07/24/2023
Great post today by one of my local weatherman.
WARNING: The following post details my personal experience over the past 20 months with the purchase of solar panels and my first electric vehicle. If you are convinced that renewable energy and electric cars somehow pave the way for the rise of Antichrist, please do NOT read this post!
For those who dare to persist in their efforts to read what follows, please note that the views in this post reflect my personal experience only. They are not meant to be a universal endorsement or an unqualified condemnation of solar panels or EVs.
As you read the post and as you peruse the FAQ in the associated graphic, keep in mind that EVERYTHING I have is electric. I have NO natural gas or gasoline appliances of any kind (including stove, oven, water heater, heating and AC, landscape tools, etc.). Therefore, the numerical figures outlined in this graphic reflect a somewhat unique situation where electricity is the ONLY means of power at my home and on the road.
If you have natural gas appliances and/or if you drive a conventional gas-powered car and/or if you do not have a 100-mile commute, you would not experience anywhere near the savings outlined in this narrative. Again, my situation is somewhat unique. Please do not interpret this information as representative of the savings (and thus the ROI) for anyone who purchases solar panels and/or an EV.
I have received several questions from visitors to my page over the past 20 months regarding the purchase of my solar panels and EV, and you can read my responses in this graphic. But let me address a couple of issues in this text.
Perhaps the most frequent question I get is, "How much did you pay for your solar system?" This is going to GREATLY depend on who you contract with. I cannot type the dollar amount I personally paid in this post because - and I quote Regan Teresa MacNeil: "That's a much too vulgar display..." :)
However, for those of you who possess a happy talent for mathematics, you can come up with a very close ballpark figure of what I paid if you apply the $ details I provide in this graphic.
I did not include any maintenance costs simply because there have not been any so far. I do hose the panels off every month (takes 10 minutes) if we do not get at least a couple inches of rain in a month. And so, for example, I have hosed them off once this month (a couple of days ago). Didn't have to do anything in April, May, or June.
I want to address another issue with solar panels. There is a misconception that solar panels - without battery backup - cannot produce electricity when the utility grid goes down. In other words solar panels are prevented from providing electricity when there is a blackout - in part - to protect accidental electrocution of utility workers as they work on the power lines to restore electricity to the rest of the community.
While this has been true in the past, it is no longer necessarily the case. IF you have the latest "microinverters" on your panels (which came out almost 2 years ago), they can isolate your home from the power grid. So, even in a blackout situation, you can still produce power for your home because these nifty little gadgets can automatically turn your solar panels into their own, SELF-CONTAINED virtual power plant with no threat to outside workers because they no longer send excess electricity back into the utility lines during a power grid failure.
Also, another exciting feature of these latest microinverters allows you to use your electric vehicle - whose battery is often 6 to 7 times more powerful than conventional home solar storage batteries - to power your home in a total blackout situation. Indeed, you can even charge your electric vehicle AND power your house AT THE SAME TIME during the day! It is called BIDIRECTIONAL CHARGING, and I am in hopes of deploying this feature in the first quarter of next year.
For the rest of your FAQ, please refer to the graphic. Let me know if there are any other questions that you may have, and I will try to answer them based on my personal experience.
But let me conclude this post with this: I would venture to say say that the ROI for someone who does not have a 100% electric home AND who does not have an electric vehicle AND who does not have a larger-than-average commute AND who needs to finance the purchase instead of paying cash would take a little more than DOUBLE the amount of time I have outlined at the bottom of this graphic for the same size system. Most folks, however, would probably not need this relatively large system.
