What has been driving the adoption of renewable energy technologies? Perhaps not surprisingly, in this economy, for home owners it's more about savings than going green. People are realizing that energy costs are too high, too volatile, and too unpredictable as they approach retirement ...
With too few safe investments, renewable energy offers a low risk return of consistent savings that, with government incentives, will pay for itself within approximately 5 years ...
For example, there are several components the analysis that we overlook when calculating payback for geothermal:
1) when retrofitting an older heating system, or installing for new construction, the buyer must compare the cost to a new non-renewable energy system; it is the difference in price that we shold see paid back over time ... if the older system is still working, consider the pro-rated value and subtract this from the new traditional system ... typically an average quality system over 15yrs has passed it's life expectency, an average quality system over 20yrs is typically in need of replacement and performing below it's original efficiency rating.
2) consider the value added to the property with renewable energy - the industry estimates an additional $10,000 in value for every $1000.00 in annual energy costs saved
3) apply all government sponsored credits and rebates to the renewable energy systems before calculating the difference in price between the traditional system and the renewable energy system
