Financing Solar On New Home, Payback Is Instant [Video]

This is my 2nd video interview with Mary Coonce from Porchfront homes.

SolarDave: I am guessing working in Boulder is not a hard sell for green homes, do your clients bring up solar before you even mention it?

Mary Coonce: Well it is interesting, we have had several - we have had more before, once we had the green event, then we had people coming in saying hey can we have solar houses etc. So that is when we said, we better do some redesigns so we can accommodate them.

But it is really interesting because we offer all kinds of things for options, upgraded granite tops, two shower heads in the shower, spa type situation - that kind of thing. In addition to that we offer the solar, Icynene Isolation and some other green features and we advertise them like we would any other option. So for instance we somebody says hey I want another deck what is that going to cost me - we tell them this is how much it is going to cost and this is the change in your mortgage payment.

Then what we do with the green features is, we go thru the list and you want to put solar PV on your house or geothermal or Icynene Isolation and our other efficiencies, this is how much it costs, this is the increase in your mortgage payment, and this is the savings you have in your energy.

So basically it is right off the bat you are paying for your system. Because a lot of these more expensive like the solar and geothermal they say your payback is x number of years. And what we try to show is, if you are going to finance it, your payback is immediate.

Because you mortgage payment might be increased by $70 a month if you put solar on your house, you are saving at least $70 a month on your utility bill - so it is a wash.

SolarDave note: in the video the example you see in the text for the solar system is based off Namaste Solar Electric figures.