Not only is solar energy good for the environment, but you can also make money by selling excess energy to the grid. While costs have dropped in recent years, installing and maintaining solar panels can be quite costly.
Solar panels
are best suited for homes that receive extensive sun exposure all year round, 3 days ago. If you're experiencing higher electricity rates, switching to solar energy is probably a good investment.However, if your home doesn't require a lot of energy consumption to operate on a day-to-day basis, you may not save enough to balance the cost of installation. Solar panels are expensive, take some time to figure it out, and aren't as attractive as a bare roof. But if you're smart about it and your home is in an optimal location, solar panels can help you save more than you paid for them over their long lifespan. In addition, they offer great benefits for the environment and are usually easy to care for.
Solar panels are worthwhile for most customers in the country, but there are certainly some disqualifiers, as described above. This means that they are more expensive than amorphous panels, but tend to be less than monocrystalline panels. Most homeowners who get solar quotes on the EnergySage Marketplace will break even with their solar investment in seven to eight years. We recommend that you use the State Incentive Database for Renewable Energy & Efficiency to find out what other solar rebates and tax credits are available in your state.
Most of the best solar panels come backed by strong warranties, ensuring that your system will produce as expected for at least two decades. The square footage of your home, of course, affects the number of panels you need, as does the amount of electricity you usually use. The orientation of your home towards the sun, the amount of shade and the type of roof also affect the production of the solar system. Leasing your panels may be an option, but keep in mind that leases are usually long-term and can be difficult to cancel.
As you can see from the graph above, the LCOE, which again basically tells you if a solar system will be worth it in the long run, is roughly comparable to the national average after about 20 years of use, and below the national average by about 4 cents after 30 years of use. If you get five hours a day, for example, and you have an average of 30 kWh per day, you should divide that 30 kWh by 5 hours of sunlight to determine how many watts per hour you need to generate during daylight hours to meet your 100% energy needs through solar energy. In the long run, it is worth opting for solar energy as soon as possible for most buyers, rather than expecting a much cheaper price in the future. Ultimately, your local solar retailer can help you calculate the numbers to see if solar panels are worthwhile in your situation.
After all, if you're paying a lot for electricity, generating even part of your electricity consumption through solar energy could provide substantial savings. There are several factors, some of them discussed above, that can adversely affect the economy of solar energy. Despite the fact that the price of solar energy has fallen much faster than expected, a residential solar energy system is still a significant investment.
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