Why you should go solar regardless of your electric bill.
Almost every solar sales consultant will tell you yes. And so will I. This is not simply to get a sale and hit a quota. It's to make a difference even with the smallest system. Not many, if any company will make a good chunk of change off a 3kw system but making money isn't every companies goal.
That's why I've always had the highest respect for SolarCity. I worked with them for just about a year. I learned a lot about them and their mission. They have so much passion for making the world a better place environmentally. Elon Musk is the brains of the operation and all he wants to do is save the planet and if not, then move to another one.
So why should you go solar regardless of the system size? Because solar energy is the cleanest, most sustainable source of energy out there. It requires nothing but the sun to give you power. How much more simple is that! It's not like a utility that uses nasty coal and fossil fuels to generate power.
Here are a couple reasons why we choose solar over the way the utilities generate power.
*Electricity is the Largest Source of GHG
*Greenhouse gas emissions from electricity have increase by about 115 since 1990
*Fossil fuel-fired power plants are the largest source of U.S. CO2 emissions
*Approximately 67% of our electricity comes from burning fossil fuels
*According to American Lung Association, air pollution remains a major danger to the health of children and adults
The way we create power through our power plants is killing our planet. Air pollution is just one of he ways it is doing so. President Obama proposed that we reduce carbon emissions by 30% in the next 25 years. Each state has its own amount of carbon emissions to cut, depending on what each state decides. This could phase out existing coal plants. There is effort being made to help reduce the pollution thrown into our breathing air. Here are some facts on the topic.
By looking at that chart above, you can see that from 2005 - October 2015, rates increased quite a bit. Tier 1 has gone up 45%, tier 2 has gone up 46%, tier 3 has gone up 93% and tier 4 has gone up 100%! That's crazy. Tier 1 and 2 didn't increase so much because they are government regulated. Tier 3 and 4 they could do whatever they wanted with.
So like most people with families, they got into tier 3 and probably 4. That means you were paying .29-.32 cent for power. And if you look on your bill there is an extra fee if you go into tier 4 because you weren't conserving power. So you were paying a lot for power, then a fee on top of that. Sure, you could have possibly lowered your usage which would lower which tier you were in. But why should you? You work hard for your money and lifestyle and then the utility company tells you can't use a lot of electricity or they will charge you more. That's BS to me.
Do you like to save money or spend more of it? Exactly, you want to save money. So how you you like to take money you spend anyways and spend it a better way?
That's exactly what solar is, a money saver. There is nothing else you can do to your home that can raise the value and save you money quickly. Remember above where we talked about the tier structure and how the more electricity you use the more you pay? Well now imagine using the same power you use now, but pay less for it. Solar has no tier system. If you lease it then you only pay one flat price for all the power the panels produce. Now depending on what company you go with will depend on what you pay but most of them are .14 - .18 cents for power.
The only time you will owe anything over basic connection fees to the utility is if you use more power than you produce. So let's say in the month of April you produced 1,000kwh but you used 1,300kwh. That extra 300kwh you will owe the utility. There are other articles or podcasts I have posted that digs deeper into this but we can go over that more in detail if you email me at info@justinosmer.com or tweet me
@justinosmer. I would be more than happy to get deeper into conversation with any of you how it all works. But you can see the simple savings. You produce your own power for less than what the utility charges you for theirs. If it makes sense, it's time to make the switch. If it doesn't, reach out to me. I suppose either way, reach out to me.