Mahnken
Well-Known Member
4 br 4400sqft with inlaw sweet in the basement. Previous owners had the homeowner, his wife, two highschool aged kids, and mother in law living in the house. Now it's me, my wife, and two young children. We moved from a much smaller house, with the same electric company (ac electric) and our average bill there was $295 a month for the year prior to moving.
We've lived here since September so I can't really give an average monthly cost without a whole years worth of time. I'd imagine there's some variations between all the seasons. So I'll give you the breakdown of the 12 months prior to us moving in that we requested from the sellers.
Monthly electric bill: -$7 never paid more than delivery charge, and overproduced on some months.
SRECs: produced $290.64 per month
Solar loan payment: $207.27 per month
So they made $90.37 a month by switching to solar.
Let's say that stays the same for me until 2029 when the SRECs run out. I'll have made $6,600. At that point I'd still have to pay $207.27 a month until 2044. That total would come out to $37,306 over that 15 years. Minus the $6,600 from the SRECs, that would be $30,708. If I subtract the $7 a month made with the electric bill for those 15 years it comes down to $29,448. So from now until 2044 my average monthly electric cost would be around $117. Then electricity would be free, or slightly less than free based on how much the panels degrade.
However, I will end up paying far less than that as all the money that the SRECs produce, gets sent right to a principal payment on the loan for the panels. And with a 5.99%apr, I should save quite a bit doing that, and the loan should end far sooner. Giving me free electricity for a few years while still under warranty until 2044. In 2044 I'd like to possibly build a workshop, put the panels on there, and get solar shingles for the house. Will probably buy the battery backup by then, and likely get battery backup for the workshop as well. But that's just wishful thinking at this point.
