Working in the Utility industry for my entire professional career, I know the value of solar energy better than most. For years my wife and I considered going solar, before we finally pulled-the-trigger. We researched solar install companies, federal tax credits, watch YouTube videos and read reviews. After weighing the pros and cons, we decided to reach out to a few companies, met with sales rep after sales rep (10 of them to be exact!), they all tried to sell us solar. Several of the sales reps knew less than I did about how utility bills worked and how utilities made their money. Some used high-pressure techniques that made us feel uncomfortable and others just presented us with information.
The one thing that the majority of these sales reps had in common was that they had absolutely no clue what they were even selling. This left us feeling frustrated at the wasted time we had spent even exploring the option to go solar. To be fair, these sales representatives were out to make money, through commissions, so we understood that they had a certain angle. However, what these sales representatives were not prepared to encounter was my wife! They didn’t know that my wife has a particular set of skills… she can interrogate a sales rep like a seasoned FBI agent. This works in my favor most of the time, but it’s a double-edged sword… if you know what I mean.
To our surprise, none of these solar companies found that they could save us money on a monthly basis, and there is a simple reason why. We are a family of five, our three children (at the time) ranged from grade school to junior high aged. We are on a budget and are conservative with our electricity usage. So conservative, in fact, that our electricity usage was “too low” according to the solar companies that we met with. Every solar company that came to quote us, ran the numbers, and stated that going solar just “would not save us any money at that time.” Therefore, we continued to waste our money by “renting” our electricity from the large utility monopoly, paying those charges that the Utility Companies just love to pile on. We continued paying for the generation, transmission, distribution, and back-office costs that are associated with getting our power from a utility company. If we had gone solar, those payments would have gone to owning our own power and not continuing to give money away to the utility company that jacked up prices every year.
So, what changed? Well, we built a pool in 2017, then our kids were getting older and started using Chromebooks and other electronics as part of their education and for recreation. Simply put, our electricity needs were changing. What we missed in our meetings with all of these sales reps was the fact that our energy profile would change over time, but that the one constant would be the utility companies raising their prices year-after-year and our energy usage was slowly impacting our budget, incrementally, and that we were ignorant of how these costs would add up over time.
The moment of truth.
We decided to finally go all-solar once it became obvious that our family’s energy needs were changing and that our energy consumption (and costs) were only going up, never down. In addition, the federal tax credits, which started years early, were winding down. Each year that went by, the federal tax credit was reduced and, eventually, if we ever did decide to go solar, would cost us much more because we had waited! Therefore, in an effort to install solar panels before the 30% federal tax credit was reduced, we gave it one last shot. We called the only solar sales rep that we met with who didn’t “hard-sell” us, who we respected the most because he spent his time educating us on the value of going solar rather than trying to get our signature on a contract, and we made the decision to install solar that month. Looking back, as a seasoned Solar Sales Representative myself, I’d like to show you the flaws of all the sales reps that came before me (boy, were they wrong!), who should have connected the dots and informed us why going solar was still a smart financial decision even though our energy usage was lower than average households.
When you pay your utility bill each month, what you really are doing is renting your power from the utility. You are paying for all of the ancillary charges and actual costs associated with them generating or purchasing electricity and delivering it to your home. You are paying for everything! Taxes, labor union contracts, supply chain, the repair work, the wires and back investments that utility companies make, both in regulated and unregulated energy markets. When a utility gets sued, your rates take the hit. When annual inflation occurs, you take the hit. Your budget gets smaller every year, because utility rates inflate an average of 7 to 11 cents per kilowatt hour, depending on what state you live in. This may not seem like much of an incremental increase, but when you add these numbers up year-to-year, the costs are staggering. To put this in “real dollars”, the rate that you were paying for your electricity in 2010 has now increased by over 12%. Meaning, if electric cost you $200 a month in 2010, by 2020 you are now paying $223.85. The difference over 12 months is at total bill of $2,400 (2010) to $2,686.20. That’s whopping $286 dollars a year for renting energy that you will never get back. Those dollars are gone. Those dollars were not invested in your home or put towards an investment. They are gone forever.
Now, let’s say that you stick with your utility company and decide not to go solar today, assuming that your average electric utility bill is $150, then by 2030 your cost for the same amount of electricity (assuming a constant 3% inflation rate) will be $196.00 (a 24% increase)!
Let’s now assume that you go solar. You purchase a solar system and lock in a fixed payment at $200 per month. For a solar system that costs $35,000 to install, your payment stays the same over that same period… but, you have now paid down that system by $21,000 and are producing your own electricity at an average rate of 9 cents per kilowatt hour compared to the utility hour rate (by 2030) of approximately 17 cents per kilowatt hour (nearly double the cost). That savings goes back into your pocket, back into your family’s budget for you to use on your kids’ college, the new car you have always wanted, or the expensive home improvement project that you’ve desired.
This is why helping other families go solar is my passion. Helping our customers save money long-term is our specialty here at All Solar Texas, LLC. Selling solar with only short-term goals in mind is disingenuous and irresponsible. We are not focused only on our customers’ needs now, but on saving them a substantial amount of money over the next 20 years.
We understand that finding a trusted solar company is a difficult and tiring process. Don’t make the mistake I made of waiting too long to take advantage of all the benefits that solar panels have to offer. Let All Solar Texas, LLC show you how to make the best investment in your home, by owning solar and saving real money, while “goodbye” to inflated utility costs.
Check us out online at www.AllSolarTexas.com. Contact us at info@allsolartexas.com or call us at (800) 707-2259. We respond quickly and love hearing from customers!
Don’t take my word for it. Check out these resources:
- Average utility rates 2021 by state
- Electricity Inflation Calculator
- Average Solar Panel Costs
- Solar Increases Home Value
Example of Electric Escalation Rates: Utility vs. Solar
