A donation of $7000 could save us $250 a month for the remainder of our time here.
Let me 'splain.
A friend of mine recently installed an Outback battery backup/solar inverter system in his house. The panels up on his roof charge the batteries in his house, and the batteries power his entire house well into the later hours of the night. As a result, his large initial investment has saved him $75 p/month on electricity.
Electricity in this country is expensive. Our bill is approximately $250 a month, and that is AFTER taking several power saving steps some of which I've blogged about.
The price of electricity keeps going up, but the SUN... she's a free!
In the setting up of his system, I've been keenly alert of his progress. He's taught me a few things. The First is that batteries are about 50% of the cost. Shipping them here is pricey, maintaining them, and keeping them charged.
I spent a few hours with him the other day as he briefed me on the entire setup, but not being an electrician, I simply could not do it myself... which is when he told me this:
"I've been working on a plan which should reduce your total monthly electricity bill to Zero. It's called a 'sunny boy'. And there are no batteries and no complex monitoring involved. You put solar panels on your roof, you use normal electricity at night, and your power meter goes forward, your bill goes up. Then during the sunny days when you're not home using power (you're at work) the inverter sells the power back to the grid, making your power meter go BACKWARD, and your bill goes down. It has the potential to reduce your bill to nothing, as well as benefiting the community by providing more power.)
WHAT?!!! I had no idea your power meter (that spinning wheel in glass outside your house) could spin BACKWARDS!
This system wouldn't provide as much as his did, but it isn't as complex or expensive either. Batteries provide protection from over-voltage (spikes), under voltage, power outages etc. A sunny-boy system would still be subject to all of that. So we would still need UPS's on all our major electronics.
But the idea that a simple $7000 initial investment would have very little to no recurring maintenance costs.... and could save us up to $250 a month seemed like a no-brainer.
The investment would pay itself off in under 30 months. That's under 2 and a half years, and after that not only is all our future electricity free, but whoever owns this house after we leave the country wouldn't have a power bill.
WOW! can you imagine THAT as a selling feature? "Buy this home and never pay for electricity again".
Does it seem too good to be true? Well no. We don't have the cash for the initial purchase... nor do we have the expertise to install it. But I know people who know people. We would be a guinea pig installation, and because of that I think I could get friends to install it who are interested in proving the concept.
It's also not as good as a battery system. For $4000 more you end up having the TOTAL system, with power protection etc. But that system wouldn't be right for a house with too many buttons and levers to flip already.
Anyway, I love the idea. And I think when we're back home on furlough we'll be presenting this idea to some churches. Something like
$3000 buys the solar panels
$2000 buys the inverter
$1000 buys the cabling and conduit
$1000 buys the installation and mounting hardware.
I wonder if people would be more willing to donate for a one time ticket item, instead of agreeing to support us for $250 per/month for the rest of our lives... because that's what it would be.
If I had the capital right now, I would do this. I'm not willing to go into debt to do it, but I think it would one of those investments that keep on giving... because the price of power is only going to be going up.
