Excuse me for being honest, but none of my friends know a damn thing about getting a solar system. The only person Ican call is a local solar installer.
Here are the main reasons I am interested in solar:
- paying less utility bills
- being one of the first in my area to get solar
- helping the enviornment
- having something that lasts a really long time, like over 25 years
- and maintenance free, pretty much
There are quite a few more reasons that I like solar power for my house, but those are the main ones. There are some phone numbers on this site you can call later, but we are not there yet.
Here is the basic deal with solar and how it works:
- Sun hits the panels
- Electric Charges are created in direct current(DC)
- An inverter turns it into usable alternating current(AC)
- Through a wire it flows to your house and you use it
- ITS THAT SIMPLE in the simple version
Solar panels come in all types of shapes and sizes. That’s a link from this site about solar panels fitting on a roof and how to figure that out. But, there are things like 150 watt panels, 175 watt panels are real common, 180 watt, 200 watt solar panels, and more. There are even 300 watt DC panels. All of the numbers actually are in DC or direct current since when the panels have sunlight hitting them, that is all direct current. But don’t try to worry too much about that.
First, pull up your electric bill. Solar Energy and electric bills go hand in hand. The higher your electric bill, the more opportunity you have to lower your bills in real dollars. Still cutting back on wasting electricity is important with solar too.(Try to cut your costs all around the horn is my mentality.) Determine how many kilo watts of energy you used on that last bill. The kilo watt hours is the number of electric units you used. Its like how many gallons of gas your car used… Same thinking there. Remember this number.
So what I did is I called up several different local solar profesionals and asked them for different prices on systems that were the same size. Once I had the quotes, then is the time to make a decision on who to go with(I went with a system that is 3.6 KW and ran just under $5.50/watt once all incentives were figured in. If you have any questions, you can feel free to leave a comment below, and I will get back to you within 24 hours most of the time.
Good Luck,
Adam
