well thats where the concept of payback comes into play... lets say you spend 20,000 dollars on a solar panel set up. Off the bat your gonna get around $6000 in tax deductions through gov't incentive programs. So ur out of pocket $14,000. now lets say it lowers your monthly bill to $250 a month your saving $650 a month on elec. The system will have paid for itself in roughly 21 months. The thing to remeber is that you are spending the money the solar panels would cost ANYWAY on your electirc bill, and you will continue to spend that money over and over and over again. The numbers i used are not really accurate but they explain the principle of payback. Over time a solar panel system will pay for itself several times over, unfortunately most people would rather spend a nickel a day for the rest of their lives than lay out $50 upfront to never have to do it again. obviously a $50,000 investment for a payback that will take 50 years isnt a smart investment because technologies change/improve over time, but in a situation where your laying out almost $1,000 a month for electricity a 20,000 dollar investment to lower your bill even by half is money well spent.
