Monday, April 12, 2010

Car or renewable energy. Which is the better value?

I just finished up the Habitat for Humanity Home and Garden Show here in Traverse City. I had a pretty steady flow the whole weekend. But the common theme seem to be "Boy that is expensive!"

So I got to thinking about this statement. It has been something that I've wanted blog about for awhile.

Lets take my truck, the one that I would use to bring material to your project. I am going to use rough numbers for this example when I compare the $16,500.00 solar package that I had listed for the show, which is still available for this price until the end of the month.

I purchased a new 2005 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD it cost around $30000.00. I managed to pay it off in 3 1/2 years. But since then it still continues to cost me money, a lot of MONEY!!! I will be using 4 years for the example not 5 years because I have not owned it for 5 yet.

Fuel: $ 20,800.00 ($100 to fill up average over 4 years)
Oil Changes: $990.00 ( I have 110000 miles and I change the oil every 5k miles)
Repairs $ 4000.00 (Brake job twice and a transmission replaced)
Tires: $1800.00 (3 set of tires every 30k miles)
Misc: $500.00
Insurance: $6000.00
Total $34,090.00 ( That does not include the truck and the interest that I paid for the loan.)

Now this is not typical of someone that may have a car and this is just to illustrate how the solar package that I am currently offering is a great deal compared to a vehicle.

But if I didn't have to have this vehicle I could have bought about 4 solar systems. Lasting me 20 plus years with little or no extra costs. Which would eliminate my electrical cost to the power company for years to come.

If you do the math for a vehicle and how much it costs. Which people have no problem spending that kind of money. When in about 7 years they will turn around and buy another and start all over again with the cycle.

So what sounds like a better value to you in the end?

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