Britain Now Imports 50% of its Gas

[newnewthing]

Re: Britain Now Imports 50% of its Gas

I'm not sure how you made those savings. We have gas central heating and a gas water heater. Summer gas bills are about $50 a month, so that's indicative of our water heating costs (the water heater is in a warm location, so not subject to tremendous fluctuation during the year).

From treehugger.com:

"Eco-geek suggests that "First, installation can cost more than $5,000 dollars, especially in older houses. Second, new home buyers apparently don't like to see solar water heaters disrupting their "roof lines." "

Spending 5 grand to save $50 a month is a pretty hard proposition for me to consider. I'd love to do it, but whichever way I look at it spare savings are better spent reducing my mortgage than solar panels / new windows (that will be in a landfill in 15 yrs when they fog).

The ROI on many of these green home improvements just isnt' there yet IMO.

Spending 5k to save 600/y is a pretty good ROI these days. it's after tax and increases the sellability of the property since the same would apply o a buyer. It also will track inflation. A no brainer imo. I put in a 12kw solar system because the electricity is billed at $0.32/kwh where I live.

[mooncliff]

Re: Britain Now Imports 50% of its Gas

Spending 5k to save 600/y is a pretty good ROI these days. it's after tax and increases the sellability of the property since the same would apply o a buyer. It also will track inflation. A no brainer imo. I put in a 12kw solar system because the electricity is billed at $0.32/kwh where I live.

My understanding is that, depending where you live, you may be able to get Federal and state tax credits (credit, not deduction; but be careful because states may have a cap to the fund, and if the money runs out, that is the end of that... I think this happened in Florida) totaling about 50% of a solar hot water system.

In addition, it seems it increases the resale value of the house by approximately the cost of the system, assuming the system is fairly new.

So, depending on your situation, installing a $5,000 solar water heater will get you tax credits of $2,500, making the total actual investment $2,500.

A savings of $600 per year on that would be 24% per year, no tax, so equivalent to earning about 28% taxed?

The icing on the cake would be if you sold the house and recouped your initial investment because the solar water heater increased your appraisal. Some renters and buyers are asking to see the previous year's utility bills, so that might be another consideration.

I wanted to be conservative in my estimates, so did not previously go into this much detail.

In my case, a $2,500 solar hot water system was installed in 1981. The tax credits were $1,250. Adjusted for inflation, in current USD, that is $3,000 for the system, installed. Our electric bill is about $100 less per month, so say $1,000 less per year, because the kilowatt-hours we use dropped by about half when we got the solar water heater. So in my case, a $3,000 investment has returned 33% a year for 30 years. If it were any other investment, on which you had to pay tax on the return, the investment would have to return something like 40% per year to equal this.

This has been a MUCH better investment than the other things I have invested in.