Southern California Makes the Heat Work For Them For a Change
Tuesday, September 13th 2011 3:19 PM
By GetSolar Staff.
Riverside County has a pleasant sound to it, but located in the southeast of California, the county can be one of the hottest and driest in the country. CountryStudies.us cites the average daily highs of as much as 94 degrees Fahrenheit in July and August, with highs still reaching into the high 60s throughout winter. Meanwhile, the county averages literally no precipitiation in June and July. Most homes rely on central air simply to make it through brutal summers.
It was one of those summer months that finally pushed Lisa Moyes Sisk past the point of acceptance. Electricity bills had always been high, but in June 2006 Lisa got a monthly utility bill of just a little under $350. As a one-time occurrence that would have been bad enough, but July proved little better, nearly reaching $300 in that month.
"We couldn't stand another summer," Lisa told California solar installers Southern California Edison. "You don't think about the cost of running a home in this part of California until you experience. We were using the air conditioning only when it was absolutely necessary, and still paying $350 a month."
The situation seemed unlikely to improve at all either. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that in 1990, Californians paid an average of 9.98 cents per kilowatt-hour for residential electricity. By 2001, that number had already grown to 12.09 cents per kilowatt-hour, a moderate 21 percent increase. But Lisa's average electricity rates would have jumped 18.5 percent to 14.33 cents per kilowatt-hour in only five years.
"We had to take some control over our electric bill to maintain our lifestyle, so we looked at solar electricity," Lisa explained.
With the help of Edison, the Moyes Sisks were able to apply for money from the California Solar Initiative, among various other local, state and federal solar incentives. In particular, the federal government offers a tax rebate up to the one-third of the cost of a solar system. The Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency notes that California boasts a huge array of incentives for solar power and other renewables, including several from Riverside and state-wide net metering guarantees.
Together these incentives covered more than one-quarter of the up-front cost of a 5.3 kilowatt residential solar installation. The fixed panels were mounted on Lisa's roof in May of 2007, as her utility bill was just climbing back above $150 per month. The very next month, her costs had fallen to next to nothing. Through April of 2009, Lisa's electricity bills have averaged little more than the service charge required to maintain connection to the grid.
"Our goal was to cut the bill as much as we could," Lisa noted. "We anticipated an offset of about 70 percent, but our system produces more than we use."
The family expects the solar installation to pay for itself over the course of 15 years at the current rate, but they are already benefiting. Instead of waiting to see how the market will impact energy prices, waiting to see whether rates will rise or fall, they get everything they need for free.
"I don't worry anymore about cooling two stories or cleaning the pool," Lisa said. "We just use what comes to us every day. I'm getting more back for the dollar, and in time, I won't have to spend that dollar at all. I don't dread the summer now. Going 'green' isn't a sacrifice - just do the math."
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Riverside County has a pleasant sound to it, but located in the southeast of California, the county can be one of the hottest and driest in the country. 
