Thoughts on Solar

Every now and then we get a call from someone who has solar installed at their home but they’re not happy.  Typically this occurs when they get their “true-up” bill at the end of the year, and are shocked to see that the amount that they owe is way more than they expected!  In many cases this leads them to believe that the system simply isn’t working, and now they want a third-party (like Run on Sun) to come out and evaluate the performance of their system. 

Here are the three leading reasons why that bill is so high…

Your system just isn’t working!

Although this tends to be the number one suspected reason for why the bill is so high, generally it isn’t the actual cause.  Most systems are installed properly and are in operation.  But every now and then we come across a system that simply isn’t working at all.  That was the case with one man who was convinced that his system had never worked and that the company that installed it was simply out to cheat him.  We didn’t see signs of that—the system had been installed and the overall workmanship was acceptable on the surface, so it wasn’t like someone just slapped the panels on the roof and ran away.  But here’s the thing—this was an Enphase system so there should have been monitoring in place to answer the question of how well the system was working.  Except that the installer had never bothered to complete the setup of the monitoring system!

When we came out we were able to access the Envoy directly, and while it could see the microinverters, it was clear that they had never produced any power—in over a year!

So how can a solar system owner prevent this?  Simple—when your system goes live, make sure that the installer walks you through the operation of the system so that you can see with your own two eyes that the system is actually producing power.  (This could be a readout on the inverter/monitoring system, or a spinning performance meter, or an indication that utility meter is going backwards.)  Better yet, ask them up-front how will you be able to know that your system is working, and then when it goes live, make them prove it to you!

If you believe that your system isn’t working, and you live in the greater Pasadena area, give us a call at 626-793-6025, or email us to set up a service call!

Your system is working, but…

This second case is actually far more likely: the system is performing, but it is not meeting your savings expectations.  In our experience there are two main reasons for this: hype and over use.

Beware the hype

One reason for this disconnect is that a dishonest sales person over-hyped the savings to be had from the system installed.  For example, we have seen “savings” projections based just on the size of the system, without regard for how shaded the system was, or its orientation - to say nothing of the actual rate structure that is being used by the utility. 

Shaded systems produce less energy.  Systems aligned away from South will produce less energy.  A utility customer on a time-of-use rate structure may well save less than one on a tiered rate structure (depending on how those rates are designed).

The point is to beware of overly simplistic savings projections.  A proper analysis will factor in all of these issues to provide the best possible estimate of savings.

Solar is not a silver bullet

Even the best savings projection is predicated on future energy usage being consistent with the historical data that the solar company was given (unless increases are specifically discussed and included).  While many people with solar power systems become vigilant about reducing their overall energy consumption, others go in exactly the opposite direction.  Indeed, it is not uncommon to hear people say that part of why they want to “go solar” is so they can afford to run their air conditioning “more” during the summer. 

Solar power systems are finite resources—they can only produce so much energy consistent with the size of the system, and most utilities limit system size to the historical energy usage average at the site.  If you install solar, but then triple how much energy you use during the year, you shouldn’t be surprised if you are not saving any money!

What we have here is a failure to communicate!

Which leads us to the most likely culprit—there has been a failure to communicate between installer and consumer.  At the root of this is Net Metering and the complexities of most energy bills.  (A big part of the blame here goes to the utilities who seem determined to make their bills as complicated as possible!)  Let’s provide an overview of this issue and then illustrate with a specific example.

How Net Metering Works

Solar system owners - at least here in SoCal - operate under utility rules known as Net Energy Metering, or just Net Metering for short.  Here is how this works: on the day when your solar power system is given “Permission to Operate” (or PTO) by the utility, your billing will shift to Net Metering (often the utility will change your meter to allow for that switch).  Every day, as your system operates, you will either be exporting (selling) energy back onto the grid, or importing (purchasing) energy from the grid. 

Think of it this way: you get up at 6 a.m. and it’s dark outside.  You turn on some lights, the radio, coffee maker, etc.  Your solar system isn’t producing anything (it’s dark outside, remember?) so you are purchasing energy from the grid.  You go off to work as the sun comes up, and your system turns on.  All day long, your solar system is producing energy, but there is no one there to use it—the A/C is off, the TV is off, the house is dark—so all of that excess energy is sold back to the utility.  Your fancy new meter keeps track of all of that energy coming and going.

