- The following chart shows how we are paying for our 3.45kw Solar installation. The top part of the chart shows the rebates and loans that we are using to pay for the array and how much we have paid back so far using the money we have saved and earned from the array.
- The total system costs was approx $26,400. State and Federal tax rebates add up to $8,920. The Performance Based Incentive (PBI) is $15,840 paid back at 18.7 cents per KWh generate.
- We pay 12.17 cents per KWh that we draw from the grid, we get the same rate for every KWh we push back to the grid, except if we push more to the grid on an annual basis than we pull from the grid. Any surplus we push to the grid only earns about 4.5 cents per KWh (that's the wholesale price my power Coop pays for electricity). Currently (May 2011) we have banked a surplus of 1759 kWh, if we don't eat into that by this September that will be worth $79.
- We borrowed 25% of the total cost ($6,600) from the power company at 3% over 5 years. The loan principle, plus interest and application fees, comes out to $7,115.40. We put $8,800 on a credit card using a 0% for 1 year promotional rate and we financed the rest out of pocket.
- That takes care of the top part of the chart.
- On the lower part we show income and payments. Since the tax rebate is more than we owe in a year (more than 2 years actually), we set our income tax withholding to $0, that way we don't have to wait until April to get our rebate. We did this back in January and used the first four months of savings to pay for some of the costs up front.
- The Inc Tax column is an approx amount calculated by taking what we'd normally owe in State and Federal income taxes for a year and dividing it 12.
- The Electric Bill savings are how much we save each month minus the extra costs for Net Metering. Net metering costs an extra $2.70 a month, but we also save about $4 a month in taxes and surcharges on our electric bill, so even that comes out in our favor.
- We then use this income/savings to pay off the loan from the power company and the credit card. Once those are both paid off we will pay back ourselves :-)
| Rebates & Incentives
|
|
Loans & Cash Investment
|
|
|
Income Tax
Rebates
|
Performance Based
Incentive
|
|
SSVEC Loan
|
Credit Card
|
Cash
Investment
|
Original
Amount
|
$8,920
|
$15,840
|
|
$7,115.40
|
$8,893 *
|
$5,300
|
Currently
Outstanding
|
$0
|
$13,666.30
|
|
$4,625.01
|
$322.34
|
$4,050.91
|
Estimated
Payoff Date
|
Nov 2011
|
Jan 2021
|
|
Mar 2015
|
Dec 2011
|
Sep 2015
|
| Income / Savings
|
Loan Payments / Cash Back
|
| Current Year
|
Inc Tax
|
PBI
|
Elec Bill
|
Total
|
SSVEC Loan
|
Credit Card
|
Cash Back
|
| Jan 2011
|
$353
|
$92.38
|
$59.61
|
$504.99
|
$118.59
|
$386.40
|
|
| Feb 2011
|
$353
|
$123.61
|
$56.67
|
$533.28
|
$118.59
|
$414.69
|
|
| Mar 2011
|
$353
|
$127.16
|
$60.51
|
$540.67
|
$118.59
|
$422.08
|
|
| Apr 2011
|
$356
|
$145.11
|
$47.01
|
$548.12
|
$118.59
|
$429.53
|
|
| May 2011
|
$356
|
$156.52
|
$44.48
|
$557
|
$118.59
|
$438.41
|
|
| Jun 2011
|
$356
|
$164.93
|
$62.03
|
$582.96
|
$118.59
|
$464.37
|
|
| Jul 2011
|
$356
|
$127.53
|
$70.39
|
$553.92
|
$118.59
|
$435.33
|
|
| Aug 2011
|
$356
|
$93.87
|
$63.48
|
$513.35
|
$118.59
|
$394.76
|
|
| Sep 2011
|
$356
|
$101.17
|
$159.17 *
|
$616.34
|
$118.59
|
$497.75
|
|
| Oct 2011
|
$356
|
$96.31
|
$57.19
|
$509.50
|
$118.59
|
$390.91
|
|
| Nov 2011
|
$153
|
$114.26
|
$70.47
|
$337.73
|
$118.59
|
$219.14
|
|
| Dec 2011
|
$0
|
$93.50
|
$51.14
|
$144.64
|
$118.59
|
$26.05
|
|
| Previous year
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 2010
|
$5,216 *
|
$737.35
|
$414.29
|
$6,367.64
|
$1,067.31
|
$4,051.24
|
$1,249.09
|
* This number does not match the table from 2010 because monthly tax savings are only an estimate of federal tax saved. The number used here includes the $1,000 state tax rebate, plus we ended up with a few dollars more on the federal rebate than I'd estimated.
* Didn't pay off the credit card within a year so the 0% promotional rate expired. We transferred the balance to a different card for another year at 0% but the transfer cost us 3%. Added 93 to the original costs to account for this.
* Includes $67.45 annual true up for the 1995 kWh surplus I pushed to the grid.
We've decided to take the 60% PBI from the power company instead of waiting for the 50% rebate, The PBI is available now, but the waiting list for the rebates is currently about 3-4 years. Because the PBI is paid out over 15 years, and is declared to the IRS on a 1099 each year, it get's taxed as income and doesn't reduce the initial cost for figuring the Federal tax rebates.