My solar panels paid for themselves after a brutal August in Texas

I installed a 5kW system on my house in San Antonio back in 2021 and watched my electric bill drop from $180 to $12 during that 100 degree heatwave last month. But I never actually calculated the breakeven point until I sat down and saw the total savings hit $5,800 after three summers of running my AC nonstop. Have any of you seen a bigger jump in savings during extreme weather compared to normal months?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_lisa28d ago

Hang on, $5,800 in savings after three summers? That math might be a little off. If your bill dropped from $180 to $12, that's $168 saved per summer month, but you only highlighted August. Are you counting all the months you run the AC, or just the hottest ones? Because three whole summers of AC plus normal usage adds up fast, but it's not really a "jump" during extreme weather. Isn't the whole point that solar saves you more when the sun is beating down and rates spike, but your baseline savings stay the same?

williams.sage28d ago

Baseline savings stay the same" nails it, those small monthly cuts really stack up.

spencer78228d ago

The "baseline savings stay the same" part you mentioned is huge, @the_lisa. People think solar is just a one time fix for summer, but it really starts chipping away at your bill every single month you're generating power, not just the hot ones. My buddy in Tucson went solar two years ago and his winter bills are still like $18, not $70, because the panels are still making juice even when it's cloudy. So that $5,800 could easily be real if you add up all those smaller month to month savings plus the big summer jumps.