Going Solar in Florida

I have a bright, new shiny solar water panel on my roof and I love it. Every time I drive up to my house I get to look up and admire its beauty. And each time I see it, I wonder why there aren’t panels on all the roofs in my neighborhood, or for that matter, everywhere I go in Florida.

Ever since we arrived in south Florida after living with a “dood shemesh” in Israel, we could never figure out why all Floridians didn’t have solar water heating to harness the usual abundant sun and light. It’s something I’ve wanted to do since we bought a house in sunny Florida, but finances kept getting in our way.

After Hurricane Wilma two years ago when we lived without power and hot water for almost a week, I started following the stories in the local media about how the state of Florida was authorizing fantastic tax credits to residents who opted to go solar. I immediately called some of the state licensed solar merchants and signed up for information.

Two years later, we finally did it. After rebate and tax credit it will “only” cost us about $3000. Still more then we can afford, but we can’t afford NOT to go solar. With electric bills already over $400 monthly and two teenagers in the house, it was a no brainer! And next time we have a hurricane (Because we KNOW there will always be a “next time.”) we might not have electricity, but at least I won’t have to heat water on the grill!

For a number of reasons (especially after all last round of hurricanes in 2005), our electric bills started to go sky high and keep jumping in outrageous percentages every year. When the math was laid out in front of us by our new friend John at Advanced Pool Heating (Yes they even do solar heating for pools… not in our lifetime!), we quickly realized that we would immediately be saving money by putting in a solar panel. The savings estimate for our household of five people should be realized with a drop in our electric bills of somewhere between 30-40%.

During this never-ending presidential election year, Americans are being bombarded with many ideas and slogans. Some of the biggest debate and buzz words relate to the environment. “Green” or “Going Green,” are how are lives are supposed to be geared. I now carry canvas shopping bags, recycle most of my plastics, bottles, cans and newspapers. It reminds me of the days when I was always sad to throw those things out, when we lived in Jerusalem and didn’t have any recycling bins. Except of course, for those big ugly plastic bottle return cages found in some parts of our old Jerusalem neighborhoods.

Even our rabbi has given “environmentally friendly” sermons this past year. During Sukkot last year, he told us that we needed to be responsible to our earth and change certain behaviors such as such as replacing our old light bulbs with newer, high efficiency ones.

Now I can only dream of my next big “green” accomplishment…having a complete photovoltaic house! But not to the tune of the $60,000-$75,000 it costs to kit out the average American home. Guess I’ll have to wait a long, long time. Which is a shame. What a waste of electricity and money. With so many of my own dollars going to my FPL (Florida Power & Light) bills, I wish that it was the electric company buying back excess electricity from my own natural power source. I have been told that this is what happens when homes are powered by the sun and outside light.

Perhaps one day…