Most of us buy our bread at the grocery store. Many of us don’t even look at the price. If it’s a dollar or five dollars, what? Are we going to go without bread? Not likely. French toast, regular toast, subs and sandwiches … we love bread, and it shows because it pretty much gets its own aisle at the grocery store and then there is a bakery to boot.
Anybody ever bake their own bread? We are sure a few of you do. Is it as tasty as the bread you can buy from the grocery store? Better? It’s better? Better than the bread you can buy at the grocery store? That seems to be the most common answer when we took a short poll among the bread bakers in our orbit. It’s good we got that answer too, because it supports our point here.
Baking your own bread must be expensive, right? What? It isn’t? These jolly bakers explained that the ingredients that go into a loaf of regular home baked sandwich bread is much less than what a loaf at the store costs. Okay, so far it tastes better and costs less. What about the labor? Baking bread is pretty labor intensive.
It’s not? About ten minutes prep time (not including refrigeration if necessary) and another five to clean up? Some recipes might require additional steps and/or ingredients to add a 1 to 3 minute variable on this. Baking times vary too, but all are less than an hour. (WARNING: Do not ask bakers about sour dough. It’s a never-ending conversation you cannot escape from.)
Well, home baked bread must be bad for you. It doesn’t have any of those yummy preservatives, pesticides, and dyes that provide all those health benefits. Preservatives, pesticides, and dyes aren’t good for you? It turns out that home baked breads do not have any of that bad stuff, but retain all the vitamins, minerals, and nutrients we expect from bread.
Without getting too far into the bread baking weeds here, it was unanimous among all bakers polled, that home baked bread is better, cheaper, healthier, and easier than store bought bread. So, why doesn’t everybody bake their own bread at home?
Now, let’s talk solar. Solar electricity you produce with your own panels is better than the electricity you buy from your power company in the same way that home baked bread is better than store bought.
How is it better? First, it is local to you and under your control. You can monitor it and see it produce. Depending on your set up, you can prioritize its use, direct it. It increases the value of your property. As of now, there is a tax credit for purchasing.
Reliability also makes it better. As more people move to Florida, about 1200 net per day, and strain the electrical grid, many experts are predicting future brown and blackouts. The grid is aging. Hurricane is a season. Solar with batteries is a solution to those concerns and knowing they are prepared is a comfort for most.
It is less expensive. Take your average power bill to costtodonothing.com and plug it in the “Average monthly power bill” box. Ignore the annual percentage increase box (For now.). Just look at the number in the “30 years with No Increase” box. That is the sum of your average power bill multiplied by 360 months. That is how much you will spend on electricity over the next 30 years if rates stay the same. (Pro-Tip: They won’t.) Let’s say your average bill is the same as the average for Florida right now, according to Google which seemingly gives a different number every time we ask, it is $150 to $160/month. Let’s use $150. 30 Years with No Increase is $54,000. It would cost about half that much to put enough solar on your home to compensate for $150 power bill. Home baked solar electricity is cheaper than store-bought power company electricity.
How is it healthier? Solar has no smokestacks. It creates no pollution. Some will argue that transporting it and manufacturing has harmful effects. It is a heavily politicized issue, and one side says renewable energy will save the world and the other says it won’t. We don’t know who to believe any more than you do. We look at a power plant and then look at a solar array, the solar looks healthier for us and the planet.
Solar is easier. For most solar customers it is as easy as switching from paying your power company forever to paying your solar finance company for the length of the term. Some solar customers elect to pay cash and get rid of the monthly expense for electricity altogether and immediately. The average ROI period is 6 to 9 years. All the engineering, permitting, and installation woes are handled by your contractor.
Like delicious home baked bread, solar electric is better, cheaper, healthier, and easier than continuing to buy it from the power company. Also, it is not just cheaper than buying it from your power company, it is a lot cheaper.
$54,000 is not a realistic number. We know power companies are going to raise their rates. Historically this rate increase has been about 5%. Applying that increase every year for 30 years makes your total electric expense closer to $125,569.42 paid to the power company with nothing to show for it. What are we missing?
Why aren’t we talking yet? (Happy baking.)
PS — 100 days from now until the tax credit ends.
