Quote:
Originally Posted by Cobalt
A neighbor with a totally electric home went with solar panels almost two years ago. He has good south/southwest exposure, and decided to purchase his system. After Federal and State credits, his cost is approximately $20,000.
He estimates a payback of about twenty years or a $1,000 a year in savings on electricity costs. His annual cost for electricity before credits for solar was approximately $3,000.
This is a straight cost/savings analysis without considering the cost of money or removal costs after the useful life of the panels. It does not include any other credits or decrease in efficiency of the system over time.
It does show it may be difficult to become energy independent with only solar.
|
I think the two big benefits the OP has going for him is the access to a Natural gas line and the fact that he already has A/C. I think in this case the best bet for the OP is a gas furnace or boiler and on demand gas water heater. Additional savings could be had by changing his appliances to gas. JMO.