Solar Installation Costs

There is no doubt solar installation requires a considerable investment at the beginning for your residential or commercial solar energy plan. When getting to know about the capital cost of a solar installation, many people believe that the solar electricity is not affordable for their homes. You must not take into account the upfront installation charges if you are looking for long term benefits of solar power systems by reducing your energy costs. However, there are some financing options you can choose to reduce the uproot costs of solar installation like Power Purchases Agreement (PPA) and solar leases.

Financing Option: Solar Leases

You can reduce the capital cost for the installations of solar panels and other equipment with the help of the solar lease; your plan for upfront cost reduction of a solar power installations. You will cover the charges for a solar installation by paying a fixed amount of installments each month, meanwhile producing energy from the solar panels. Your lease provider will own the solar panels and will also maintain them until you pay the final installment. Solar leases help you get the benefits of solar power system at low rates while eliminating high utility bills.

Financing Option: Power Purchase Agreement (PPA)

In the case of a power purchase agreement (PPA), you only pay for the electricity produced and used. You do not own the solar panels system and you have no need to pay for the installing charges Instead your PPA provider owns the solar panels and other equipment and covers the installation cost.  This agreement also sets you free from the worry of maintenance or repairs as your PPA provider maintain your equipment. You will only pay a fixed rate for the electricity produced which would be considerably lower than the electricity rate from the utility companies.

Right Financing Option for Solar Installation

It depends on the location of your home or business as to which installation option is suitable for you. Both a solar leases and PPA options reduce the installation charges making solar power system affordable for your home or office.

Benefits of Financing Installations of your Solar Power System

By choosing a solar lease or PPA for financing your solar power system installation, you will get some more benefits other than saving money. These financing options release you from the strain of repair and maintenance of your system because a third party owns the system and is responsible for maintaining your equipment. When you install the solar system of your own you pay extra fees for inspection, which may vary from place to place, solar installation financing options helps you avoid such additional charges.

Contact Smith Sustainable Design to learn more about different financing options and their benefits and make it possible to use solar power for your home or business without paying a heavy upfront amount. We will help you get a better understanding of financing option that fits in your budget. 

Solar Energy Monitoring System for A Home

Many people keep a check on the consumption rate, varying prices, and working process of electricity produced by the utility companies. Homeowners tend to switch to the electric solar energy for their homes for the purpose of reducing utilities. Monitoring, however, is something required in the case of electric solar energy systems as well. We can use a monitoring system in combination with electric solar energy system. Monitoring system alerts you in case the system is not working properly. It also provides useful data on energy use.   

You have the option of including monitoring system in electric solar energy system during the installation. Monitoring system are usually the web-based format used to display readings and data. The system collects information about electricity usage from your commercial or residential building, and displays it in an easy to understand method. You can access this data from any web-enabled computer or device. The remote availability of data depends on the type of monitoring program you use. You can effectively use the information provided by your monitoring system for the purpose of better energy use and system’s performance.

For electric solar energy systems, monitoring tools provide you the measurement of two important values, energy consumption and energy production. With the help of monitoring system, you can get information about different factors, which affect energy production. These factors include weather information, panel temperatures, the wind speed, solar irradiance, and more. Monitoring tool helps you plan the future and identify the trend by the analysis of production and usage data for the long past period of time. You can also receive an alert from the monitoring tool if your system is not working properly. Identification of the problem helps you to solve it immediately thus making the performance of your system even better.

Many monitoring tools provide information in terms of positive environmental impact of your solar energy system. Your monitoring system does not always generate a technical data which many of us hardly understand. Some monitoring systems interpret the electric solar energy produced into alternate benefits, like gallons of gasoline saved or hours to power the home. You can get a better idea from the relatable data your monitoring system provides about how the solar power system is saving your tons of money, benefiting your home and business.

Monitoring tools make your solar energy system more effective and organized, giving you valuable information about the consumption and production, performance and efficiency of your system, error in your system if any, and direct benefits of your system on the environment. Expert team at Smith Sustainable Design guides you about the best monitoring solution for your commercial or residential solar power system.

Solar Energy System for Homes

Before the installation of a solar energy system, many homeowners have some questions in their minds about the size of solar panels and their fitting process on the roofs. The design of your solar panel system depends upon a number of factors like available space, slope of your roof, orientation of your home. Let’s discuss how these factors play an important role in determining the design of solar panel installation.

