Home owners with solar panels, after about how many years will the savings pay off the initial and recurring costs? My math shows i’d need to save 2.7 万 per year to pay them off in 10 years; which would never happen because my bill is not that high. Thanks in advance!
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they were worth it like 10-15 years ago, the subsidies and buy back prices are shit now.
only way it makes sense now is with energy storage and using it for yourself. but someone else can do the math.
We got a quote/simulation from a solar company and we wouldn’t break even until 10~15 years on, at which point the technology will probably be better and cheaper anyway so…. we decided against it.
It’s just the two of us though. And our area didn’t offer any subsidies. Probably better savings for a big family somewhere with better subsidies or eco programs.
one thing to note is that having solar panels will insulate you from some of the energy price increases will will definitely happen. Don’t forget to include that in your calculation.
For us our solar panels came free with the house as a special campaign. For us, the solar panels generated about 16man last year. at 35 yen sell rate for 5.6kwh of panels. And on top of that it also reduced the electricity that we used as well as I work from home so the total value saved was closer to 20man+.
We’ll be getting a battery in 2025 though as our contract ends that year.
We had a guy come around trying to sell us the solar panels when we moved into our new house.
I asked him how much I would save per year so I could do the math and he said he didn’t know. So I asked him why should I get solar panels if I’m not gonna save money and he replied “for the environment”. I laughed and said goodbye.
Got a 9.6kw setup this year and broke even from day #1. The lease is about 13k yen/month with a locked selling rate of 17 yen/kwh for 10 years. Balancing lease and buy/sell of power we’re ending up with a total energy cost of about 2-3k yen per month for our house. Will consider battery once the lease is up and our selling rates go down but for now the lifespan isn’t worth the investment for us.
Some people are talking about insulating yourself from future price increases in energy, however it’s important to note that solar panel technology will also improve.
I’m not saying this as a point against getting solar panels now but rather just that both considerations are hypothetical.
The decision to get solar panels really is heavily based on whether or not your circumstances align with that purchase. For example whether or not you have an electric car, local subsidies, are you building a house now or are you trying to add them to a older house, what sort of battery can you afford currently, what is your monthly energy consumption, etc.
We got the solar panels then after a while got the battery. It’s well worth it as we have had two or three power cuts and thus the battery kicks in. In the event of an earthquake, saying the house is still standing – it will be a godsend !
we got our 6kw system for 1.08m yen. it produces about 7000kwh a year.
with current sale price of 16 yen that’s 1.12m yen in 10 years, if we were to sell 100% of generated elec.
but these past 60 days we used about 360 kwh directly from generated electricity. so compared to selling we saved about 2500 yen extra per month (30 yen buying price minus 16 yen selling), which is 5000 yen for July/aug. with another one (or two hot months to go) it’s probably gonna be a total saving of about 8000 yen. let’s say winter is another 6000 and rest of year 3000 yen saving. we’re now up 17000 yen extra saving a year.
at 10 year mark that would be about 1.3m (1.12m +0.17m extra saving) in total.
let’s assume that after 10 years selling rate drop to 8 yen (like it is now) then you can sell elec for 55k yen a year + 26k savings (by not buying from elec net)
efficiency of solar panel do drop to 90% at 10 year mark and 80% at 25 year mark tho so should probably lower a bit of these numbers. and a new inverter after 10-15 year is another 150k
idk doesn’t seem that profitable compared to getting compound interest on that initial 1.08m haha but we went YOLO on this one lol
What about a solar car port?
Be careful with this one mate, heaps of solar energy companies try to sell you with some bullshit plan, install your own outside of a company, then have a registered electrician install them and sign of on the live feed.
We built a house a couple of years ago and a few salespeople stopped by to try to sell panels. For us, the numbers just didn’t add up. We were looking at an almost 20 year payback period (solar and battery). The battery in particular was ridiculously overpriced compared to what was available in the US at the time.
Like a lot of things here, it’s just way overpriced. Compared to what is available in the US where a typical payback period (including subsides) on solar is 7 to 10 years, it’s not a good financial decision.
I installed solar panels on my business over 10 years ago when it was still around 42yen per kilowatt. I paid them off last year.
Now thou the rates are super cheap and power is quite expensive so I am not sure it it’s worth it now.
I make about 70,000 in the summer and 40,000 in the winter for my system depending on weather etc.
However as others have stated, it does help every month no matter how much you make. Money is money lol
For me, solar panels are about a lot more than just the cost of the panels and power today.
Energy costs are going up and are likely to continue to do so. I expect the JPY will weaken further in the coming years, and I don’t think fossil fuel costs will drop even in USD terms. With how reliant Japan is now on burning fossil fuels to generate electricity, that will drive up power costs further.
I also think that as the planet continues to have more extreme weather that we will start to have power shortages, even in Japan.
Being able to generate enough power to run your own house is going to become increasingly more important in the years to come.
But, that’s my opinion. I’d happily spend a couple of million yen on solar panels for the peace of mind.
10-15 years ago, it was a home run to install solar panels.. Easy decision to make.. Batteries never made any financial sense and I doubt they do now too.. You would never make your money back and would lose a huge chunk.. Do solar panels make sense now? You’re going to have to do the math. Calculate your average return and see how long it takes to get your money back and then compare it to your opportunity cost.. you could have put that money somewhere else .. my gut hunch is it’s probably a wash at best and probably not worth it unless you just “really want them”, or care about the environment.
Wait, you don’t pay 2.7万 a year for electic?