Curious about solar, hesitant about the expense?
I just stumbled upon an interesting business that is the perfect example of expanding the green revolution, and not in a burn the establishment down kind of way.
Many homeowners are interested in options that will save them money month after month when it comes to upkeep and utilities. Who wouldn’t be? The monthly utilities and upkeep costs are often not given enough attention prior to purchase and they can add up fast. Many buyers, and agents, associate PITI (Principal, Interest, Taxes, Insurance) as the bottom line for a homes fixed monthly expenses. Unfortunately in most parts of the country you are going to have a number of heating and or cooling days in a given month, not to mention appliances, water usage etc. These monthly expenses are not optional and vary greatly from home to home depending on its energy efficiency.
While most of us have heard of the benefits of solar power and probably seen a home or two with panels installed on the roof most of us haven’t seriously considered having them installed. Firstly, they are not a cheap endeavor. Obviously prices vary, but it’s safe to assume that this isn’t a $500 add on that you’ll tackle in a weekend and be up and running “off the grid” in a few hours. With that in mind a company has come to market with a new take on harnessing the sun to save on your utilities. Rather then paying the upfront costs to have a system installed you can enter into a long term rental agreement and contract Citizenre REnU will install and maintain your system for you.
Currently the service areas are limited and do not appear to include any part of the Treasure Valley. This doesn’t mean that it wont be here at some point and I think that we will continue to see new business models evolve as energy efficiency and alternative energy sources become more mainstream. It seems like a year doesn’t go by that natural gas, power, heating oil, electricity etc see rate increase after increase. At some point, and probably some point in the not so distant future it will be mainstream to have solar or wind power feeding into your home helping to offset our consumption. If you would like to read more about this service you can find Citizenre REnU here.
In the end it seems to make a lot of sense to explore renewable energy options to help us power our homes. I know from one year to the next I never seem to remove more appliances then I add, which seems to be a trend. Is your power usage going down month after month? The sun rises over my house every day, the wind blows now and again. If the sun and the wind will help me pay my power bill… who am I to argue!
