Why
Rent Your Electricity When It Is So Easy
And Affordable To Become Your Own Power
Company.
Choosing a solar system for your home
or business and receiving a cash
rebate and tax credit can be a
rewarding and relatively simple
process. The key to success lies in
choosing an established, reputable
equipment supplier and installer who
can assist you in the process.
IS MY SITE APPROPRIATE FOR SOLAR ?
The
first step in the process is
determining whether or not your site
is appropriate for solar. You will
need an area that is large enough to
accommodate the selected solar array
that faces South or slightly
Southwest. This area must be un-shaded
during the hours of 9 A.M. and 3 P.M.
Keep
in mind that the Sun crosses the sky
from East to West so pointing the
solar array in a South direction
allows you to capture sunlight as the
Sun arcs across the sky.
Solar panels can be
mounted on many different surfaces
such as your home's roof, on the
ground, on a patio cover or other
structure and even on poles. The most
critical considerations when choosing
the installation locations are
direction and tilt and of course
shading.
HOW DO I SIZE MY SYSTEM ?
The next step in choosing an
appropriate system for your home or
business is sizing the system. The
size of a solar electric system has
very little to do with the size of
your home or the dollar amount of your
electric bill. The size of a solar
system is determined almost entirely
by how many kilowatt hours you consume
on average per month. The easiest way
to determine your average kilowatt
hour usage is to call your utility
company and simply ask the
representative what your average
monthly kilowatt hour usage was for
last year. Once you have this
information then it's a simple matter
to choose a solar system that will
eliminate what ever portion of your
usage that you wish to eliminate.
For example if your average monthly
kilowatt hour usage is 1,000 kilowatt
hours or kWh and you would like to
eliminate half of your usage then you
would want to choose a solar system
that produces 500 kilowatt hours per
month.
Shopping Tip: When comparing
solar systems always ask a dealer how
many hours of sunshine that he has
used to calculate his system's energy
production. In Southern California the
maximum peak Sun hours is about 5.5 to
6 hours. We use 5 hours to rate our
systems. Beware of dealer that use
more than 6 hours.= as this would
inflate the actual energy production
capabilities of most fixed mount solar
arrays.
When
viewing the descriptions of our systems,
just below the pricing, you will
note how much
power each system will produce.
Once we have chosen an
appropriately sized system for you, we
will determine whether or not the
system will fit in the area that you
have available, how the panels should
be most efficiently laid out and
whether or not your site is oriented
in the proper direction. Once these
factors have been determined we will
then provide your with a system
quotation.
Shopping Tip: Most dealers
prefer not to discuss pricing
over the phone and instead insist on
sending a salesperson to your home to
discuss products and pricing. This is
a common practice in many high dollar
industries and especially true when
dealers are charging far more than their
competitors for their products or
services.
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The
person you really don't
want in your home. |
The truth is
that determining the right solar system
for your home is not rocket science and
with the advent of satellite
imagery, string sizing calculators,
solar insolation maps, and just simple
math, there is
absolutely no reason whatsoever why a salesperson would need to come to your
home.
Everything including a price quote can
be discussed in a few minutes over the
phone, all without the need for a high pressure
salesperson. The only
time someone would need to come to your
home to perform an evaluation is
after you have been provided with an
acceptable price quote and you’ve made
your decision to proceed.
HOW MUCH WILL MY SYSTEM COST TO
INSTALL ?
Next we will send a licensed,
bonded and insured installer (not a
sales person) out to inspect your site
and provide you with an installation
quotation. Once you are satisfied with
the quality, performance and price of
the products that we are offering you
and you are confident that you are
being offered a competitive
installation bid then contracts are
signed, a 10% deposit is collected and
we will begin processing your rebate
paperwork.
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The
person you really do want
evaluating your home. |
HOW
DO I COLLECT MY REBATE CHECK ?
Once the utility company has
approved your rebate reservation, we
will then finalize the purchase of
your product and the product is
shipped to your site. The installer
will arrive once the product has been
delivered and will complete the
installation of your system. The
installation is paid for once the
installer has completed the
installation and the installation is
inspected by the local municipality
and the utility. The final rebate
paperwork is submitted to the utility
company and the rebate check is mailed
to you.
HOW
DOES THE FEDERAL TAX CREDIT WORK ?
The Federal tax credit is a dollar
for dollar credit against what you
have paid or owe in Federal taxes for
the year in which you installed your
solar system. For example if you paid
$4,000.00 in Federal taxes and 30% of
your solar system's cost after rebates
or other incentives is $3,200.00 then
you would qualify for a $3,200.00
refund. If you owed $3,200.00 in
Federal taxes and your solar tax
credit came to $3,200.00 then you
would essentially owe nothing in
Federal taxes. Note: Please see your
tax preparer for details concerning
the Federal tax credit.
HOW DOES A SOLAR SYSTEM WORK ?
The beauty of a modern grid
intertie solar system is that it does
not require batteries or any other
storage medium. The power that the
system produces is consumed by your
home's appliances and any excess is
fed to the utility grid causing your
electric meter to slow down or spin
backwards. Any monthly excess
production is credited toward your
next month's electric bill. You are
never disconnected from the electric
grid so when the Sun goes down and you
are not producing any power, you will
simply take your power from the grid
as you normally would. Your electric
bill is reduced or eliminated because
you don't pay for the power that
you're producing with your solar
system. In essence you become your own
power company.
HOW LONG IS A SOLAR SYSTEM WARRANTED
FOR AND HOW LONG CAN A SOLAR SYSTEM
LAST ?
Most
of the solar panels that are used in
our solar systems come with a 25 year
factory limited warranty. The
inverters in our systems come with a
10 year factory limited warranty.
Solar panels have a typical life
expectancy of around 40 to 50 years.
There are no moving parts other than a
cooling fan in some of our inverters
and our systems are virtually
maintenance free with exception of an
occasional rinsing off the solar
panels should dirt or bird dropping
accumulate.
Shopping Tip: After more
than a decade in the solar industry
we've seen many solar panel
manufacturers come and go, leaving
consumers with failed products and no
warrantees. There are plenty of
inexperienced dealers out there that
are selling non-name brand solar
panels that have been manufactured by
small overseas companies that are
struggling due to the current economic
crisis. Many of these companies will
probably not survive the next few
years.
You might save anywhere from 10 to
12 percent by buying cheap, non-name
solar panels but when you consider
that solar panels typically make up
about 90 percent of a systems cost, if
the manufacturer goes out of business
then that 10 to 12 percent savings
will mean absolutely nothing if you're
left without a warranty.
In our opinion no matter who you
buy your system from, always stick
with name brand, publicly traded,
tier one solar panel manufacturers. If
the dealer cannot provide you with the
solar panel manufacturer's stock
symbol that you can look up on Yahoo
Finance or one of the other financial
sites then steer clear. Doing anything
else in the current financial climate
and you might just be throwing your
money away.
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Our tech support staff
offers our customers many years of
experience in all areas of
renewable energy. When it comes to
technical knowledge regarding the
products that we sell, Solar Home
offers only the best ! |
Our customer support staff's one
and only purpose is to serve you
the customer. Any questions
concerning your order will be
answered quickly and efficiently
by our friendly knowledgeable
staff.
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We maintain one of the Nation's
only multi-brand factory
authorized service centers, which
means in the unlikely event that
you are ever in need of repair
service, we're just a phone call
away !
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Use our
referral list of experienced B
licensed contractors and C-10
licensed electricians to
professionally install your system
or hire your own preferred
installer. The choice is yours.
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