Solar panels are becoming more common among middle-class consumers, and more and more people are realizing that they offer considerable benefits and advantages.
In fact, between 2010 and 2014, usage in the United States grew by a staggering 418 percent. While solar power still accounts for just 1% of the country's power grid, a quadrupling of capacity in just four years shows the technology's tremendous long-term potential.
Here we look at some of the advantages of solar panels that you may not have considered.
Although you probably know that solar panels will definitely save you money on your electric bills. 5 Smart Hacks to Save Electricity in Your Smart Home 5 Smart Hacks to Save Electricity in Your Smart Home The trick to saving electricity is to know where most of your energy is consumed. Energy. Read More
Of course, there are installation costs associated with solar panels. Although the aforementioned use of solar panels is due to falling costs (the price of buying a typical system has fallen by more than half in recent years), unfortunately, the cheapest 5 kW systems (enough for an average sized house) will still set you back. $15,000.
It's a significant upfront charge, but that initial investment will end up saving you a lot of money in the long run. If you can't pay that much money up front, you can use a clean energy loan or talk to your utility company (some now subsidize up to 50 percent of a system's costs).
Also, the exact amount you can save depends on where you live. The further south you are, the more sun you will have. That means you'll need to draw less power from the national grid, and your savings will be even greater.
According to a study conducted by the North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center at North Carolina State University, in the 50 largest cities in the United States, customers who invested in solar panels saved an average of $115 per month during the first year they owned their system. The highest savings were in San Francisco ($187), the lowest in Portland ($44).
Over a twenty year period, you can expect to save 10 to 15 percent on your bills. That may not sound like much, but remember that US Treasuries over that same period would give you a yield of less than 4 percent!
There are two sides to the argument that increasing your property value is one of the benefits of solar panels. Detractors have claimed that having "ugly" solar panels plastered across your roof can negatively affect your property's value, but most realtors disagree.
The argument for says that in an era when middle-class families are increasingly seeing their incomes squeezed, a property that includes an “incorporated” How to Reduce Household Expenses How to Reduce Your Household Expenses in 7 Easy Steps How to reduce your household expenses in 7 easy steps Tired of seeing all your income go to bills and expenses? You're not alone We show you some of the best ways to reduce your household expenses. Read More
There is also the argument that as more homes install solar panels, not having solar panels can lower your property value. 8 Property search engines to find your next home instantly. 8 Property Search Engines to Find Your Next Home Instantly. Yourself back in the money, and looking for a place to buy or rent, then the Internet is the place to look for the best properties and best deals. Read More For example, in the same way that today you would seriously question the wisdom of buying a property without an Internet connection, in 20 years you may seriously question the wisdom of buying a property without renewable energy.
As with anything in the home, you'll need to maintain your system.
Fortunately, very little maintenance is required in a properly installed and well-designed setup. It is a common misconception that you will have to spend a lot of time and money to fix it.
The only cost you can definitely expect to incur is a replacement inverter within the first twenty years. It will cost around $800. Of course, you will also need insurance against other unexpected events, such as a component failure or a severe storm damaging the panels.
If you live in the United States, you can receive a tax credit against the installation costs of your solar power system.
The current law establishes:
At this time the credit is guaranteed until the end of 2016..
A similar policy operates in the UK:the government will pay households for all the electricity they generate, regardless of whether it is used or not. The current rate is 12.92p/kWh, but this is due to change next year. For a house in the sunny (ish!) South of England, this would work out to a payment of roughly £700 per year.
Failures in a city's electrical infrastructure, adverse thunderstorms, and above-average demand for electricity can cause blackouts. They can last from minutes to hours, or in the most severe cases, even weeks.
They are always annoying, but one of the advantages of solar panels is that you may not even notice the difference - your life could continue as normal. Unfortunately, this benefit comes at a cost.
Most solar panel systems do not have a battery to store energy, but rather feed any excess energy that has been generated back into the grid. This is a safety issue:Solar power output varies directly with sunlight levels, and connecting a variable resource directly to your home's electrical system would wreak havoc on your fixed draw electrical components.
Unfortunately, the cost of installing a battery can be prohibitive, potentially doubling the cost of your system. You also need to consider the environmental impact:batteries are toxic, expensive to dispose of, and have a short lifespan.
Of course, a generator will also keep power flowing through your home, but they are noisy, require new electrical wiring to allow you to “plug in” your entire home, and spew out a wide variety of toxic fumes.
Unfortunately, as the world becomes increasingly industrialized, it seems that environmental horror stories are constantly making headlines. Unfortunately, our reliance on fossil fuels is a major contributor to these stories.
Large-scale disasters such as the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, air pollution problems in major cities, and the relentless warming of the Earth's atmosphere can be traced back to the use of the human race by The humanity. “black gold”.
With global electricity demand projected to double in 50 years, it is vital that we reduce these effects.
Biodiversity is already being affected, for example, the western Amazon is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet, but it also contains some of the largest oil and gas reserves in the world. Aside from biodiversity, these areas also perform vital services for our planet, such as creating fresh water, regulating climate, and managing carbon storage.
From a health perspective, the facts also speak for themselves. The World Health Organization classified air pollution as carcinogenic to humans in 2013:they say breathing air in cities like New Delhi and Shanghai is equivalent to smoking 40 cigarettes a day. In fact, they claim that in 2010, air pollution caused 223,000 deaths from lung cancer alone.
Would you make the jump to solar energy? If not, why not? What do you perceive to be the disadvantages or advantages of solar panels? Are there other ways to generate electricity? 8 Incredible New Ways to Generate Electricity 8 Incredible New Ways to Generate Electricity Alternative energy is one of the biggest, but you may not know about all the options. These are some of the craziest new ways to generate power. Read More
What about other benefits we've missed? Can you think of some obvious advantages that would convince critics of the technology? As always, we'd love to hear from you. You can let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
