The cost of electricity is steadily rising, and it’s not showing any signs of slowing down. The good news is that you don’t have to be stuck paying these outrageous prices for much longer. The bad news? Solar panels are typically very expensive with an installation price tag anywhere from 5 thousand to 40 thousand dollars! So before you go out and buy solar panels for your home or business, make sure they’re worth the investment. Residential solar panels are a great way to generate renewable energy, and they require very little maintenance.
Luckily for us, there are some ways to find out if solar panels will work in our homes without having to shell out a lot of money, like getting quotes from professionals or doing research online! To help you get started, here are some of the most important things to consider before buying solar panels.
1. How Many Hours Of Direct Sunlight Will Your Home Receive?
According to Solar Installation by RMS, the number of hours that your home receives direct sunlight throughout the year is one of the most important factors in deciding if a solar panel system is a good idea. In fact, it’s so important that they recommend you spend a fair bit of time researching solar power before you go on to buy solar panels. The reason for this is that you want to know exactly how much sunlight your home will receive so that you can determine if the system will be powerful enough to meet your energy demands. For example, let’s say your home gets around five hours of direct sunlight throughout the year and only one hour in the winter. That means your home will only receive five out of 360 hours in the year, which is not a lot of sunlight, and means that solar panels won’t produce enough energy to meet all of your energy demands.
2. How Much Energy Do You Use Yearly
According to global power consumption statistics, an average family uses around 30-kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity every day. That’s around 1,000 kWh per month and 12,000 kWh throughout the year! To give you an idea of how much that is, one hour of high-intensity air conditioning uses up to 677-kilowatt hours. So for this example, it’d be safe to say that a family uses an average of about 1,000 kWh per month. The question now is, how much are solar panels currently producing?
3 . How Much Does It Cost To Maintain Your Solar Panels?
Not many people think about this before buying solar panels because they’re too focused on the up-front cost, but it’s actually very important to consider this for the future. According to the experts, you can expect your solar panels and inverter to last 25 years before needing replacement. However, that doesn’t mean that there won’t be any other costs after purchasing solar panels! For example, if your system requires a solar battery backup, those batteries will need to be replaced within 10-15 years. Luckily, the technology used to make batteries for solar panels is advancing quickly, so these costs are expected to decrease over time.
As you can see, it’s important that you consider all of these factors before buying solar panels! The good news is that by considering these 3 factors first, you’ll be able to determine if solar panels are right for you without having to spend a lot of money. So before you go out and buy solar panels, make sure that they’re right for your home by considering these 3 factors!
