Solar taxes.

One of the steps in this process that I've sort of doubted all along was the claimed tax refund from installing the solar. Well, I did my taxes and wow was I surprised. Not only did I get several thousand dollars back from my taxes for installing solar but I have an even larger hold over for next year because my deductions were too large. So I get a huge return this year (which is very good since it's going to save my ass) and next year I get a bigger than normal return.

At this point my total outlay for the installation is going to be about $13,500 for a 6.72Kwh system. Then I'll get another chunk back for it next year, probably dropping the total price to around somewhere around $11,000. I won't know for a while yet exactly what my payoff period will be for the system, but at the very least it's making it so that my hot tub increase in power use is offset. During the summer I expect to generate quite a bit more power than I use, even with the hot tub, and I intend to make the hot tub significantly more energy efficient before next winter.

So all in all, I would guess that I'll have this entire installation paid off in about 7 years, so then I should have about 13 years of profit from it before I have to replace it.