Why Are You Renting Your Electricity?

 Over the last couple months, I've been participating in an activity what many people believe is a rite of passage and aptly refer to as "house hunting."

"Why pay someone else's rent when you can simply buy a place and pay yourself?" People seem to often ask this after they find out I've been taking a look around at houses.

I've never really been a believer in this "buying it is better" philosophy because when it really comes down to it, it doesn't work that way. Anyone who has bought a house knows there are many additional expenses that come along with the privilege of home ownership -- namely taxes, insurance, interest and, biggest of all, repairs. Here in San Diego, if you buy your home and decide to sell it before living in it for 15 years, you may have just lost money on the whole deal due to the fact we don't build solid equity in a home early on in the life of the loan.

Ironically, however, many San Diegans choose to purchase their dream homes, but continue to "rent" their electricity from SDG&E rather than buy the rights to produce their own. Maybe the pull for home ownership is stronger than the drive to create your own power but, then again, maybe not. I'm here to tell you owning the rights to produce your own electricity is, in my opinion, of the same importance as staking your right to become a homeowner. Please allow me to explain because what you're about to read will save you a lot of money.

You see, SDG&E plans on raising rates on utility users like yourself for the foreseeable future. In fact Sempra Energy, SDG&E's parent company, estimates uninsured wildfire costs from 2008 could reach $594 million. Not to put a damper on things, but the majority of that money will come from ratepayers (again, yourself) who purchase electricity from SDG&E on a monthly basis. I've never run into anyone who believes rates will begin to drop much less stay the same for the foreseeable future.

I realize SDG&E's rates will definitely go up. So what can I do?

I thought you'd never ask. Installing a solar system on your home is not only incredibly reasonable -- in fact, nearly all the systems we sell now are $0 money down options -- but saves the typical homeowner more than $65,000 over the life of the system.

I'll say that again because the point is really important.

Homeowners today need not put even one penny down for their solar project, begin saving a significant amount of money from day one and often save more than $65,000 over the full life of their system. This is a true statement and I'm excited to say we've been able to make this reality come true for hundreds of homeowners over the last few short years. I have a list of over 50 homeowners who will be happy to speak with you and tell you more about their solar systems than you'd ever care to know.

Here's what I suggest you do if you're in the market to "lock in" your electric rates for the next 20 years while SDG&E continues to raise them on individuals who haven't had the time to look into going solar: Call us up here over at Cosmic Solar and I'll be happy to send a free proposal your way. I'll even email it over to you if you're too busy to meet. You'll quickly find out that going solar is an easy and exciting way to save a whole lot of money for yourself and your family.

Why not just ask for a bid? What have you got to lose other than your electric bill?

Pey Shadzi

Operations Manager at Cosmic Solar

pey@cosmicsolar.com
760-532-9712