How Much Money Would I Save With An Alternative Energy Source?
Posted by Paul Martin · 4 Comments
I’m with PPL electric in Williamsport, PA and want to switch to Alt Energy. Anyone know how much I could save?
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4 Responses to “How Much Money Would I Save With An Alternative Energy Source?”
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In general the payback on an alternative energy system is anywhere from 7 to 20 years.
It really depends on how much energy you currently use and what you can do to make your home more efficient. Before you even go abut pricing any solar or wind system, I highly recommend that you go about adding insulation, changing lightbulbs, replacing old inefficient appliances, taking steps to reduce phantom loads and seal up your house. These things are far more cost effective than alternative energy and can be done rather easily by most any do-it-yourself type person.
Every dollar you spend on energy efficiency, you will save five on alternative energy.
Then and only then, contact someone (like me) and have them give you a quote for a wind, solar or hybrid system.
Well what exactly do you mean switch to an alternative energy source because you can’t just use a solar panel on a house and expect a pay back because what wastes the most energy in a house is
1. Lighting
2. Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning
3. Insulation
basically what you first want to do in a house or commercial is lower the amount you use meaning making your loads as small as possible then when your building is wasting less you can go ahead and use solar to power the house and your return on investment can drop drastically to less than 7 years.
I considered depending fully on alt energy once, but my friend advised me to go hybrid alt energy with main power lines instead. Going with alt energy FULLY is far too risky since the technology is not yet well developed. Thanks to that I’ve save quite some amount of money on my monthly.
Try http://www.enhanceenergy.com. If you sign up for their newsletter, in one of the emails they’ll show you how to build a solar paner for costs as low as $200. And it lasts long too!
I looked into solar panels and came away from it disappointed. The panels are expensive, you don’t get much electricity from them unless you put in a large amount of them which runs into more money. With cloudy days you get less power. You will probably still have to be on the grid as back up. Also solar panels last only so long and you will have to replace them after a few years.