Shopping List: Nails, 2×4s, Solar Panels
Posted on February 3, 2010 by
If I had a house and a lot of extra money (ah, it’s fun to dream), I’d totally put solar panels on my roof. I dream of having a place that relies exclusively on renewable energy. Wouldn’t it be great to be off the grid?
Unfortunately, even for people who do own houses and have some disposable income, solar panels are an expensive undertaking. I’m talking tens of thousands of dollars to get all that high-tech equipment installed on your roof. Sure, it’ll eventually pay for itself because you won’t be paying a power bill anymore, but the upfront cost is still prohibitive for most people.
But that’s slowly starting to change.
Lowe’s and Home Depot have begun to sell solar panels in stores. Designed for do-it-yourself installation, these solar panels have built-in inverters that can be plugged directly into a circuit breaker, meaning once they’re installed, you’ll start using solar power for part of your daily energy usage. One panel provides about 175 watts of electricity, and it would take about 20 of them to provide full power to an average-sized home.
So how much are they? Each panel costs $893, so if you’re looking to install 20 of them, yeah, you’re still going to pay a good chunk of change. But the beauty of these panels is that they can be installed individually, so you can build up the amount of solar power you’re using. The idea is to start with one or two, then add more panels as you can afford them.
What do you think of solar panels? Would you be likely to purchase one or more? Do you think this is going to become a hot-ticket item? Wouldn’t it be great if people gave each other solar panels for holiday presents? Or will this turn out to be something that just won’t catch on with the general public? Do share.
WOW those are expensive! At least we are going a step in the right direction!
The problem with solar panels (besides the upfront expense) is, by the time they pay for themselves, they need to be replaced. Not cost effective at all. We need a new energy paradigm.
I guess that might seem expensive to some people, but think what else you might spend $893 on. Shoot, I know people who have spent thousands on things like dining room tables and Moroccan rugs that they don’t even like. This $893 actually gives you something back, literally. Even if it didn’t “pay for itself” in energy-saving dollars, it’s still keeping a certain amount of coal or oil from being consumed over its life. And you can’t really quantify that slight reduction in guilt you’d get every time you turn on an electrical appliance knowing a portion of the electricity was clean and coming from your roof.
I’ve also heard of solar power collectives, where several people in one neighborhood all sign up to install solar panels, and somehow by combining resources, it’s cheaper for all. I’m not sure how it works (and naturally I don’t remember where I read it, so I can’t include a link), but it would be cool if things like that expanded to more areas of the country. (When I read it, they hadn’t established any presence in my state yet.)
I think Mickey has a good point – people do spend lots of money on things that aren’t really necessary and I think, were I in a position to do so, I would not have a problem spending that money even if the panels didn’t completely and totally pay for themselves.
Although, I am concerned about Abby’s point – because if the panels do need to be replaced around the time they start to pay for themselves, I wonder if the environmental benefits still outweigh the materials/manufacturing/waste of panels that wear out in that amount of time.
We don’t live in our “forever home” so I can’t see us installing panels here. And we get way more wind than sun, so I’d probably look at turbines first, but renewable energy is something I do plan to invest in when we move to our next home.
I do like to see alternative energy options going mainstream, and I hope that means people are thinking about it, placing importance on it, and will be more likely to adopt even more sustainable options as they are created.
If you bought 20 panels at $893 apiece, you’d spend $17,860 for the whole shebang. That’s a relatively cheap new car. And cars only cost you MORE money as you own them — gas, insurance, maintenance, etc. — whereas solar panels only start SAVING you money from the moment you buy them. From a strictly financial standpoint, it does make sense (although the cost of replacing them, as Abby said, is cause for concern.) Plus, if these really start to catch on and lots of people buy them, the price will start to go down. If I were a market forecaster type person, I’d bet that renewable energy will be a big seller in the next few years.
Interesting, I think I’d rather spend the $893 making my home a little more energy efficient.
I like the idea of solar panels, but am hoping they come up with a better design for them for broad usage.