Many of you will have already noticed that we have solar panels on the roof at the office and you might be thinking that I have “Gone Green” despite my previous blogs regarding climate change. Actually, that would
not be correct. I am a firm non-believer in global warming as I stated before. I
believe there are variations in our climate that are definitely not primarily
caused by man/made issues. Mother nature is the one who controls the planet for
us visitors and in 10 million years (a blink of an eye to Mother nature) we
will all be gone and she will still be here doing her thing without us. Instead, the reason for our solar panels is primarily financial. While most of you that have
residential SMUD service you pay between 11 and 12 cents per kilowatt hour our
rates can be almost 30 cents a kilowatt hour. That leaves me with a $1000.00 a
month SMUD bill pretty much all year round on a building that is approximately
3500 square feet. We have already completed many title 24 processes to try to
decrease our bills, like our R-58 attic insulation and new HVAC unit. Therefore, it is now time to hop onto
the solar power band wagon to cut our costs. We use the Sacramento county
Ygrene program for financing so I can get the tax credits as well
as writing off the financing in order to make the project affordable. I would
not say that the process is been devout of challenges. But I firmly believe that
it will pay off for itself in the end. As for those of you that are
contemplating solar I do agree with my SMUD advisor that chasing pennies with
dollars is not a great idea. Do everything you can to save energy costs prior
to attempting solar. You would be surprised how high efficiency appliances or insulation, new HVAC and windows or shade trees, etc. can cut your bills. But if you do decide that solar is the way to go, shop
around there are tons of suppliers and a huge variation in prices and features.
See you at my next blog.
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