SOLAR OR UTILITIES?

Try our 7-Step Comparison Guide

  1. Make two columns, one for your current or projected financing plus your average utilities and one with a repayment schedule that includes an alternative energy system.
  2. To estimate the size and cost of your alternative energy system, you must find out how much energy you use. Click on both the Tool and Appliance Wattage Calculators at the bottom of these instructions, to download forms to help you with your energy survey. Wattages are "ball Park" figures. Where possible, get the watts from the actual appliance or tool. Do not for get those "Phantom Loads!"
  3. Call your utility company and get a projected estimate of your average utility costs. For a refinance, use last year's utility bills, and add those costs to your monthly house payment.
  4. With your wattage chart complete, call or e-mail IDC to get an estimate of the cost of the system that best suits your life style. Add the cost of that system to the calculated cost of your financing (without the utility costs). Again, click on the Interest Rate Calculator to find out what the monthly payments would be if your alternative energy system were financed as a part of your home.
  5. If you already own a home, you may still calculate the cost of either your existing financing or refinancing your home then include your alternative energy system.
  6. Compare the cost of a house payment plus utilities with the cost of a house payment financed with the alternative energy system.
  7. In most cases, the payback for a solar system that lasts 25 to 30 years (or more) is much less than you would pay in utilities over the same period. Plus, you own the system!