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SALT LAKE CITY -- A Utah developer states home-buyers can "enjoy power bills as low as $5 per month," but is the claim too good to be true?
Garbett Homes' $5 power bill campaign began in 2009, after the company began collecting power bills from residents of the solar- and geothermal-powered Solaris development in Daybreak. One homeowner reported seven straight months of $4.48 power bills.
The homeowner, a single woman, had generated more energy with her home than she had used during those months. Rocky Mountain Power allows customers participate in a net- metering program on a first-come, first-serve basis. A net-metering program measures the difference between the electricity supplied to the homeowner by the company and the electricity generated by the customer and fed back onto the electric grid. Customers pays for any electricity use over what they generate.
The $4.48 charge was a minimum fee Rocky Mountain Power charges customers per month to remain on the electric grid, according to company spokeswoman Margaret Oler.
But is a surcharge the only expense a couple or a family can expect to pay in one of Garbett's solar-powered homes? Probably not, said company spokesman Rene Oehlerking.
For couples or families of four, bills average $30 or $40, sometimes $50.
–Rene Oehlerking
"For couples or families of four, bills average $30 or $40, sometimes $50," Oehlerking said. "The average utility cost for electricity and natural gas is $180, so our homes are, on average, 110 percent more energy efficient than new homes built to code today."
The energy efficiency of Garbett homes is due to their construction and the inclusion of renewable energy resources in that construction, according to Oehlerking.
The resources, such as solar panels, are included in the cost of the homes, which sell from the low $200,000's.
Oehlerking said Garbett is "eating the cost" of installing the environmentally friendly features in order to remain competitive in a difficult market. "Green" features do not earn any credit with appraisers, so on paper the homes are not worth any more than their more traditional counterparts.
"It's unfortunate, really, that these features don't add value," Oehlerking said. "It's good news for buyers, though, who are essentially getting these things for free."
"What we're doing is pretty cool," he continued. "Businesses can continue with business as usual and go bankrupt, or they can innovate. We decided to innovate, and it's given us a competitive advantage."
The difference in price between Garbett homes and other Salt Lake area homes without the additional features is, in fact, negligible. The average price per square foot of a home in Utah was $110 in the first quarter of 2011, which for an 2,000 square foot home comes to $220,000. Homes in Garbett's TerraSol development range from 2,100 to 2,400 square feet and start between $220,000 and $250,000.
They do not cost anything extra, but is the electricity savings worth it? Oehlerking thinks so.
"Our buyers are getting energy-efficient, high-producing homes," he said. "All at a time that electricity rates are going through the roof."
In fact, the average American paid $300 more for electricity in 2010 than they did in 2009, marking the fifth-consecutive year of an increase above the inflation rate. Fifty dollars per month on energy costs, or $600 per year, is less than half of the $1,419 the average American family paid for electricity last year.
So, is there truth in Garbett's claim to $5 energy bills?
The $5-bill campaign was a clever marketing tactic that did not represent the savings an average family would see in a Garbett home, but the homes are no more expensive than a traditional house, and home-buyers will likely see drastic reductions in energy costs.
Image credit: Garbett Homes
Email: sgrimes@ksl.com
