#Climatechange #Weather
#solar #energy
With all this global climate change causing truly bizarre weather issues, I'm feeling good about my decision to install solar panels, and wish more people could or would.
Since going solar in 2021, the panels stopped what might otherwise have been 42,862 lbs (21.4 TONS!) of CO2 from being dumped into the atmosphere.
#NC should not let electric utilities reduce net metering pay. If they do, I'll install more panels and go entirely off-grid.
@Priestess gotta ask if you're fine with sharing what's your solar kwh/month vs total cost for the setup(monthly?) vs what you're paying monthly for remaining power needs +
what that looked like before solar + whats the cost for a watt from the grid?
I want to go solar but the life of the panels vs the loan I'd take out right to pay for them would have it so I'd end up paying more for panels if the cost of natural gas(primary grid power gen) fell or my growth of power consumption increased.
@crazyuncleharris Some say solar panels pay for themselves in 7 or 8 years - IF they get good rebates, Fed and utility. That is true in some states with electric grids that have been mismanaged and customers are paying exorbitant electric rates for their mistakes.
Our rate is $0.11661 per kWh but when we add other fees it ends up being over $0.16 per kWh. Duke Energy helped a few folks but screwed many out of thousands of dollars in rebates. Our payback is 20 yrs because we got screwed by Duke.
@crazyuncleharris
Even though we got screwed out of thousands of dollars in rebates by the utility company, we got federal tax incentives, so that helped. At electric utility rates of $0.11661 per kWh our solar panels generate about $85 worth of electricity per month.
The money is nice but, for us, the best rewards are the environmental benefits.
@crazyuncleharris We ended up paying cash. Good loan terms were offered which made monthly payments very low for the first few years but terms changed after that, so we did cash.
We probably require more electricity than average people because of running medical O2 equipment almost 24 hours per day. Some months we use up to 1,000 kWh (1 MWh). Fortunately, sometimes we produce that much or almost that much. Different times of year are better than others. 22 panels. 8.03 kWp peak power.