
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IT' SO EASY, JUST SIGN AND SAVE!!!! RIGHT? NO!!!! First off, as you know you are committing to a 20 year contract were you are responsible for paying a company your monthly payments, times 240 (20yrs x 12mths). If you use it 5 years and sell your home you still are responsible to have the 240 payments (mini us the 60 you just paid) That is the basic, now the variables: Many include a compounding lease payment increase of about 3.5% per year. With this compounding lease your payments double in 20 years. For a $100 per month lease you will have paid $34,000 for a system that you could have bought for about $12,000 to day or less then $10,000 when General Electric produces the GE solar panels in Colorado USA. "But with a lease they do all maintenance and warranty everything." That may be what the sales person said but read the contract to make sure. Checking the internet feed once a year is not the maintenance you may think. Some companies probably have good leases but the latest one I just read was down right scary. The sales person promised everything from guaranteeing the roof not to leak to replacing anything that wore-out or broke. But the contract said the warranty was a limited warranty from the manufacture. Manufactures go out of business all the time. Is the manufacture of the solar panels on your roof going to be around in 20years or even 3years? Here is a scenario: You get a lease and they install the solar panels on your roof. The panels fail the next year. You call the manufacture and either they have gone out of business or say something like send the panels to us in China and we will evaluate them and if defective we will repair or replace them. So your system is not running, the system now does not qualify for the state rebate that was paid to your leasing company since it has to produce a certain amount for 5 years. The leasing company's contract states that you are responsible for their losses. You now have to pay to have someone fix the system immediately or you may have to reimburse the leasing company the state incentives they received. All this while still paying the lease payments and now also paying the electric company since the solar panels are not working.
Advertisements, words that the salesman tell you do not matter at all. It is the contract and how it is interrupted years later when you are in court trying to sue the leasing company.
"IF I SELL MY HOUSE I TRASFER THE LEASE" Only if the lease company approves the next homeowner and that homeowner agrees to pay your lease payment and take on the liabilities that go with it. If not: you have to pay the balance of the lease including the compounding payments, and the buy out at the end. For example: you have a $100 lease payment, you pay for 5years and have to move; The lease was for 240 payments you paid 60, you have to pay them 180 payments when you sell. If there is no compounding that is $18,000 or over $27,000 if it is compounding. And they can make you pay the purchase at end of lease estimated price, in the case of the lease I just read it was an additional $2900. So moving could cost you $20,000 to $30,000 more then you expected. I urge you to please read and understand every word of the lease. If you have a lease and you want me to read it, I usually can. We are not installing solar until GE finishes building their Colorado plant so we won't try to sell you anything. I do read leases for free, it helps us to see what is out there and helps us to help protect the people of our community. dp
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