Return on Investment & Conservation

It's crucial to address your energy needs before starting the Renewable Energy system planning process. Quite often, the load can (and should) be decreased through conservation measures, as opposed to simply sizing a larger, more costly unit to meet high energy demands. The latter would, of course, be a wasteful and inefficient use of solar materials. It should be commonly understood that for every dollar you spend on energy conservation methods, you will save $3 to $5 on the cost of a RE system. This concept is sometimes hard for individuals to grasp, probably because it is the least exciting--also possibly because it's hard to show off your new attic insulation to the neighborhood when it's inside the building and not on your roof.

A system that is designed properly will not exceed 100% of your electrical energy demand on an annual basis. Any power produced above your annual consumption level will be credited to you at the "Avoided cost" (wholesale cost), which is significantly less than the retail cost. Therefore, it's extremely difficult to make a profit on excess energy from an over sized system. From a net-metering standpoint, the utility company (LIPA) discourages over sized systems.

Since one of the main goals of a Grid-tied system is ROI, a fast payoff is key. Therefore, a modestly sized system and conscious conservation are key. Owning a RE system will encourage you to conserve energy even more than ever before because you will now have a "gas gauge" in front of you. Knowing that you made a costly investment, you will become aware of your system performance. By doing so, you will also become more aware of your energy consumption habits, past and present.

Moreover, rebate money is in limited supply. The less energy you consume, the smaller the system you can install. And the smaller the system you install, the more rebate money there is to go around! Help Long Island build the most systems it can!