Simple Solar Plan

[GLENRAD]

This is like Rehab, getting off of the Power grid, but its not a 12 - it's a 10 step...

1. Determine your historical energy use from your past electric bills. Pay attention to the difference between Summer and Winter power usage.

2. Determine your roof area available for Photovoltaic Panels. The PANELS mounted on your roof or ground contain the Photovoltaic (PV) cells which convert sunlight into DC power. South facing surface areas are best but seasonal variations in sun exposure allow for a variety of Solar Panel placements to be used.

3. Contact a licensed and approved Solar Installation Contractor such as Automation Solar in your area to perform an on-site consultation. Your contractors will know all the current solar technologies available and how to take advantage of all possible Federal, State, and possibly local solar tax rebates… http://www.automationsolar.com

4. The Solar Installation Contractor will determine best location for your Photovoltaic Panels and best Inverters to use for the size of the Solar System. Location of solar panels may vary as well as type of panels. Inverters (which convert the solar panel current from DC to usable AC current) need to be chosen based on best size and type for the system as does the Production Meter (explained below). The power from the Solar Panels are sent to an Inverter (or power converter) which converts the DC electricity from the solar modules to AC power, which is the same type of power being sent from your utility company to your home or business.

5. Discuss technological tools to be used in the analysis as well as installation. Sometimes shading is worthy of a serious analysis.

6. Discuss all costs for various solar electric system options and installation timing with your Solar Installation Contractor to finalize all variables. Once all is decided upon it is the time to sign the contract.

6. Your Solar Installation Contractor will submit applications to your electric utility and begin paperwork with all possible Federal, State, and possibly local tax credits and rebates, etc., to save you the most money possible.

7. You will then sign an agreement with your electric utility. This is called a Net Metering Agreement and states that the power utility will credit the excess power you produce which flows to the power grid. Also an important consideration is the use of a Smart Meter Monitor. This will allow you to be given credit for power you generate at different rates. These rates can be Peak and Off Peak Rates. These rates are dependent on time of day you produce power, day of the week, and month of the year. Peak Rates are often summer afternoon week days. If you send power to the power grid during peak times of the day, you will get credit at the higher, peak rate. If all of the electricity being generated by your solar energy system is immediately being used, your meter will not "spin backwards".

8. Your Solar Installer will generate designs and pull all permits needed and, when you are ready, will install your solar system. Once completely installed your County or City will inspect the system to insure compliance of your system and insure you are eligible for the Solar Tax Rebates and / or benefits you have applied for.

9. You Utility Company will be Sending you your Solar Rebate Check 6 to 8 Weeks after Inspection of System.

10. Enjoy decades of environmentally friendly and maintenance-free power. Give yourself a "good job" for saving money and helping the planet. Good luck and know that the PV solar pros are out there. Give them a ring.

[Jane]

Very helpful information about installing solar PV. Wonder how much prices have changed lately.

[boblee]

Silicon solar panel prices have gone down by 25-40% in the past year mainly due to low cost supplies from China. The balance of system costs have decreased but not near the percentages of panels. Overall, system installed cost have done down 10-20%. In areas where electric rates are fairly high, solar PV cost (taking into account of local rebates and federal tax credits) has reached or even passed grid parity.

[Jane]

Sounds great! The information from the blogs are also very helpful. Maybe now is the time to act. Just need to decide to lease or to buy.

[JimK]

It's a tough choice. To lease the PV system you may not have to put any money down and get a monthy bill. Of course if you put some money down your monthy bill would be lower. The more money you put down the lower the monthy bill. The down side about purchasing is you have to come up with the money to buy the system. If you use a lot of electricity the pay back takes several year. If you use little electricity the pay back take over 10 years.

[dia]

I understand there is a monthly bill just like a statement from your utility company. The solar companies often advertise that you pay $0 and lower your utility bill. If you pay $0 down your bill will be higher but lower than the utility bill, about $20. Of course the higher the down payment the lower the bill. But I will never own the solar system.
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[moshei]

The reason why you don't see more people with solar panels is because of the simple fact that people assume it's impossible to build them their selves. This most certainly is not true, anyone that knows there way around a tape measure can handle the rewarding task of building an environmentally friendly alternative power source. Go green and save thousands of dollars a year doing it...

[Stanleys]

The solar heaters produce heat using gratis, clean, and renewable energy collected from the sun. They heat domestic water, pools and hot tubs, and space heating systems.

[gretadajani]

[GLENRAD]

Glad there is interest, and solar is booming. I think building a system yourself is abit of folly. I know a guy who actually built the panels as well. They leaked and he wasted alot of time and money.
The two kinds of solar are for heating water, mostly for heating pools. The cost of gas is cheap but talk to a pool owner who uses gas for keeping the pool 82 degrees for 8 months per year. It runs about $40 additional per month.
The more popular solar, PV or photovoltaic is where if you do it right, you save a large amount of cash. You can also use PV to run your pool pump as this can run $30 to $60 per month on just the water pumping 6-9 hours per day.
The solar firms typically allow you a zero money down, and have another own the hardware, so in this case, the leasing firm makes the most money. If you can swing it, maybe with a second on your home or another conventional loan, then buying it without leasing, gets you the 30% off. While its a tax credit, assuming you pay taxes, then the cash deal numbers are good. If you buy at $5 per watt installed, and you buy a 3KW system, then that's $15K, less the credit from the US government. The 30% or $4,500, means you are paying $10,500. If you normally are paying pre-solar $150 average per month, and this cuts your bill to $25 as you also reduce some obvious draws (this happens due to a new awareness after solar is installed) then the payback is a savings of $125 per month or 1500 per year. Due to raising electric rates, this translates into a 5 to 6 year return on investment. So you don't do this if you aren't staying in your home for that long.
It makes sense and saves cents also, but some folks are stubborn about either having to think about the simple math, or like giving PG&E their money. Smart folks are doing solar, for the electric and their hot water needs. Reducing your homes energy needs while maintaining the status quote, is difficult unless you are smart and install solar.