Every billing cycle the utility will look at those readings—how much energy did you sell compared to how much did you purchase—and “net” out the difference.  If you were a net seller of energy, you will have a credit.  If you were a net purchaser of energy you will have a balance due.  But here is where some people get confused—your bill won’t ask you to pay for the energy you used that month.  Typically you  will only be charged for whatever “customer charge” there may be along with taxes and other fees.  The bill for your energy usage (or credit, if you are so lucky) is carried forward to the next billing cycle, and the next, and the next, until you get to the anniversary of your PTO date.  Now your usage will be “trued up” and you will either get a bill to pay (assuming that for the year you were a net energy purchaser) or a check (assuming you were a net energy seller, but don’t get too excited because that payment is really tiny).

Here’s the thing, depending on how much of a net energy purchaser you were, that bill could be pretty significant, in some cases well over a thousand dollars or more!

Of course, you would have been receiving bills every cycle that showed what you were accumulating (either a balance due or a credit) but since there is no related payment required, it is easy for some to overlook those bills, and if this process has never been explained—or even if it was but the consumer simply didn’t “get it” at the time—this can lead to a nasty surprise.

Bottom line - solar companies need to do a better job here in explaining how this works.  (Hence this post!)

A real-life example

Consider a hypothetical solar system owner, let’s call him Bob.  Now Bob is a smart guy, but this is the first solar power system he has ever owned.  His installer explained everything to him when the system went live, but Bob was distracted by the excitement of a potentially zero bill.  His system has Enphase microinverters so he has been receiving energy production emails from Enphase every month, and that looked cool, but he never attempted to reconcile his Enphase report with his utility bill (Bob’s not so big on balancing his checkbook, either).  But to be fair to Bob, the Enphase report that he receives is for each calendar month, but his billing is every two months, and they aren’t calendar months; rather, they run from meter read date to meter read date (e.g., 7/28/2016 to 9/26/2016).

The good news is that Enphase has a reporting feature that allows you to enter any two dates since the system went live and receive day-by-day energy production, with the total at the end.  Let’s see what we can learn when we put Bob’s billing data next to his production data from the Enphase reporting feature:

Ten months of Bob’s usage versus production

The first two columns show the start and end dates for each meter reading/billing cycle.  The bought column is the amount of energy that Bob purchased from his utility.  (Whoa, what happened during the latest billing cycle???)  The sold column is the amount of energy that Bob sold back to his utility during that period, as reported by the utility.  The next column is the amount of energy that Bob’s system produced during the dates in the billing cycle, according to the Enphase website.  But wait, how can this be?  In that first period, the utility says that Bob only sold 774 kWh of energy, but Enphase says his system produced nearly twice as much, 1,338 kWh!

How do we make sense of this disparity?  The answer is simple: local consumption.  It is important to remember that the utility has no idea how much energy Bob’s system is producing, all they see is how much energy Bob is selling back to them.  So both Enphase and the utility are correct, they are just measuring different things.  Enphase measures total energy produced.  The utility measures energy sold to them—the difference is energy used to power Bob’s house that didn’t come from the utility; rather, it came from the solar system!  In that first billing cycle, Bob’s system produced 1,338 kWh and of that, 774 kWh were sold back to the utility, meaning 564 kWh of that production were used to power his house.  And that means that Bob’s total consumption for the month is the amount that he bought from his utility, 1,402 kWh, plus the solar production that was consumed locally, 564 kWh, for a total consumption of 1,966 kWh.  Applying that reasoning to the rest of the data shows that Bob’s overall consumption has increased in every billing cycle except one, with a whopper over the holidays!  (Maybe too many holiday lights?)

The production data shows that Bob’s system has been performing appropriately - increasing over the summer months, decreasing over the winter months.  Here’s a graph that puts that all into perspective:

Bob’s solar power system: Lifetime energy production versus expected.

The blue represents the actual energy produced each day.  The gray line is the predicted system production (in this case modeled using the CSI calculator). Over the lifetime of the system, the maximum amount of energy produced in a day was 29.7 kWh (42% above what was predicted for that day) and on the day when this graph was created, the system produced 15.7 kWh.

Generally, the performance peaks well above what is expected (particularly in the late June through early November period).  But once we get into mid-November things deteriorate—not because of a fault in the system, but because of abnormally wet weather here in SoCal (as we head into a 1″/hour rain storm today!).  For much of the past two months, actual production has fallen well below what was predicted, with just 77% of predicted being realized so far this month.  And yet, despite all of that, overall the system has still produced 99% of its estimated lifetime production.

