Do Solar Panels ACTUALLY Save Money? How Solar Panels Fix Rates

Utility costs continue to increase across America while squeezing family budgets. Some homes in Florida Electricity rates went up by about 24% over in 2023. Even with upcoming “price drops” the net increase is still somewhere around 15-20%. Homeowners are tired of ever-increasing power bills from huge electric companies. But there is a solution – installing rooftop solar panels. Solar panels fix rates for electric costs and save homeowners a lot of money.

Generating your own renewable energy can save tens of thousands over the long term instead of paying the rates from the grid. With affordable financing options, solar replaces your electric bill with one that does NOT continue to increase. That stacks up to huge savings. Here’s how it plays out.

Utility companies consistently hike their kWh rates year after year. These endless rate increases stem from:

• Infrastructure costs – Maintaining power plants and transmission lines requires massive capital expenditures. These costs inevitably get passed on to customers.
• Fuel price volatility – Coal and natural gas prices fluctuate, driving up electric costs. Companies cover this by raising rates.
• Profit motives – Investor-owned companies are focused on profits. Meeting shareholder return expectations leads to frequent rate hikes.
• Inflation – As costs rise over time, utilities raise rates to compensate, leading to inflated power bills.
• Monopoly-like structure- You are not allowed to shop around for the energy company you prefer. If you live in an area, you have one option. This means there is no competition to push the company to earn your business. You are stuck with them and if you don’t pay what they demand they shut your power off. That’s it.

Net metering policies are what make solar power so cost-effective. This billing arrangement credits solar homeowners for power fed back into the grid. Here’s how it works:

1. Your solar panels produce electricity for your own home’s usage. This solar power offsets your electric bill.
2. Any extra solar energy gets sent to the grid for your electric company to use and you are credited for it.
3. On cloudy days when your solar system produces less, it redeems your banked credits.
4. Systems are designed to overproduce during the summer to offset cloudy weather during the winter.

This is like banking your own solar fuel for the future. With solar payments locked in, you avoid paying more when the utility seeks its next increase.

To illustrate the long-term savings from solar versus increasing electric costs, let’s run some numbers.

Say your current electric rate is 15 cents per kWh, costing $150 per month. If the utility raises rates just 3% annually, in 25 years your bill would balloon to over $300 per month! And after that, you’d be still subject to the same increases. And just to point out, 3% is nowhere near the 20-30% increase thousands of Florida homes had in 2023…

Instead, you could install a solar array and cover your typical usage for a fixed rate that is in the same range, but without increasing every year. That is how solar panels lock in low energy costs, by stopping their constant increase.

Solar tends to cost around 60% of the 25 year cost of the electric companies, and that’s without any of our other Home Efficiency Features. Financially speaking, it’s just not financially sensible to keep buying energy from the electric company.

Rather than being price gouged forever by the electric company, take control of your energy costs with rooftop solar. You’ll slash your electric bills while locking in affordable and clean power for the long haul. Break free of increasing electric rates and start harnessing the power of the sun. To set yourself free from the billing system you’ve been stuck with, set up your Home Efficiency Appointment now!