Following last week’s publication of, “Sterling names Brown to ecology faculty,”
Sterling College Director of Communications & Marketing Julia Vallera told us, “Farley has been a Faculty in Ecology for many years so we’re confused why this article is announcing her appointment as something that happened recently.”
We received a note from a reader in response to the story “Vermont lawmakers plan to consider balcony solar,” in the September 24 edition. The writer noted “it was unfortunate that you chose to republish Austyn Gaffney’s VTDigger article on balcony solar replete with its clearly problematic arithmetic: What’s wrong with this calculation: ‘Walsh estimated it could power about a fifth of a typical household, or save about $20 on a $100 electric bill?’
“Possibly nothing, if you assume that Walsh was referring only to the power usage portion of the bill. I’d opine that the proportion of electric ratepayers who would be aware of that distinction is vanishingly small.
“Even assuming, for the sake of discussion, the plausibility of that estimate, you’d be looking at an annual savings of $240 ($20/mo. x 12 mo.) What responsible journalist would quote the following innumerate contention without challenge?: ‘One unit could cost Vermonters $1,500 to $2,000, Walsh estimated, which could be paid back in about three years. . .’
“Thanks for your consideration.”
Trying to match apples-to-apples with electric utility rates that differ from household to household, is a difficult game to play.
The first issue with the story and the comment is that a $100 electric bill is not a typical electric bill. The average Vermont electric bill is $132.23 per month, so maybe the average savings is a third again higher, or $26 per month, and $312 per year.
If that savings is accurate (and rates differ from utility to utility), at the low end of $1,500 to install balcony solar, the payback would be just under four years and 10 months. At the high end of $2,000, it’s almost six and a half years.
In actuality, those calculations are probably more complicated because balcony solar is most likely to be used by those in rental housing, which might be expected to use less electricity on average than your average single-family home.
It remains to be seen whether balcony solar becomes mainstream, or a DIYers hobby.
