Is The Glass Half Full Or Half Empty?

While waiting on my solar panels to arrive (and I have lots of time), I am beginning to calculate just how much I can run on them. I have looked at various websites and my current bill. Here is some of what I found. However, the real test is when the panels are installed to see how efficient they are and just how much sun I really get.

Over the past 13 months I averaged 462 Kwh or 35.5 Kwh per day. I average about $5.13 a day in energy cost.

Owing to efficiency losses and clouds and so on, my 2kw system might deliver about 1/3 of my power during the day. That might pay the system off in 5 years. That is not too bad considering that my current cost also includes electric water heater which is being converted to an on-demand propane unit. So 5 years might be a good estimate.

There are also Federal and in some cases State rebates and tax credits for solar. In my case, this is a capitol expense for the farm, which is a business expense, especially since I will be pumping water for irrigation and processing coffee. Much if not all of the coffee farm part of the business can be run off solar.

So these are ballpark estimates and may be off, but as you can tell, every little bit helps. It will be interesting to see what the electric bill is once I switch the water heater to propane.