Ground mount solar installations and community solar gardens are two common ways to access power from the sun without actually installing anything on your rooftop.
Solar power for your house.
The amount of power kwh your solar energy system can produce depends on the number of solar panels that can absorb solar energy and convert it into electricity.
Most homes use some type of fossil fuel for heating.
Natural gas is most common but some areas of the country especially in the northeast use heating oil.
That varies by house.
Your location as where you live determines how much electricity your solar panels can produce.
The number of solar panels you will need to power your house will depend on two factors.
Once your solar panels are set up contact your power company to install any extra power meters that might be necessary.
If your solar panels make more power than your house uses you can sell your extra power back to the grid.
The amount of electricity you use.
My article about heating your house with solar power describes this further.
Our online solar calculator can take your monthly power bill and location to work out how many solar panels you need as well.
If you buy a solar panel system you may be eligible for tax credits or other financial incentives that.
You can divide the final number in this case 7 04 into 25 to calculate the total payoff of your investment into solar.
The department of energy says most homes with solar panels get at least 40 of their energy from solar.
Most solar panels are warrantied for 25 years.
Community solar involves connecting with members of a group or your neighborhood to share a solar system while ground mounted arrays are an easy way to own and install your own.
In this case our example system would pay for itself 3 55 times over the warrantied life of the system.
Purchasing a solar energy system with cash or a loan is the best option when you want to maximize the financial benefits of installing solar panels take advantage of tax credits and increase the market value of your home and a solarize program is unavailable or impractical.
Companies that install residential solar power tout this benefit as an easy way to recoup your investment but of course the results can vary widely and the laws about this also vary depending on where you live.
Make sure to look into solar power incentives available in your area and take note of any particular solar panel brands or other equipment you need to use in order to qualify for tax credits.
More egregious fpl mandates that if the power goes out your solar power system must power down along with the rest of the grid robbing potentially needy people of power during major outages.