Electrical costs can vary for each type of project you have. Your projects can run between adding a receptacle to installing a solar powered system. Many times an electrician must come out to your house to view your particular situation instead of giving a price over the phone.
For example, let’s say you hire a good electrician to wire a simple problem. Do you think you are going to get an electrician that is cheap? Maybe in this economy you might. But you can’t get them for nothing. In order to keep their license, an electrician must pay workman’s compensation and liability insurance. They must also have business insurance on their work trucks. On their vehicles, they also have upkeep, fuel, and maintenance.
Many electricians who work for themselves don’t make that much on a per hour basis. One job I did I figured that by the time I pay for fuel, time and all the insurances, it cost me more to do a job than it is to work for somebody else. It’s just not worth it sometimes when an individual homeowner wants you to work for low wages. I agree that I would want something for a low price, as low as I can get it, but not lower than what the electrician can afford. If that happens, he may try to cut corners to save. If an electrician cuts corners, that means you, as a homeowner, can lose.
I can understand calling to get another price. But some people call around so much that they get confused. And then when I am their 9th caller, they get offended when I tell them the truth. The truth hurts. I seem to be the only one who tells homeowners that you can’t run a 2400 sq. ft. house on 4000 watt solar powered system.
Recently, this happened. One person called me up and said he has a 2400 sq. ft. house and wants to run his house with air conditioning on a 4000 watt solar powered system. I explained to him that a 4000 watt system would run his lights, and small appliances, certainly not a central air conditioning and heating system. He kept referring back to another price he had received from another solar installer. He didn’t believe me so I told him good luck with that.
It gets dark you know at night. Not all solar powered systems have battery backups. What about cloudy and overcast days? OK, that was one day of autonomy, or days without sun. If you don’t have sunlight there will be no battery charging available. How many days can you go without electricity? Can you go 3, 4, 5, 10, or 15 days? It is ridiculous to try and get a battery backup system for a home, unless you are a billionaire. It is not cost effective. There are incentives available but they are not enough to cover a battery backup system for a whole house that runs your central air conditioning, lighting and electronics.
Little things in a house mount up like you washing machine, dryer, microwave. It doesn’t matter if you have a 2400 sq. ft. house that is the most energy efficient house in the world. All houses have a refrigerator, washing machine, dryer, and then some. There are appliances that you use even in an energy efficient house that has natural gas. It doesn’t matter if you have a natural gas stove, gas furnace, and gas dryer. A washing machine (and other appliances) still needs amperage to run.
The only way you know what you need is to monitor it for a month. Monitor your usage: what you use, and how you use it. I can use a washing machine every day and my usage is different than someone who uses it weekly. Usage is a total cost of what you use per month. It is usually listed in detail on your electrical bill. 4000 watts is not going to generate that much power. Look at it like this: 4000 watts for 5 hours a day is 20,000 watts a day, or 600,000 a month. 600,000 watts a month is not even close to an average cost of 1.5 million watts the average homeowner uses. Electrical costs for solar installation can range but you need to study your usage to be prepared. I still agree that going solar is the best!
Posted by: |