Solar Power

[balactm]

Hahaha...I tried using this calculator: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.findsolar.com/index.php?page=rightforme">http://www.findsolar.com/index.php?page=rightforme</a><!-- m --> to figure out how much I'll need to spend on a system. I used a round electricity figure of $100 and to recoup 100% of that it's telling me I need to spend $40k+ after incentives on a system?? Yeah I'm not so interested now... that can't be right?

That's right around what it should be. I work for Shenandoah Sustainable Technologies (sst-llc.net) doing geothermal, solar, wind, solar thermal, rain-water catch systems, and waste water treatment installations and that's usually how the prices work out. My boss essentially covers the homeowner's actual utility cost and has the homeowner pay a fixed amount for a certain amount of time. It doesn't seem like much, but he's still in business...

If you have land, have you considered a waste water treatment system? If you want to go green, that's a good, relatively cheap way to start. It essentially uses gravity to run waste water through a filtration system and then runs all the filtered "water" into a greenhouse to fertilize plants and stuff. Saves a sewer/septic bill...