4 ms·

$25k / 12months / 9 years = $230. Which seems reasonable.

• PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago
  a $230 monthly electricity bill in Seattle is a lot
  • TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
    ...which argues that it takes longer than 9 years to break-even. The panels lose a little bit of life each year, too.
  • danans 4y ago
    It depends on the house, the occupants, and lifestyle. 25k is the cost of a 9kWh PV array today, which will produce maybe 11GWh/year in Seattle. $230/month is about 1700kWh/month at Seattle electricity price of .13/kWh. That usage could easily be the amount of electricity used for an average efficiency 3000sqft house with 4 occupants and a couple EVs driving the median American commute. Add an electric hot tub, and $230/month isnt so crazy. Yes, it's very high, but not crazy high considering the typical upper middle class American home and lifestyle. In contrast, my home and lifestyle transplanted to Seattle would be 1/4 the usage and cost, but different preferences and all. In the example above the PV array would provide about 50% of usage, so about $115/month in bill reduction. The 25k is 18,500 after the Federal tax credit, which puts the payback at 13 years.
    • PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago
      Forgot about the EVs. Excellent point there. Always shocked by the labor component of PV arrays. I did my own 6.6kW array (split into two physical arrays, thus increasing the parts costs a bit), and it came out to around $13k. I don't mean I don't want to pay people a living wage, just always hard to remember (when you're used to doing stuff yourself) what fraction of the total cost that will be when you do pay them.