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Null_Error7 t1_j4digw0 wrote

Reply to comment by Beezlegrunk in It was a good run, years worth of solar credits eaten in about 1.5 months. by Ragnaroknight

How? Solar payback takes too long as it is and now 1/3 of the year has little return? With the job market today who can know they will be in the same home for 10+ years?

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Beezlegrunk t1_j4dqnk4 wrote

>Solar payback takes too long as it is

Says who? It depends on what you pay for the installation — including any tax breaks or subsidies — and what your energy rates are, and are projected to be in the future.

We don’t know the first number, but we know that both gas and electric prices are high right now, not likely to go down any time soon (if ever), and everything OP doesn’t have to pay RIE for monthly power is money off the cost of his solar installation.

Maybe he can tell us what his payback period is, and which way his roof is oriented. My guess is it’s about 7–8 years. And don’t forget that he can recoup most if not all the money he spent on the installation when he sells his house as solar-powered …

>now 1/3 of the year has little return

Again, what’s “little return”? It may not be the same as during the summer, but it’s still significant, and could be an even larger percentage of his total need if he can lower their household consumption a bit.

>Who can know they will be in the same home for 10+ years?

A lot of people, but even those who don’t know can usually derive a fair return from solar over the short (2–3 years) or medium (3–5 years) term, on aggregate …

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Null_Error7 t1_j4ds4n9 wrote

Good luck getting a homebuyer to takeover your payments. Sure maybe you get half of it paid off in 3-5 years but that’s still a loss of $20k if you need to sell.

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degggendorf t1_j4l40d4 wrote

> but we know that both gas and electric prices are high right now, not likely to go down any time soon (if ever)

That is not true. Out rates are smoothed over a 3-month period, and we can see real-time gas prices that will legally have to be taken into account with next quarter's rates. Next quarter's gas price will be lower. @ me if it's not.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/us-natgas-price-plunge-could-limit-this-years-output-growth-2023-01-13/

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mdurg68 t1_j4h2fds wrote

I was and still am really interested in solar however my payback would be about 10 yrs. Was hoping to retire in 8 and it probably wont be in RI. If the payback was in 5-7 I’d do it for sure.

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degggendorf t1_j4l4g99 wrote

> now 1/3 of the year has little return?

I mean, I guess, but that's not really a sensical way to think of it.

You should take the whole yearly cycle into account to look at ROI. It sounds like OP is still going to come out way ahead for the year.

But if you want to look at it your way, if OP is getting "little return" for Dec-Feb, then they're getting infinite return Mar-Nov.

Of course the decision to install solar depends on a lot of factors - as you said, length of time you expect to stay in the house is definitely a big one - but now more than ever, it has a pretty safe ROI.

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