How Solar Panels Add Value To Your Home (Video)

How Solar Panels Add Value to your Home: Video Below

Supporting Data for the Case Study Featured in the Video: A Household in Anaheim, CA versus one in Fullerton, CA

February 2011 Article: “Real Estate Sees Solar In A New Light“

Utility Cost Research: Anaheim Electricity

Here’s some power rate schedule info for the city of Anaheim, from a phone call with the municipal utility there: “Anaheim rates: Homeowner receives 9kw per billing day at a baseline which is – 270 kWH per month, and those kWhs cost 8 cents each. Any kWh above that costs 13 cents.”

For the example in the video above, 2000kWH/month equates to $2958.00 per year

(2000-270)*.13+270*.08 = $246.5 per month

246.5*12 = $2958.00 per year

Utility Cost Research: Fullerton Electricity

Here are SCE’s main rate (tiered) Tiers:

Up to 100%: $0.114000 / kWh

Up to 130%: $0.137000 / kWh

Up to 150%: $0.252000 / kWh

Up to 250%: $0.294000 / kWh

Beyond: $0.335000 / kWh

10.2 * 30.5 = 311.1 Winter

9.2 * 30.5 = 280.6 Summer

35.4654 12.78621 15.67944 91.4634 174.95375

Usage SCE Winter = 2000*.65 = 1300 = (.114*311.1) + (93.33*.137) + (.252*62.22) + (.294*311.1) + (.335* 522.25) = $330.229/Month

Usage SCE Summer = 2000*.35 = 700 = (.114*280.6) + (.137*84.18) + (.252*56.12) + (.294*279.1) = $212.366/Month

31.9884 84.18 14.14224 82.0554

Totals:

542.59504/month average for SCE bill = 6511.14048

246.5/mo for Anaheim bill = 2958

Difference = 3553

Assumptions about the homes/families:

We picked 2000kWh/month for the stick figure families, because it was a nice round number that helped make a clear point. Is that a lot of power for a home? Yes, that’s assuming they live in a pretty big, energy intensive household, and that they don’t scrimp much. They probably have a pool (related: solar pool heaters). There are many, many homes in the LA region that use this much juice.

In California, what this example is showing you is the difference solar energy makes when looking at tiered electricity costs. On the Fullerton side, in SCE territory, when you use a lot of power they begin to charge you more and more for it. Those who use 2000kWh/mo will show a stark difference in annual costs than the people on the other side of the street. Even 1000kWh/mo is extremely stark. When you get down to less than $500kWh/mo it probably doesn’t effect the home’s valuation all that much because they start to look more similar to each other.

References:

(1)

http://www.sce.com/CustomerService/billing/tiered-rates/tier-1.htm

Q. Why Does Baseline Cover 50–70% Of The Average Residential Use In A Baseline Region?

A. Baseline was never intended to cover 100% of average residential use, but rather to provide a significant portion of the reasonable energy needs to be charged at the lowest rate, and to encourage conservation of energy.

“The CPUC established that the baseline quantities be allocated at 50% to 60% of average residential consumption for basic services such as lighting, cooking, heating and refrigeration, except for residential gas and all-electric residential customers, the baseline quantity is established at 60% to 70% of the average residential consumption during the winter heating season.”

(here we assume 65% usage during winter baseline amount)

source for baselines in sector 8 (Fullerton)

(2)

http://www.sce.com/CustomerService/billing/tiered-rates/baseline-chart-map.htm

(3)

source for figuring out it’s sector 8 *see overlay of google maps and this:
http://www.sce.com/NR/rdonlyres/02FE720D-956D-44C7-B204-D48F830B79CC/0/090930_GRC_Map.pdf