"Rob" wrote in message
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....


On the contrary, solar energy is one thing is VERY easy to do a cost
benefit excercise on.


Ah, OK!

The economic costs should be easy to calculate if you can get hold of the
data.

How do you estimate the environmental and social costs of production (inc
raw and manufactured materials), distribution, sale, marketing,
installation, maintenance and disposal? That's relatively straightforward
up to a point. It's the benefits I really have trouble with. Obviously,
electricity/gas saving is a relatively trivial calculation. The benefits
to human existence/experience and the 'planet' in the longer term would be
tricky to calculate, I think. Also, it's not known whether costs are
recouped on sale (a future and discounted benefit). Some sales bluster
seems to suggest 'yes, and some', but no reviewed research has been
carried out to my knowledge.

There is also the political aspect of costs and benefits, and the notion
that nobody will know until these products have been through at least one
life cycle.

Perhaps you can do/accommodate all of this.

How do you estimate the above for a 'conventional' modern system?

Or an older system?

All installations have costs.

Mary