Comments on: solar a-no-go http://www.chizang.net/alex/blog/2007/04/23/solar-a-no-go/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=solar-a-no-go infinite spew Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:21:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Joe http://www.chizang.net/alex/blog/2007/04/23/solar-a-no-go/comment-page-1/#comment-9168 Joe Mon, 30 Apr 2007 19:45:28 +0000 http://www.chizang.net/alex/blog/2007/04/23/solar-a-no-go/#comment-9168 The calcs from that website are not apples to apples. You can't compare a $46K outlay today to $500 savings every year because of the time value. In today's terms, a $500 savings 80 years from now is pretty much worthless. Said differently, if I invested $15 now, at 4.5% interest (Compounded annually), it would be worth a little over $500. As such, you can't just multiply $500/yr times 80 and compare to 46K, you have to discount each year's $500 into today's terms. I am all for alternative energy, but that "investment" would be terrible... -Joe The calcs from that website are not apples to apples. You can’t compare a $46K outlay today to $500 savings every year because of the time value. In today’s terms, a $500 savings 80 years from now is pretty much worthless. Said differently, if I invested $15 now, at 4.5% interest (Compounded annually), it would be worth a little over $500. As such, you can’t just multiply $500/yr times 80 and compare to 46K, you have to discount each year’s $500 into today’s terms. I am all for alternative energy, but that “investment” would be terrible…

-Joe

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