Solar Panels – Free Energy?

Solar Panels

Escondido home solar panels.

Being able to install solar panels on your Escondido home just got a little easier to finance.  The County of San Diego just approved a program that lets homeowners in the Escondido real estate area repay the cost of their solar panel installation over 20 years.  These payments would be made as an addition to their Escondido real estate annual property taxes.  Supervisor Dianne Jacob said, “This is a big deal for San Diego County.”    Supervisor Ron Roberts said the long-term goal is to reduce energy demand as much as possible.   Participation by Escondido home owners is strictly voluntary, but is it a good deal for the Escondido home owner.  Is it a good deal for the taxpayers?

So far San Diego North County home owners haven’t rushed out to start buying solar panels, so I decided to check into why?  I soon discovered that there is a huge upfront cost of adding solar panels to your Escondido house.  In fact the cost ranges from $20,000 to $60,000.  But do they pay for themselves?  Of course, I went to Google to get my answers.    I found a website, http://estimator.find-solar.org  that will allow you to calculate the savings on your own Escondido property.  Your start by plugging in your monthly average SDG&E bill.  I used $200 a month.  Based on just that data, the solar estimator quickly gave me some calculations for my home.  They were based on saving me 1/2 of my electrical utility bills.  That means they would be saving me $100 per month.  The initial cost of my custom solar system was estimated at $$40,410.  SDG&E would provide me a $4,445 credit.  The Federal government would give a 30% credit (out of your tax dollars) to me for installing solar.  With these credits I would still have an out of pocket, up front cost of $25,175.  Wow!  That would save me $100 a month or $1200 a year assuming no maintenance cost.   Bottom line, it would take over 20 years just to get my money back on installing solar panels.  With maintenance, etc. it would take considerably longer.  Bottomline, solar panels are certainly not free energy for the tax payers paying for them and they certainly are not free for the Escondido home owner.  Will they help you sell your Escondido real estate for more money or faster?  I don’t think so.  For more information contact Gary Harmon, your top Escondido Realtor.