Five Things You Have To Figure Out Before Going Solar

Five Things You Have To Figure Out Before Going Solar

When you dream about going green with your home, you probably close your eyes and imagine replacing your entire roof with the latest and greatest solar technology. You envision not only powering your home off of the sun during the day, but storing so much in your batteries you can party into the night off the free power and even sell some back to the power company to make money yourself. However, before this dream can actually become a reality, you need to ask yourself five key questions regarding going solar with your home.

1. Are you able to afford getting into this? Solar panel technology is not inexpensive. The equipment and material alone is pricey. However, there are secondary costs to consider like the contractors and labor that will modify your home, as well as possibly building permits, inspections, fees and new insurance premiums or rates. To your advantage though, is the possibility of both government grants and tax breaks.

2. Are you sure you are going to generate that much money or electricity? The thought of powering your whole home from solar and selling excess juice to your hopefully former utility is not something that many residents can actually achieve. Not all utilities are interested in buying surplus power when it comes in such small increments and uncertain timings. Also, is your home in the right place, geographically and also by elevation and climate, to harness enough solar power to make it worth it? Do what you can using local research to calculate how much power you will get to figure out just how long it will take for your solar panels to pay you back for their installation.

3. Can you even do it while staying in the good grace of your community? Does your homeowner’s insurance allow you to install solar panels? You also have to check any deeds or restrictions that came with your property purchase, check with your neighborhood community association and look into municipal building codes.

4. Is there enough space to actually put in solar panels? If your home is rather large, then there should be enough roofing to have both the right angle towards the sun with ample surface area for adequate paneling. If your physical home is not large enough, can you use part of your yard?

5. Who is going to do it? Are you skilled enough in the technical knowledge required to handle solar technology but also enough of a contractor or construction professional to handle the alterations to your home? Or, are you going to wind up calling in professionals from both industries to do this for you.

When you ask yourself these five questions, you can start getting a good idea about whether or not you are truly ready and prepared for making use of solar energy where you live. Make no assumptions in your answers, and even have someone you live with go over this with you to make sure that you are honest and realistic with yourself about this possibility. Apply your answers to your deliberations, and you can find out if solar is right for you.