A Solar Win for an At-Home Dad

A good friend is looking at getting solar. He works from home and has a kid. I said that solar these days is especially good for his situation, as the more of the solar power you can use directly in your home, the greater the saving.

To explain, I did the maths (like on my Solar Maths page). This is the system he's looking at:

For $8,184 his 6kW system should generate about 9072 kWh a year. That would be a saving of between $1,270 and $2,667 per year, depending on how much is for his own use. Or to put it another way - a 15.5 to 32.5% return on his money. Much better than paying it off the mortgage.

I surprised even myself when I did these calculations. The prices of panels are just so good now. It inspired me to update my Solar Maths page with today's panel prices.

PS. Just to clarify, household solar power goes to the home first (a saving of 29.4 cents per unit) and any excess is then fed into the grid (the credit you receive for this can vary but is often around 14-16 cents). Hence the variation in the amount of savings, and hence my comment about the savings being higher for people (like my friend) who are consuming electricity during the daytime hours.