Solar Panels For Homes

Solar Panels For Homes – Offer added value to your green customers and guide them on what to consider before installing solar panels.

With the federal tax credit for solar panels expiring in 2021, now could be the time to make your home or your clients’ home energy independent. When it comes to deciding whether a solar investment is worth it, a homeowner needs to do their research and make smart decisions about their home and financial situation. Here are some steps to take along the way.

To get an initial idea of a roof’s solar potential, you can Google Project Sunroof or view solar resource maps from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. A common misconception is that solar panels only work in warm, sunny parts of the country. To test this idea, a homeowner should look around their yard. Are there trees and other green plants? Plants use the sun’s energy to grow their leaves, so it’s a good indicator of solar energy in your yard. Solar panels actually work more efficiently at lower temperatures.

Reasons To Install Solar Panels

Are the annual utility bills high enough to pay for the solar investment in a reasonable amount of time? For most homeowners, a utility bill tells you one basic fact: monthly usage. But a high monthly electric bill can be caused by many factors, from old appliances to inefficient HVAC systems to poor insulation. Make your home more energy efficient before buying a solar system so you don’t pay for a bigger system than you need.

Will your customers stay in the same house for the next decade? A solar system is a large investment with a typical payback period of eight years. If a homeowner plans to move in the next few years, buying or leasing solar panels could be a money-losing decision. If they decide to move after the lease, they will have to buy the system, get the new home owner to take over the lease, or pay the provider to break the lease entirely.

A home energy monitoring system like Sense will track energy usage both before and after solar is installed. Take a few months of data and use that information to calculate how much of your current bill can be offset by solar and how much installation is required. An Oklahoma homeowner used Sense Solar to find her energy hogs before installing her own solar panels, and it yielded significant savings (see her story here).

Solar panels are an investment that should pay off. Homeowners should take their time and analyze whether buying or leasing will be the most beneficial. If you or your customer decide to buy, most solar providers and websites like EnergiSage will factor the 26% federal incentive into their estimates, as well as any state incentives. Together, these incentives have a big impact on the bottom line. If a homeowner needs financing, they should talk to their bank, mortgage provider, or a lender like Dividend Finance, which offers solar-specific loans and resources. A homeowner needs to do the math to figure out how much to invest and when that investment will pay off.

Common Uses Of Solar Power Panels For Home

Loan and lease options are attractive because they can be positive once the solar panels are installed with no upfront cash outlay, but with a lease, buyers don’t benefit from the federal tax credit. But a homeowner shouldn’t view leasing as a short-term decision because most loans and leases are for more than 10 years. Monthly solar rental prices in the US vary depending on how much energy the home needs and can produce. The higher the electricity bill, the higher the rental cost will be because more solar productivity will be required. To give you an idea, Tesla calculates the solar panel lease based on your home address and electricity bill.

Energy storage is still a premium option, but prices are dropping significantly every year. To help a homeowner decide if they need storage, consider two factors: when they use electricity and how often it goes out. In areas with outages or downed power lines from storms, solar storage can help you without interruption, and batteries can store solar energy for use at night or on cloudy days. Do the math to calculate performance for storage.

When a homeowner decides to install solar panels, they should research suppliers online and check their ratings. Identify three or four companies that look promising and request online quotes based on remote solar inspections, then assign the applicants to two or three installers. Their building experts will visit the home to measure and assess the roof, perform a shadow analysis and check if the electrical panel will need to be upgraded. Their final quote will reflect all these factors. When evaluating proposals, be sure to include any costs to update the roof or remove shade trees.

Once the homeowner has two or three final estimates based on personal evaluations of the home, they should ask the suppliers about how they will handle the installation. For example, does the provider design and install the systems themselves or does it subcontract to local companies? If the supplier uses subcontractors, are the subcontractors licensed? Make sure the contractor can explain the components of the solar system they are installing.

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The homeowner should ask if they will submit the necessary permits, including an electrical permit, a building permit, and a special solar PV permit. A reputable provider will help homeowners file deductions and tax credits or do it for them. Make sure your customers know the warranty period and who will maintain the system when there are inevitable problems. And finally, if the homeowner is renting, they should ask the provider to disclose the value of the system so they have that information if they decide to sell their home.

A homeowner should evaluate all proposals to make sure they accurately meet the home’s energy needs and then choose a supplier they can trust. Once a contract is signed with a supplier, the installation and permitting process can be unexpectedly time-consuming, as contractors submit all the paperwork on behalf of the homeowner to the grid and municipality. It can take several weeks to sort out the permits before the installer can mount the solar panels on the roof.

Once the system is installed and connected to the utility, it will start generating power whenever the sun shines. The homeowner will save money on their utility bill while relying on clean energy that is good for the planet.

For more, watch my video explaining the financial analysis of solar energy and why I decided to install solar panels on my home this year.

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Vincent Ferro is Director of Business Development and Partnerships at Sense, whose smart home monitor and app monitors electricity consumption and displays solar output in real-time so homeowners can save money and make their home more efficient and reliable.

Subscribe to E-Newsletters Reprints About Us Contact REALTOR® MagazineWorkers Stephen Janota, left, and Matt Bart, install Solar Service Inc.’s photovoltaic (PV) solar panels. on a rooftop in Park Ridge, Illinois, U.S., Tuesday, September 10, 2013. Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images

Last winter was one of the worst on record for the Northeast, but the snow didn’t stop U.S. homeowners from investing in solar panels. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), the first quarter of 2015 broke records, with 66,440 new solar systems installed in the first three months of the year. That brings the total number of US households with solar power to about 700,000.

“These are not just solar enthusiasts anymore,” says Tom Kimbis, executive vice president of SEIA. “The vast majority of home installations – over time – are done because solar is affordable and saves money.”

Solar Panels For Your Home: Frequently Asked Questions

A number of factors are driving solar adoption, from improved technologies and lower installation costs to a generous federal tax credit that expires in 2016. As a result, how residential solar works isn’t just about converting sunlight in kilowatts. To really understand it, you have to follow the light from the solar panel to your wallet.

People have used the sun to heat water for thousands of years, but solar electricity, also called photovoltaics or PV, began in the 1950s. Since then, there have been significant advances in technology that help make solar energy so attractive. today.

Solar panels are units made up of cells, like the ones you see in a solar-powered calculator. A rack system is used to fix the panels to the ceiling. Installers will orient the rack to ensure the unit receives as much direct sunlight as possible. But if the roof of the house is not properly oriented, the units can instead be placed in the yard through a ground mounting system.

As installers gained more experience, they became much more efficient at installing the panels. Facilities that were old

Your Guide To Home Solar Panels

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