> I'm confused by this as that is exactly the point made. :)
Sorry, I was trying to indicate that it is significantly simpler for a random uninterested or mildly-interested consumer to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of solar than it is windows. Most people have a good sense of how much their energy bill costs, and there are plenty of cheap and free tools which let you accurately estimate how much energy you will save from a PV system, but even basic mental math is enough. As opposed to windows, which are significantly more complicated because they involve thermodynamic modeling of your home.
You should read recent work by Zachary Berzolla, who is now working in Maryland’s department of energy on their commercial buildings decarbonization program. His MIT PhD dissertation is specifically about willigness-to-pay for home energy retrofits (but especially heat pumps). Not sure if it has been posted to DSpace yet but I believe some various conference/journal papers are online already.
Unfortunately, I think a lot of people don’t really know how much their power costs. They just pay the bill they are sent, maybe even on autopay and they don’t even look at the statements when they come in.
So, they don’t know how much their power costs, and they don’t have a clue how much solar would cost to buy, install, run, etc… and how that compares to the payback period over time, etc….
These are the people that I think we need to reach.
> They just pay the bill they are sent, maybe even on autopay and they don’t even look at the statements when they come in.
On the other hand there are a significant number of people who are energy-burdened, and they often have the most inefficient homes (leaky or non-existent sealing, little insulation, old appliances, etc). These homes often have the least ability to take advantage of government rebates since they may only be tax rebates while the retrofit still requires up the upfront cost to be paid. At the same time, high-income homes, though often much more efficient, also often use the most energy (since floor area tends to grow with home owner income, and space conditioning/electric requirements tend to grow with floor area). It’s easy to design incentive programs which have a big carbon impact but a bad equity impact in that they just end up giving money to people who would already be upgrading their homes without the rebates.
The person who knows just how much money they are spending on their bill every month will likely value the savings much more (ie the utility value of the savings are much higher), but they may also have far less awareness of the kinds of programs available to them for retrofitting their home or installing PV.
It’s a complicated problem, figuring out who to reach and how to drive adoption while balancing decarbonization and equity!
Sorry, I was trying to indicate that it is significantly simpler for a random uninterested or mildly-interested consumer to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of solar than it is windows. Most people have a good sense of how much their energy bill costs, and there are plenty of cheap and free tools which let you accurately estimate how much energy you will save from a PV system, but even basic mental math is enough. As opposed to windows, which are significantly more complicated because they involve thermodynamic modeling of your home.
You should read recent work by Zachary Berzolla, who is now working in Maryland’s department of energy on their commercial buildings decarbonization program. His MIT PhD dissertation is specifically about willigness-to-pay for home energy retrofits (but especially heat pumps). Not sure if it has been posted to DSpace yet but I believe some various conference/journal papers are online already.