Who Uses Solar Power?

For my first bit of research for my solar project I thought it might be nice to see who uses solar power. If I know who is using it then I will have a pretty good idea who might be reading this blog.

I found a great source for this at the HomePower Magazine.

“Male: 93.5%

Female: 6.5%

Average Age: 43.3

Undergraduate Degree or higher: 60.1%

Income: $55-$59K 11.4%, $60K-$69K 9.3%, $70K plus 39%

Homeowner: 84.8%

Location: Remote 5.2%, Rural 34.2%, Suburban 36.5%, Urban 22.2%, Mobile 1.9%

Utility Connected: Yes 86.0%, No 14.0%”

If you get a chance HomePower.com is a pretty cool magazine. I love the write ups they do on each solar system - their flow diagrams are the best in the industry that I have seen so far.

For the demographics information above keep in mind that HomePower Magazine covers a range of topics including wind power so these numbers are not just for solar power users.

I won’t disclose how much money I make but I can tell you that I fit the above profile of a solar user pretty well.

I live in a suburban area so it is nice to see that a large percentage of solar users live in a neighborhood like mine. But I have fears about my HOA research, I am hoping they don’t have tons of restrictions for solar power.

I contacted HomePower before publishing this post and they wanted to add:

“Hi Dave. Those are Home Power reader statistics, not stats for those that use RE.

As far as I know, there is no correlation between the two, other than by assumption. In fact, we have recently come across information that indicates that female purchasers of RE systems is a LOT greater than the number of female readers we have.”

I believe in the quote that “RE” is “Renewable Energy”.