Tips for Buying Solar Panels

Finding the Best Price: The larger, more established installation companies are usually more expensive. Smaller installation companies offer the best prices.

Find a Middle Ground: The best equipment doesn’t always mean the best savings. Knowing your home’s energy requirements, try and find the right balance between equipment quality and savings.

Consider Net Metering: Are you thinking about installing solar panels on a seasonal house? Remember that energy costs are typically lower during spring and fall and higher in summer and winter. Thus, solar panels may be most optimal for summer or winter homes. With a seasonal home, you should also make sure to get panels that enable you to store your excess energy on a grid or sell it to a local utility company (this incentive is called “net metering”).

Don’t Be House Poor: If you just purchased a home, you might not have a lot of money leftover to buy solar panels. Don’t go house poor for the sake of solar energy. Consider getting a solar lease if you want to reduce your utility bill on your new home.

Don’t Forget About the Rooftop: Solar panels require a roof that’s in good shape. You might want to delay getting solar panels if you need to do a rooftop renovation. You could also try and get a home improvement loan for both your rooftop and your solar panels-knocking out two birds with one stone!

Last but not least, consider how long you plan on keeping your home. Most households break even on solar panels after eight years. Do you plan on owning the home for that long?

If you plan on selling the house before you break even, you might want to lease the panels or forgo installing panels altogether-however, solar panels also tend to increase property values, so they might be a good option for you if you want the property value to appreciate more quickly

If you plan on owning the property for a longer period, or if it’s your primary residence, you’ll benefit most from buying solar panels

If you’re an investor, you might think about installing solar panels so you can earn the federal tax incentive-very helpful if you’ve sold assets in 2021 and owe a significant amount of capital gains tax

Summary

Follow these five steps and you will be able to determine, are solar panels worth it for you? First, review your electric bill-the more electricity you use, the more money you’ll save. Second, use a solar cost calculator to estimate how much you’ll pay. Fourth, consider how much energy your panels would be able to generate, given your home’s exposure to the sun. Fifth, see if you’re eligible online payday loans Hawaii for state or federal tax incentives. Don’t forget to take your overall investment strategy into account if you plan on selling the house in the future.

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Depending on the calculator you use, you may be able to factor in tax incentives to get a more accurate picture of your savings (we’ll cover tax incentives later on).

As mentioned earlier, you shouldn’t wait too long to invest in solar if you plan on doing so. Local governments , so buy your panels soon and maximize your savings.