This points out a couple of key things to me: First, you just gotta love the data that is available through the Enphase monitoring system.  It allows system owners and installers alike to have near-real time access to system performance, as well as to review long-term data to discern trends and uncover patterns.  Priceless!

Second, we as solar professionals need to do a much better job of informing our clients so that they know what to expect.  (I’m leaving out the hype-sters who couldn’t care less what the consumer knows as long as they make a sale.) 

We live with this stuff every day but for most of our clients, this is all brand new, and confusing.  We need to take the time to explain how this works so that they can understand the actual value of their investment.

Sara multitasking at a job site.

It is with great excitement that we introduce to you the latest member of the Run on Sun family, Sara Pavey, our new Projects Coordinator!

We’ve had our eye on Sara for quite some time as she has been in the solar industry for more than five years with a variety of other solar companies.  Indeed, during her tenure at one of those companies, her bosses derided her as a “teller, not a seller,” because she has the audacity to take the time to fully explain things to potential solar clients!  Needless to say, we are thrilled to have another “teller” on our team as we are fully committed to answering all of our clients questions before they sign on the dotted line!

Sara is a proud graduate of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (Go Mustangs!), earning her degree in Mechanical Engineering. Sara demonstrated her technical insights at her very first Run on Sun jobsite, suggesting a clever re-routing of cables that was both more efficient and more aesthetically pleasing.  We look forward to putting all of her tech skills to use—as well as her “telling” approach to sales! 

Prior to joining Run on Sun, Sara honed her installation skills by volunteering with Grid Alternatives, a nationwide non-profit that “brings the benefits of solar technology to communities that would not otherwise have access, providing needed savings for families, preparing workers for jobs in the fast-growing solar industry, and helping clean our environment."  (Learn more about Grid Alternatives here.)

A native of Southern California (yes, there really are some natives here!), Sara lives in Pasadena with her husband, Kyle, and two (very) young children, Isla and Liam. When Sara is not crunching numbers or climbing on the roof, you will find her at the LA Zoo, Kidspace Children’s Museum, or a local trail. If both children are miraculously napping at the same time, she likes to paint colorful abstract paintings on any available surface, including the shower door.  (Another skill for us to tap!)

Please join me in welcoming Sara to the Run on Sun family!

A client of ours noted that Pasadena Water and Power (PWP) offers, in addition to its regular, Residential tiered rate structure, the option to switch to a Time-of-Use rate structure, and he asked if he would derive additional savings from making that switch. Turns out that is not an easy question to answer, and there certainly isn’t a “one size fits all” result. We decided to take a closer look into these rates both for PWP and for the folks in Southern California Edison (SCE) territory.

SPOILER ALERT - The following is pretty much down in the weeds.  You have been warned!

Defining Tiered and Time-of-Use (TOU) Rates

Let’s start by defining our terms. Most residential electric customers, of both PWP and SCE, are on a tiered rate structure. That means that there are two or more cost steps - called tiers - for the energy that you use. Tiered rates assume that there is some minimally expensive charge for the first allocation of energy per billing cycle, and that as you use more energy your cost for energy increases. For example, SCE’s Domestic rate has three tiers and in the first tier the charge is 8.8¢/kWh, in the second tier the charge is 16¢/kWh, but the final tier is 22.4¢/kWh! (There  is also a non-tiered component that adds another 6.9¢/kWh to the customer’s bill.)

PWP, on the other hand, has a somewhat perverse tier structure in that the lowest tier is very cheap, 1.7¢/kWh, the second tier is significantly higher, 13.5¢/kWh, but the final tier actually goes down to just 9.9¢/kWh! Since the whole point of tiered rates is to provide an incentive for heavy users to reduce their usage, PWP is actually rewarding those who consume more than 25 kWh per day with lower rates! Very odd.

Time-of-use rates, on the other hand, are generally not tiered. Instead, the day is broken up into segments and the cost of energy varies depending on the segment in which it is consumed. PWP refers to these segments as “On-Peak” (from 3-8 p.m.) and “Off-Peak” (all other hours). But PWP’s TOU rate retains the tiered element as well, making it a truly odd hybrid rate structure.

SCE’s approach is more involved, dividing the day into three, more complicated segments: “On-Peak” (2-8 p.m. weekdays - holidays excluded), “Super Off-Peak” (10 p.m. to 8 a.m. everyday), and “Off-Peak” (all other hours).

For both PWP and SCE there is a seasonal overlay on these rates, with energy costs increasing in the summer months (defined as June 1 through September 30).

