What Needs To Be Known Before Installing Solar Panels?

Are you considering having a solar array installed to offset your home's electrical needs? If you have an all electric home you can benefit quite a bit from your system.

Is A Bigger System Better?

Not always. Some electric utilities will not allow you to 'sell' your surplus electricity back to them. Generally what they offer is a credit system. For each month that you over produce electricity and push it into the grid tied system the electric company will credit it to your account. Then in the winter months when your PV system is producing less electricity your energy credits are used up as you draw power from the electrical grid. On your anniversary date, the date that your photovoltaic system went live, the account is reset to zero and you start over accumulating credits.

Buying a system that meets all of your home's power needs and then some will cause you to lose the credits that you have accumulated by your anniversary date. You also have to take into account the purchase cost of the solar array system.

What is being recommended these days, since these systems are still rather costly to buy and install, is to first reduce your electricity usage by energy efficiency then build the system for your reduced needs. If at some time down the road you find a need for more electricity the system can always be added on to.

Be careful with the initial build out of the system to not limit your ability to grow your system without having to replace major components like the inverter. Suppose the initial system was designed to produce 2000 watts at peak. The contracting company recommended that you buy an inverter that can handle 2200 peak watts. Now, if you want to expand your system, all you can add is an additional 200 watts without replacing the inverter. The flip side of this is you don't want to buy 10,000 watt for your 2,000 watt initial system. It just drives up the cost of your initial system.

Where To Install The System?

The most common location for the solar panels is on the southern facing roof of your home. Depending on the home design, there may not be enough southern facing roof square footage to install the solar panels.

What About Your Back Yard?

If you have a large enough back yard and a spot that is free of trees that gets plenty of sun year around, consider mounting the solar panels on a set of posts. I have seen one family's installation where they built a frame for the solar panels out of pressure treated 4×4 posts and mounted the solar panels on it. The solar panels were below the top of their privacy fence so the neighbors did not see them at all. Not that any neighbor should complain that you have a solar power system on your home.

Renewable Energy Tax Breaks

Installing a solar power system is expensive. A 6 kW system can run upwards of $50,000 (components plus installation labor). Fortunately the Federal government has voted to extend the solar power tax credit, which is 30% of the components plus installation cost of the system, until 2016. Which is good news for people who are considering installing a grid tied solar power system on home.

Don't forget to inquire if your state and city offer any tax credits for installing a solar power system.

How To Pay For It

Ideally the best way is to pay cash for a solar power system. But in all reality very few people have an extra $30,000 to $50,000 laying around to spend on solar power system. Another option is to consider refinancing your home to a lower interest rate and drawing out enough money to cover the cost of installing the system. Then as your system saves you from having to buy electricity pour the savings into additional principle payments on your mortgage. Since you borrowed the money from your home's equity, pay back the loan with the energy savings.
Eir Energy Used.

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