Cost and price aren't the same

WHEN I hear the question, “What’s the cost?” I know that the answer people are looking for is not usually about the cost, but the price: and they are not the same.

If you buy a new car, we tend to focus on the “bottom-line price” because that’s how much we are going to have to part with initially.

However, depreciation, running and maintenance costs are for life – the initial price is a one-off.

You might be prepared to pay more if the car has very low fuel consumption, low CO2 emissions and long service intervals.

With renewables you can generally put them into two categories:

There’s some overlap between these two categories, but they can be distinguished.

Let us say the payback time is eight years, so you have recouped your initial investment having saved money on the electricity you would have otherwise spent heating water.

After that, your Solar is providing free hot water for the lifetime of the system; which is where, of course, system lifespan then becomes a key factor.

So this example is both payback and reducing lifetime costs.

Incidentally, one of the first true evacuated tube solar hot water systems is still functioning perfectly today, some 21 years later; so the owner (an architect in Ireland), has more than

got his money back.

Alternatively, let’s say you decide on a swimming pool heating system and decide that solar is the way to go.

However, that means that the capital investment for the above solar hot water system is still almost halved. So, before parting with hard-earned euros, consider the cost as well as the

price.