(It is important to note that both PWP’s and SCE’s TOU rates put the most expensive energy in the late afternoon to evening time period - pricing energy to offset against the “head of the duck.” Ultimately, these rates will create the energy storage market in California, but that is a post for another day.

Analyzing the Benefits of a Rate Switch - Pre-Solar

Assuming that one can create a spreadsheet to model these different rates (not a small task in and of itself!) there is one more hangup - data. Both PWP and SCE report total monthly usage to customers on their tiered rate plans - but in order to analyze your potential bill under a TOU rate, you must have hourly usage data for every day of the year! (Because there are 8,760 hours in a [non-leap] year, such a usage data collection is typically referred to as an 8760 file.)

The standard meters that PWP has installed simply do not record that data, so the average PWP customer has no way to know whether they would save money by making the switch.

On the other hand, most SCE customers do have access to that data and they can download it from SCE’s website.

After you create an account, login to it and go the “My Account” page. On the left-hand-side you will see some options - click on “My Green Button Data” (the too cute by half name for the interval data you are seeking), select the data range for the past twelve months, set the download format to “csv” and check the account from which to download. Then press the “download” button and cross your fingers - in our experience, the SCE website fails about as often as it actually produces the data that you are seeking!

Modeling PWP

Given that PWP doesn’t have data available, is there any way to estimate what the results might be? The answer is, sort of. We took an 8760 data set from an SCE customer and used that as our test data for both PWP and SCE. (The data file does not identify the customer.) Since the data file has an entry for every hour of every day, we can segment the usage against the On-Peak and Off-Peak hours, and using a pivot table - probably the most powerful took in Excel - we can summarize those values over the course of the year, as you see in Figure 1.

Figure 1 - Usage Profile for PWP

Summer months are highlighted in orange. For this specific energy usage profile, Off-Peak usage is more than twice that of the On-Peak usage (9,806 to 4,009 kWh respectively). So how does that work out when we apply the two different rate structures? The table in Figure 2 shows the details of the two rates:

Figure 2 - PWP Rates - Standard Residential and TOU

Under both rate plans, the distribution is tiered (with the perverse reverse incentive for usage above 750 kWh). Added to that is either the seasonally adjusted flat rate for energy, or the seasonally adjusted TOU energy charge.

Applying those rates to the Usage Profile in Figure 1 allows us to see what the energy and distribution components would be under both approaches. Given the hybrid nature of these rates, you might expect them to be similar and you would be correct. The distribution charge - which applies to both - comes to $1,180 for the year. The flat rate energy charge comes to $893, whereas the TOU charge is $985. Meaning that someone electing to use the TOU rate would have a yearly total of $2,165, whereas the flat rate user would have a total bill of $2,074, making the TOU rate - for this specific energy profile - 4% higher.

Beyond that, PWP has a number of other charges - such as a public benefit charge, an underground surtax, and a transmission charge - that are only tied to total usage, so the ultimate difference between these two rates is even smaller.

Modeling SCE

SCE rate structures are significantly more complicated that PWP’s. For example, the tier 1 (aka baseline) allocation varies by location. Since SCE covers such a huge and diverse area from cool coastal regions to absolute deserts, customers are allocated more energy per day in their baseline depending upon where they live. In the area around Pasadena that is covered by SCE, a typical daily baseline allowance would be 13.3 kWh in the summer and 10.8 kWh in the non-summer months. The baseline then is that number times the number of days in the billing cycle. Tier 2 applies to every kWh above baseline, but below 200% of baseline. Tier 3 applies to everything beyond that. As with PWP, the tiered rate only applies to “delivery” charges. The energy generation charges are the same all year. Here’s what that rate structure looks like:

Figure 3 - SCE’s Tiered Domestic Rate

The first thing that you notice when you look at this rate is how much higher it is than the rates from PWP, and the end calculation bears that out - the same usage that resulted in an annual bill of $2,074 in Pasadena becomes $3,227 once you cross the border into Altadena, South Pasadena, San Marino, or Sierra Madre - an increase of 56%! (There’s a reason why a growing percentage of our clients are coming from those surrounding, SCE-territory communities!)

So what would happen if this beleaguered client were to shift to a TOU rate? First, we need to re-parse the usage data according to SCE’s more complicated segmentation scheme, which gives us Figure 4:

Figure 4 - SCE’s Segmented Usage Data

Once again, the On-Peak usage is the smallest category of the three, amounting to just 23% of total usage, compared to 42% in Off-Peak, and 35% in Super Off-Peak.