Orientation of your home is an important factor and needs consideration before the installation of solar panels. For the purpose of collecting maximum energy from the sun, install solar panels where they face south direction. It is the possibility that your roof does not have a southern sunlight exposure due to some obstruction like trees or other homes. In this case, we may consider a ground mounted solar panels instead of the roof mounted solar panels.

Plan proper angle of the solar panels if the orientation of your home gives sunlight exposure from the south. The pitch of your roof also helps deciding the installing angle of solar panels. The best angle, to install solar panels, is an inclination of 40 degrees plus or minus 15% in the south direction. Steeper roof is not appropriate to get maximum sunlight, in this case ground mounted solar panels can work. If the roof of your home is not that steep, roof-mounted solar panels can be arranged to receive maximum sun exposure.

The size of solar panels for homes depends on your roof construction and effective areas. Load ratings of your roof and ideal available space for solar panel installations are two important factors which require consideration for the safe and effective solar panel installation. Ground mounted solar panels have a large capacity of 20 kilowatts as compared to the roof mounted solar panels, which have size range of 3 to 10 kilowatts. It depends on your required capacity to what type of solar panels systems would be appropriate for you - ground mounted or roof mounted.

Smith Sustainable Design has expert planners for solar panel systems ready to examine your homes for ideal 

solar panel installations. In order to design an effective solar power system, our team of experts carefully evaluates your site and its surroundings. Contact us to begin solar system planning for your home starting from the site evaluation.

Install Solar Panels at Home

If you are planning to install solar panels for your home, the first thing you need to do is a site assessment. But other than this there are some other factors you need to analyze before the installation process. The Environmental Protection Agency has defined certain specifications about the installation of solar panels in a new home you are preparing to build or in an existing home. If you are looking to install solar power, you may require only a few modifications in your home to help ease the installation process.

Solar Panel Installations Structure and Safety

It is important to know the load capacity of the roof of your home which tells the maximum safe load your home’s roof can bear without the chances of causing a severe damage. You are required to know about the maximum live load and dead load ratings for your roof. It will tell you whether your roof can withstand the weight of the solar panels or not. Another factor that needs your attention is the pitch or slope of your roof. Pitch analysis may help you decide whether or not your roof requires anchor safety system, which protects against falls.

Prepare your Home to Install Solar Panels

A considerable area is required to place solar panels, inverter and other components of the solar system. A 4’x4’ plywood area can serve the purpose of installing an inverter of the solar power equipment. You also need a 1-inch metal conduit as a connection between the area where you installed solar inverter, and the area designated to the array of solar panels. For the purpose of safety you need a dual-pole circuit breaker for your solar panel system. The addition of circuit-breaker in the electrical panel of your home protects from the overflowing of the electric power. 

To be well prepared for the installation of solar panel for your home, you must know about the additional components required for solar power system. In case you want to install solar panels for your new home ready to be built, you must accommodate the items of solar power system during the construction process. In order to retrofit solar energy system in an existing home, you may require few modifications in your structure to help the installation process. You can consult Smith Sustainable Design to get more information about the solar panels installation. Our expert team can provide you with a professional assistance about the planning of solar electric power for your home. 

Types of Solar Electric Systems

Solar panels are the most prominent components of a solar electric system however they are not the only part of a system that people should consider. Along with PV modules some other components of a solar system include inverters, batteries, and charge controllers. Different components are required depending on the type of a solar system you use.

 Solar electric systems are of different sizes and types depending upon environmental conditions, surroundings, energy need and other factors. This post discusses brief introduction of different types of solar electric system designs.

 Photovoltaic Direct Systems

The simplest type of electric solar energy system is Photovoltaic Direct System. The major component of direct system is photovoltaic panels, there are no batteries and other outside power sources attached. Due to the absence of batteries, the direct system doesn’t store electric power and produces electricity only when the sun is out. This system is good only if you want energy to power few applications of your home especially during the day time.

Off-Grid Systems

Off-Grid system is an independently working solar electric system which converts sunlight into DC electricity. It also stores DC electric power into batteries attached to it so it can be used to power DC appliances at any time of the day.  As the name indicates the off-grid system does not require any source of electricity (the grid) so it is more suitable for remote areas. Adding an inverter in off-grid system makes it capable of converting DC electricity into AC electricity. There are some other components of off-grid system used to prevent overcharge and protect the battery.

 Grid Tied System

Grid-tied system attaches to the power grid of your home sharing the energy load and reducing electricity bills. With the help of an inverter, grid-tied system converts DC electricity into AC electricity that adds into the power line of your home. It is the most common solar energy system that people prefer to install in their homes. It pulls the electricity from the grid when required and pushes it back when the energy need fulfills by the electricity produced by solar panels. It is one of the best solar power systems because it not only reduces your electricity bills but also totally eliminates it sometimes.

