The question we all want to know, how much will solar panels on my home cost?

First off, what do we need to know about solar panels? How much power they can produce is important. What is also important is how much power does your home or office need?

Let’s define a couple terms first. The difference between power and energy.
Power is commonly referred to as the “watt” in solar terms. If you have a 100 watt light bulb, when you switch that light on it is going to emit 100 watts at all times. Which leads us into energy.
Energy, the transfer of power over a given time. Have you ever heard the term kwH (kilowatt hour)? Of course you have, and you’ve likely said, well how does my kilowatt hour and my solar panel power capacity correlate? It’s not exactly straight forward. I’ll explain why…

Your electric company will provide you your energy usage (kwH) per month usually. This could be say 900 kwH. Remember, whenever you see that H (hour), this is power over time = energy. So how does 900 kwH tell me how many kw needed for solar panel system you may need to cover 100% of your energy needs. The answer, it doesn’t really.

Let’s get back to the 100 watt light bulb. If you left that light bulb on 24 hours per day that would be 2.4 kwH per day, or 72 kwH per month. Now, 900 kwH is the US average home energy use, so there are 2 points to this comparison. One, turn off your lights when you aren’t using them! Two, if you add up everything in your home that uses electrical power, that would be the size system you would need. There is a very good chance you will need a 10 kw system, or 15 kw system. Just so you know, the average system purchased in the US for residential use is 5 kw.

Back to the point of this article. How much will it cost?
The cost for solar panels is quoted by the “watt”. In 2017 the average per watt install price is between $2.87 and $3.85 per watt. For your information, this price has dropped each year and is 9% lower then in 2016.

So now you have a better understanding of how to size a solar panel system. Do you want to cover 30% of electricity needs, 50%, etc.? Please make sure to check out your state incentives on this site and remember, 30% federal tax credit goes down in 2019 and by 2023 this incentive is gone! Now is the time to get your solar panel estimates.

To see your sun hours and receive a free quote please visit our map.

What Is Solar Power Energy?

There are many important things that you should know and understand regarding the matter of solar power energy. In the simplest terms, the term solar power energy is used to describe a number of methods which are harnessing energy from the sun. Solar technologies use the sun’s energy and light to provide such elements as heat, light, hot water, electricity, and even cooling for homes, businesses, and industries.

In other words, the sun has produced energy for billions of years, and solar power energy is the radiation which then reaches the earth. This solar power energy can then be converted either directly or indirectly into other particular forms of energy, such as heat and electricity, for instance. Solar energy can be used for heating water for domestic use, for the space heating of buildings, the drying of agricultural products, and even for generating electrical energy.

Solar energy has been around and been used since the prehistoric times, and before 1970, some research and development had been carried out in a few countries, with hopes to exploit solar energy more efficiently, however most of this work remained academic for the most part.

Solar energy is, in fact, even being used in India for heating the water for both industrial and domestic purposes.

Solar energy is considered to be the most readily available source of energy, and it is easily the most important of the non-conventional sources of energy because it is non-polluting and therefore helps in lessening the greenhouse effect. The electricity that can be stored from solar energy can be used for many purposes, such as: domestic lighting, street lighting, village electrification, water pumping, desalination of salty water, powering of remote telecommunications repeater stations, and railway signals – to name a few.

The only real problem with solar energy is that it only works when the sun is shining, so on cloudy or dark days or during nights the power plants cannot create energy. There are other certain hazards that are possible with solar power; proponents of solar energy present facts, figures, and graphs support claims that energy from the sun would be less expensive, considering that conventional fuel supplies dwindle and technology of solar energy systems improves.

Even so, one must stop to consider what will actually stop the solar energy equipment manufacturers and solar power companies from raising prices when they achieve a monopoly and other fuel sources disappear.

What Is Solar Power?

Solar power is an incredibly and dramatically important issue, and there are many important issues in regards to the matter of solar power. Solar power technologies use the sun’s energy and light to provide heat, light, hot water, electricity, and even cooling for such things as homes, businesses and industries. There are several primary solar technologies that are used, which include that of: photovoltaics, passive solar heating, concentrating solar power, and solar hot water and space heating and cooling.

Photovoltaics are solar cells which are used to directly convert sunlight into electricity. These solar power cells are made of semi conducting materials, and crystalline silicon is the leading commercial material for photovoltaic cells, which can be used in itself in many forms, including that of: single-crystalline or monocrystalline silicon, multicrystalline or polycrystalline silicon, ribbon and sheet silicon, and thin-layer silicon.

Passive solar power heating involves that of buildings which are designed for passive solar and daylighting incorporate design features such as that of south-facing windows and building materials that absorb and slowly release the sun’s heat. In passive solar heating, there are no mechanical means at all used, and passive solar designs can also include that of neutral ventilations for cooling.

The concentrating of solar power involves that of technologies which use reflective materials such as mirrors in order to concentrate the sun’s energy; this then concentrated form of energy is converted into electricity. Solar hot water heaters on the other hand, use the sun to either heat water or a heat-transfer fluid in collectors. A typical solar hot water and space heating and cooling system will reduce the need for conventional water heating by about two-thirds, which is obviously considered as being quite dramatic.

Solar power, besides providing heat and light, is also what causes the wind that we feel on Earth. This is because winds are created when various layers of that atmosphere absorb different amount of heat and therefore expand differently, thus creating regions of lower and higher pressure, which results in masses of air that circulate both at ground level as well as that of higher altitudes. Solar power is also responsible for fossil fuels such as that of petroleum and coal, as these substances are the result of large masses of decayed plant matter, which during their own lifetime, had absorbed solar energy.