Of course, SCE can’t do anything in a simple fashion, so they have not one but two basic approaches to their TOU rates, Option A and Option B.  Option A rates run from a low of 13¢/kWh (in summer Super Off-Peak), to 29¢/kWh (during summer Off-Peak) to an eye-popping 44¢/kWh (during summer On-Peak).  However, Option A includes a credit of 9.9¢/kWh on the first baseline worth of energy which reduces the monthly bill by roughly $30.

Option B deletes that baseline credit and replaces it with a “meter charge” (even though it is the same meter!) of 53.8¢/kWh/day, or roughly $17/month.  In return, the On-Peak charges are significantly reduced from 44¢/kWh to just 32¢/kWh.

So how does this shake out?  The results are quite surprising, as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5 - SCE Rate Structure Comparison

The two left columns show the month-by-month calculations for both delivery (the tiered component) and generation (the flat component).  The two right columns show the month-by-month calculations for the two different TOU rates.

The bottom line is striking: under TOU-A there is a savings of 5% over the tiered rate, whereas the savings jump to 19% by going to TOU-B!  That is a savings of $600/year just by changing rate plans - a switch that any SCE customer can make.

MAJOR CAVEAT: YOUR MILEAGE WILL VARY!

The results displayed here are entirely dependent on your actual energy usage and no two usage profiles are alike.   It is possible, even likely, that some usage profiles will see an increase in bills under either TOU option.

The good news is, that for a nominal fee,  this is an analysis that we could do for any SCE residential customer - we would just need access to your usage data.

So that completes our pre-solar analysis. In our next post, we will look at how these results change when you add a solar power system into the mix.

Here in SoCal we are blessed with endless warm sunny days. The down side however is that it can be many months between invaluable air-purifying rain showers. For your solar array, this means there is nothing to wash away the accumulated dust and detritus from nearby trees. In summer months ash from nearby mountain fires adds to the mix. Consider this a Run on Sun PSA…

IT’S TIME TO RINSE OFF YOUR PANELS!! 

These panels needed to be cleaned just to get the inverter to turn on!

(Didn’t help that the installer put the panels under a tree!)

When discussing solar with new clients often the topic of cleaning comes up. This is because some solar companies use the concept of cleaning your array as a way to convince you you need a leased system with ongoing maintenance. However, we believe this is a bit of a scam. You don’t need to pay someone to get up on your roof with a squeegie every week. Most home owners have the ability to douse dusty panels from the ground with a strong nozzle attached to a garden hose. Really the benefit is nominal unless it has been six months since the last rain, such as the case in Southern California. As for cleaning the panels, rinsing with a hose is fine (though some insist that is heresy and only deionized water should be used). Do it first thing in the morning so there is no thermal shock to the panels.

Check out this recent case study that brought this issue to our attention:

Shiny new panels at Chandler School

Last week we heard from a client who did some great analysis using the Enphase monitoring on their system before and after he decided to clean his panels. He found there was an 8% improvement in the period after cleaning. Run on Sun’s CEO Jim Jenal compared this to the monitoring on another system (Westridge School) which wasn’t cleaned and had a similarly unshaded southern facing array. Over that time period Westridge School’s daily average production reduced 8.66%. This means that our client actually had an increase of production of 16.6% by cleaning his panels!

Generally, cleaning an array results in an improvement of between 5-10%, so his panels were exceptionally impaired by the fallout from our summer fires! Not surprisingly, given his location in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. However, for anyone in the Los Angeles metro area, early September is a great time to get out and restore the shiny clean sheen to your array. After all, who knows when the first winter rain will come? 

Advocates of solar, such as the crew at Run on Sun, take it for granted that going solar is win-win for our clients, such as the folks at Chandler School.  But sometimes we forget that non-adopters have real concerns about putting solar on their roofs.  In this, our last cut on the data that we received from NREL (read our two earlier posts on who chooses Run on Sun and what generally keeps people away from solar), we wanted to address the greatest concerns that people have so that they don’t need to be scared of solar.

First off, here’s our last chart:

Let’s take these concerns one at a time.

Cost concerns

Perhaps the greatest overall concern turns on cost and its counterpart, value.

Affordability

The greatest concern expressed was over the affordability of going solar.  The good news is that solar has never been more affordable.  Back in 2007 when we were first doing installations, solar systems cost more than $8/Watt installed.  Today we are at half of that cost, and even though most rebate programs have ended, the federal tax credit is still at 30%, meaning that more and more people can now afford to go solar!

