Getting Ready: Shining a light on solar — a no-brainer for homeowners
“The earth gets more solar energy in one hour than the entire world uses in a year,” according to Bill Nussey of FreeingEnergy.com.
If that is not incredible enough, how about the fact that a single year of sunshine exceeds all known energy reserves of oil, coal, natural gas and uranium put together, as well as dwarfs every other kind of renewable energy.
We all know that the sun’s energy can be captured by the photovoltaic cells in solar panels. But did you also know the cost of solar has declined substantially in recent years? Combined with the 30% tax credit from the federal government, solar has become affordable for the average homeowner. Now, there is no “free solar” as the ubiquitous ads suggest, but the monthly cost for a 10-year loan to finance your home’s solar array will be nearly comparable to your electric bill. (This depends on the variable cost of electricity.) When the loan is paid off in 10 years, you will have nearly free electricity.
One EcoHOMES participant has had solar panels since 2017 and is on track to pay them off in 8 to 10 years, depending on the cost of electricity. Depending on how long you plan to stay in your home, installing solar is a no-brainer. You potentially could have many years with minimal electric bills. Solar has been shown to increase the value of homes substantially without affecting your tax burden.
York Ready for Climate Action encourages you to:
- Consider solar for your house.
- Check five simple things to see if your roof is suitable for solar.
- Estimate the appropriate size solar array for your house and its cost
Solar installers will give you a free site and cost evaluation, but you can get a rough idea of what they might tell you.
There are 5 factors determining your roof’s suitability for solar:
1. Orientation: Use a compass or Google Earth to determine the orientation of your roof. Due south is ideal, but there is a lot of wiggle room here. If you are 30 degrees east or west of south, there will be only a 3-5% reduction in annual energy output. Even a full east/west orientation is feasible with a 30% reduction.
2. Degree of shading: Observe your roof at different times of day. Google Earth may be a helpful supplement to your own observations. When you are ready to get a professional estimate, solar installers have software to precisely determine shading.
3. Roof pitch: A rule of thumb is that the ideal pitch is the same number as our latitude (43 degrees). The typical pitch for a cape is 12/12 or 45 degrees.
4. Complexity of the roof: If there are dormers or intricate gables, the number of panels you can install may be limited. Roof simplicity wins here.
5. Age of the roof: The more expected life for your roof, the better. It wouldn’t be advisable to install a solar array on an old roof and then have to incur the cost of temporarily removing the panels to replace the roof.
If you have adequate property, there may be a site for a “ground-mounted array” with full control of the orientation, pitch and shading. However, expect to pay more for a ground-mounted array.
If you have a good solar site, how big an array would you need, and what would be the approximate cost?
1. First get an old bill and figure your annual electrical use in kWh (with some add-on for anticipated EV and heat pumps in your future).
2. Divide the annual kWh by 1.3. This will give you an approximation of the size of the array you will need in watts.
3. Multiply this number by 2 for an approximation of the cost of the array. The 30% federal tax rebate is included in this figure.
4. Use an amortization table to give you your estimated monthly loan amount.
5. Compare that amount with your electric bill. Remember the price of electricity is now ~$0.19/kWh. A year ago, it was $0.27. Prices will continue to fluctuate, but when you own solar, you are unaffected by the cost of electricity.
So, get out there and capture a terawatt or two of sunshine! There is more than enough to go around. Efficiency Maine has a partial list of installers. To that, we would add True Enterprises, ReVision Energy, Maine Solar Solutions and LaPlante Electric, all local solar companies with excellent testimonials.
Edward McAbee is the board president of York Ready for Climate Action.