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.