Bang for the buck

Still, some consumers are concerned about getting enough bang for their buck - they wonder if solar really provides value commensurate with its cost.  To that we reply - it depends.  It depends on the quality of the equipment that you choose and the quality of the installer who puts that equipment on your home.  But how can a consumer know if they are getting quality?  It starts by taking the time to do your research - get multiple bids so you have a basis for comparison.  Be wary of low-ball bids - prices below market are a clear sign that there will either be nasty surprises by way of change orders down the road, or that your contractor is cutting corners. 

As to the quality of the contractor doing the work, ask for references and check them.  In California, look at the Contractors State License Board website to see if there are complaints against the contractor, and see if they are certified by NABCEP, the gold-standard for quality in the solar industry.  Review sites like Yelp and Angie’s List can also help.

Taking on debt or signing a lease

Going solar is a significant financial investment and it should be treated as such.  We have written at great length about the problems with solar leases, but even a favorable loan, like a home equity line of credit, carries costs.  Ideally, savings from your lower electric bill should offset the cost of financing the system, and once the system is paid off, you will continue to derive those savings for the lifetime of the system.

When you get a proposal for going solar, it should clearly spell out what your savings will be in Year 1, and provide a reasonable projection for your payback period over time.  But be careful about proposals with overly rosy projections based on unrealistic assumptions (like energy costs going up 7% each year for 25 years), or ones that don’t disclose their assumptions at all!

Reliability & Maintenance

Another general area of concern turns on how well a solar power system will hold up over time, and what it will cost you to maintain it.

Equipment quality and reliability

In solar, like most everything else, you get what you pay for, if you’re lucky!  Every day we get emails inviting us to purchase cut-rate panels at a fraction of the price we pay for top-of-the-line panels from LG.  We delete those emails without a second thought because we have no interest in dealing with junk.  But someone is buying those panels, and they are ending up on the homes of consumers.  Again, get multiple bids and do your research.  Selecting quality products from established manufacturers is your best assurance that you will have reliable equipment that will last.  (We install LG panels and Enphase microinverters because we believe that they are the best value for our clients.)

Performing regular maintenance

We are always a bit baffled by this one, since a solar power system is largely maintenance free.  We think this concern arose because leasing companies promised to perform all maintenance needed for the system, but this is a hollow promise since there is really nothing to do!  At Run on Sun we provide a ten-year warranty on our work, and we support the manufacturer’s warranties for the parts - so if something does go wrong, it will be fixed with no hassle for our clients.

Harm to your home

The final category of concerns centers around harm to your most valuable asset, your home.  Solar, when done right, will improve that value, but that is not guaranteed.

Damaging the roof

One obvious point of concern has to do with damage to your roof.  After all, a solar array on a pitched roof is held in place by lag bolts driven into the roof rafters so that means lots of holes being put into your roof.  However, when done correctly, as shown in the photo on the right, all of those penetrations are covered by a flashing that guarantees that water cannot penetrate. 

The other issue to consider is the status of your roof - if it is nearing the end of its usable life you will want to re-roof before you put solar on it! 

Detract from curb appeal

Image from the very cool Solar Hall of Shame page by
Green Sun Energy Services, LLC. (Used w/permission)

Beauty, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder and we love seeing solar on a home.  (Although not when it is installed like the bozos did in the photo on the left!)

Still, not everyone wants to see solar panels, and many of our installations are done so as to make the installation as inconspicuous as possible.  (In the photo below the only way to see that lovely layout is to go up on the roof.)  A properly designed and installed system should look clean and neat.  We take pride in our craftsmanship and we work very hard to make our systems as visually appealing as they are economically beneficial.

Make it harder to sell

Finally, there is the concern that adding solar will make it harder to sell your home, which can be true if you have leased the system since the new owner has to assume that lease as part of the deal. We have written at length about the perils of solar leases, and  making it harder to sell your home is just one of many reasons to give them a wide berth.

But if you were smart enough to avoid a lease, the latest research indicates that having a solar power system installed increases the value of your home.  How much?  Roughly $4.00/Watt for a typical installation - which pretty much means that the cost of the system is offset by the increase in resale value!  Try doing that with granite countertops!

Fear Not!

Consumers need not be scared of solar, provided that they choose a reputable installer and pay for quality equipment.  At Run on Sun we specialize in both, so give us a call today!