There is no battery to store additional electricity produced by grid-tied system. However, there are some types of grid-tied systems that include battery backup and work on the same principle as simple grid-tied systems do.

We help you decide which solar power system is the best fit for your power requirements and how. If you are planning to install solar energy system for your home contact Smith Sustainable Design for the expert’s opinion and experienced assistance in any part of PA and NJ.

How do photovoltaic solar panels operate?

Solar panels consist of several solar cells or photovoltaic cells. Photovoltaic cell, the basic unit of solar panels, converts solar energy into electric energy. With the help of solar photovoltaic panels, you can produce your own solar electricity to power your entire home appliances and devices. Solar power is a less expensive way of producing electricity as compared to the electricity provided by utility companies.  There are no burning fuels, moving parts and other harmful side effects of solar power. Instead, it is the most soundless and environmentally friendly way of electricity production.

Before you install solar panels for your home, you must have some knowledge as to how photovoltaic cells work to form electricity. Let’s have a brief discussion about the workings of a solar photovoltaic cell. 

Photovoltaic cells convert photons from the sunlight into voltage (electrical force). A semiconductor material is used to form photovoltaic cells which allows the electric current pass through. Silicon with little addition of boron and phosphorous is used as a semiconductor in solar cells. There are two layers of semiconductor in each solar cell - positive and negative. Small particles of sunlight called photons are absorbed by photovoltaic cells and release electrons. The electrons flow through the photovoltaic cells in the form of electric current producing energy to power your home.

Solar panels convert solar energy into Direct Current (DC), but the electricity we use to power our home is in the form of Alternate Current (AC). Solar panel transfers the DC electricity to an inverter. Inverter is another module of a complete solar panel system which converts the DC electricity generated by photovoltaic cells into the AC electricity.

Solar panels are the only visible and basic component of a solar power system that actually generate electricity from sunlight. There are no moveable machinery or other complicated parts in solar electric system as such there is less maintenance and cleaning required. For optimal results, it is important to install solar panels at the place where they are exposed to maximum sunlight. You must take care of factors that can affect the amount of sunlight reaching the solar panels like panel orientation, shade of different areas, and pitch and panels of your roof. Smith Sustainable Development extending its services to the states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey for carrying out pre-installation survey for you to decide the suitable placement for solar panels.

We explained the working of solar panels in simple words without going into the deep procedure and science behind the production of electricity. However, if you are interested to know more details and complications involve in the solar panels we are ready to explain more details. 

Solar panels for the house

If you are planning to install solar panels for your home, you need to carry out a small survey, to make sure that your home site collects solar energy enough to make solar a viable power source for your home. Solar site survey is very important before you switch to solar electricity. The survey decides that your location is appropriate for solar electric power or not.

In order to determine that your location is suitable for solar photovoltaic cells or not you must gather the answers for these questions.

1.       Does your location collect enough sunlight?

2.       Are there any obstacles like trees, and buildings blocking the sunlight? Do obstacles need to be cleared to get more sun?

Let’s discuss these two questions to know what information you must have about pre-installation of solar panels.

Does your location collect enough sunlight?

It depends on the weather condition of your location. Overly cloudy weather is not suitable for solar cells. Fortunately, in the US almost all locations receive sufficient sunlight to effectively install solar panels. You can consult weather resource or solar resource map to gain knowledge about solar capacity of your location.

Are there obstacles in the path of sunlight?

This second part of solar site survey is more critical and requires more attention. It is very important to install solar panels at the location they are exposed to maximum sunlight. There could be trees, buildings and other structures obstructing the solar panels get maximum energy. To find out, possible obstacles in the path of sunlight different techniques can be used. For this purpose, you are required to find out the track of the sun across the sky. Sun changes its path throughout the year and adopts different track in different seasons. So if you are looking for obstacles it is very important to know the path of the sun for a whole year. Sun charts are available for different locations that can help you assess the track of the sun for your location.

There is another way to identify the different obstacles blocking the sun rays to reach solar panels. Build a three-dimensional model of your home and its surroundings or draw a map, in both ways you can locate the hurdles standing in the path of solar energy.

Smith Sustainable Design is experienced in performing solar site surveys to aide in installation decisions. We perform a thorough analysis of your space to determine the ideal location for your solar system panels.