I will start with my background. I'm 36 and my wife is 32. We have two young kids 5, and 2. We live in WV and our annual salary varies between $150K - 200K. I max my 457 plan every year (18K). My wife puts in 17% of her 60K salary into her 403b ($10K). We also put $900 monthly into an online saving account - Capital One 360 (formerly ING Direct) - it currently has a balance of ~$25K. We contribute $100 monthly per child into a 529 college savings account.
Our house: We bought a brand new home a year ago, valued at ~370K. We put down enough to bring the principal of our loan to $299K, with our current principal at $295K. Our mortgage payment is ~$1650 but we typically pay about $2100 to knock down the principal. The mortgage is my only debt. We have three vehicles with no payments. Our commuter is an 04 Accord with 307K miles and will eventually need to be replaced, but it's running well now. Plan on driving it until the wheels fall off.
So with all that out of the way, I had a solar company come out to the house today to give an estimate on purchasing a solar system. Here are the numbers: Total cost of system $35K - %30 federal tax credit = $25K for 38 panels. My energy use for the last year was 22,466 kW. I pay .11 per kW. That equals $2471 yearly for electric. With 38 panels the salesman estimates that the solar system can produce ~63% of my consumption. That leaves me to pay the remaining 37%. $2471 * 37% = $914 yearly in electric. $2471 - 914 = $1550 yearly savings. 1550/12= $130 monthly savings, averaged. $25K system cost / $1550 yearly savings = ~16 years for the system to pay for itself, less if the rates go up from my power company. He says 12 years, so my math might be a bit rough around the edges.
We plan on living here at least until I retire, which will be another 17 or 18 years.
Thoughts? What's the best way to pay for it? My wife and I were considering a home equity loan, since we can write off the interest on our taxes.
Thanks in advance.
Submitted February 01, 2017 at 01:39PM by Omaha419 http://ift.tt/2kWuthv
