Solar is Improving the Value of My Home

According to a new study of home sales in California by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, not only can homeowners with solar PV recoup the cost of their solar investment though energy cost savings and sale of the home, solar PV actually increase the resale value of existing homes. SunRun created the infographic (below) based on this research study.

I know I live in DC and not California, but I have to assume there are some comparable lessons to be learned from this study. I wonder if my 4kw system would really return 16-20K?

Solar Production To-Date

I thought I should revisit my solar project now that it’s been up and running now for 4 months. According to Enphase Energy, the company that digitally tracks my house’s energy production, I’ve produced 1.72 MWh which is enough energy to power 57 houses for 1 day. Additionally, they say my carbon offset to-date is 1 ton or the equivalent of 30 trees. The Enphase meter reading system is pretty cool they gave me a little device that plugs into my router that displays my current energy production and relays that information to their website. I can view the energy production of each of my solar panels in real time and if one of the panels isn’t working correctly I’m notified immediately.

180.8 kWh February
436.9 kWh March
468.5 kWh April
580.3 kWh May

As you can see my production has only gone up since its dismal performance in February. Hopefully my system will continue to improve and at the end of the year truly produce 80%-90% of my energy usage.

First $0 Bill from PEPCO

I received my first $0 bill from PEPCO last month and let me say it was one of the best things to see on a bill. As promised here are few photos of the installation.

Solar Update: Approval!

We've been approved by DC for electrical and construction and are one step closer to generating power.

I had the guys at Clean Currents take a bunch of photos before, during and after installation which I will have up online as soon as I can.

Clean Currents Solar

Back in August I applied for the DC Renewable Energy Incentive Program and was approved. I chose Clean Currents as my installation partner and they helped me apply for the program as well as design my entire system. The DC incentive program offered me $11,064 for a 4 KW photovoltaic solar system which covered nearly half of the cost. The federal tax credit will provide me with $7,838 or 30% of the total cost of the system. Another benefit of investing in a solar electric system is the right to sell my 4 Solar Renewable Energy Credits. You can choose the to sell your credits over time and in the end get more money back on your investment, but I decided to sell my credits upfront and lower my intial investment to $1,500. That’s right with the DC and Federal funds plus the approximate $6,800 from PEPCO for my credits I only had to spend $1,500 of my own money.

Now let’s take a quick look at how much energy I will be producing annually versus how much I use and see how long it will take me to pay off the $1,500 investment. My 4KW system should produce approximately 4,888Kwh/yr while my usage is on average 5,400Kwh/yr. That means that nearly 90% of my energy consumption annual will be covered by my solar system. After looking at my PEPCO bills over the past two years I annually spend between $900-$1,000 which means I should be spending $90-$100 per year going forward. So in 2 years I will have saved more than my initial investment. Why doesn’t everyone do this? Well I will say I was lucky. DC offeres a unique program and I was the last approved candidate for 2010 (literally got my application in on the last day) and it’s unclear if the program would continue or at leats continue with so much funding.

One Block Off the Grid

1BOG (One Block Off the Grid) seems like a pretty cool organization. They get groups of people together who want to get solar energy, and gets them a huge discount by purchasing in bulk. The DC numbers are increasing so this is a great time to sign up to take advantage of the group discount.

In their own words:

"We are a nationwide, community-based program that organizes residents locally and negotiates group discounts with solar energy installers in your city, using a comprehensive vendor selection process. As a group we are more knowledgeable about solar, more powerful, and we can make a difference."

http://1bog.org/