Solar Basic

There’s no question that solar power is an excellent source of renewable energy — and one that’s becoming more affordable day by day. But even with that being said, many homeowners still struggle with the idea of it. Part of this is because of uncertainty. Even if the solar panel system is affordable, many homeowners are unsure of how much power solar can provide, and if their house is a good fit.

A common assumption is that you need to have a home that’s exposed to constant sunlight every single day of the year. Not true! While that’s certainly ideal, you’d be surprised at how many homes can comfortably host a reliable solar panel array. While sunlight is obviously the biggest factor, there are several aspects of a home that we look at to determine how viable it is for solar power. Do you want to know if your home is a good fit for solar? Here are some indicators to look at:

At Jolt Solar, we wholeheartedly believe in the environmental benefits that solar power provides. By harnessing energy from the ever-renewable sun, it draws less power from the electrical grid, which means the power plants don’t have to work as hard. While one home doesn’t make a huge difference, we could have a sizable impact on carbon emissions if solar is adopted en masse! 

However, we fully understand that, for most people, money talks. And let’s face it — not everyone is so gung-ho about green energy that they’d increase their bills every month to accommodate it. That’s why the first thing you should look at is your energy bill. If you’re paying more than $75 a month on average, you will likely be paying less money overall each month if you switch to solar. And no need to worry about upfront expenses — at Jolt Solar, we provide zero down payment plans so that you can immediately start enjoying the cost savings without having to shell out a few thousand dollars upfront that you can’t afford.

Ultimately, it’s hard to say no to reducing your monthly bills. The best part? You’ll be doing your part to reduce your carbon footprint.

For maximum efficacy, solar panels are installed on the roof of your home. But these are large, heavy devices, so it’s important to make sure that your roof is ready for it. For relatively new homes, there’s no room for doubt — most roofs have a useful lifespan of a few decades or more. But not every home is brand new, and some of them have housed multiple generations of families.

While it is possible to temporarily remove solar panels for a re-roofing job, this is ideally something that you’d take care of before getting them installed. It’s easier, it’ll save you money in the long run, and it’ll guarantee that you get maximum efficiency out of your solar panel system with peace-of-mind.

Now we’re getting to the important stuff — the weather. Sunlight, obviously, is a huge factor in the viability of solar systems, and you may think you’re out of luck if you live somewhere that’s frequently overcast. Think again! While climate does certainly have an effect on how well your panels will work, it’s not the end-all be-all decider that some people think it is. 

Here are some bullet points to consider:

• Cloudiness: A common misconception is that clouds block sunlight. This isn’t strictly true — high efficiency solar panels can work even on cloudy days, so you don’t need to live in sunny California or the Mojave Desert to get max usefulness out of them. If you live in an area that has more overcast days than sunlight, we’ll give you an estimate of what your solar panel performance would most likely look like on average. But know this — clouds are not a dealbreaker! 
• Hail: Hail is actually more of a concern than clouds, because it has the potential to damage solar panels. We don’t want to sound too ominous when we say this, as modern solar panels are built to last. They’re engineered to withstand the elements over 25+ years of 24/7 exposure to the elements, so it’s not like they’re going to bust apart at the first sign of hail. But if your area frequently gets hailed on in heavy amounts, it could be a cause for concern. 
• Snow: Snow is the other weather-induced ailment that can be troublesome for solar panels. While snow clouds don’t obscure UV light, the snow itself does. That is to say, if your panels end up getting covered in a healthy dose of snow, they won’t be getting much power. Fortunately, snow usually slides off on its own due to their incline angle, but not 100% of the time. We’ve installed solar panels in states like Colorado where snowy winters are a given, so it’s not a dealbreaker, but it is an important factor to consider. 

Believe it or not, it is possible to live in a perfectly sunny area and not be viable for solar power. This isn’t common, but it’s possible because of shade. Shade is an indicator that the sunlight is quite literally not reaching an area, and if your house sits in it for most of the day, it doesn’t bode well for solar panels.

For most homes, this isn’t a concern, but there are some exceptions. You may have a massive tree that has overshadowed your home for generations. If you’re feeling good about solar, it might need to be cut down. Or, you may just live next to gargantuan buildings that cast large shadows on you. Maybe you live in a canyon where the great mountainsides block the sun on a regular basis. If your home is in a spot where shade quite literally can’t be avoided, you may not be the best candidate for solar power.

There’s no one-size-fits-all strategy for solar panel installation. Every home is different, and even two homes with the same exact layout might have their systems installed differently due to positioning relative to the sun. 

The best solar systems are uniquely installed to harvest as much sunlight as possible. This takes into account the rotation of the sun and where it will be every hour of the day. Because of this, a roof’s slope is pretty important. Some homes have an uneven slope, with one short side and one long one. If the long side was positioned away from the sun during peak hours of the day, it obviously wouldn’t be as effective as a home with an opposite configuration.

Keep in mind that’s an oversimplified explanation. To understand how well-suited your home is for solar based on its roofing, we encourage you to contact our team of solar professionals today — we can give you a rundown on your unique situation.

From these basic factors, you can do a rough self-evaluation of how good your home is for solar, but we would encourage you not to jump to conclusions until you’ve spoken with a professional. At Jolt Solar, we can evaluate your home and give you a detailed rundown on how well solar power would perform for your house. We’re experts here, and we’ve helped more homeowners than we can count to adopt renewable energy systems. 

Jolt Solar operates in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas, and Utah, with more states to come in the following year. We would love to help you get started with a solar energy system that’s perfect for your home. There’s no reason to sit around waiting for the renewable energy revolution — contact us today to get started!

It’s hard to find people who say no to “free”. Especially when it comes to things like reducing your bills. Would you say no to solar if it were offered for no cost? Who wouldn’t?

For most folks, the advantages of solar power are obvious — it saves money in the long run, it creates renewable energy, and it helps to reduce your carbon footprint.

And yet, solar panels have long been associated with the ambitions of those who can afford the “extreme” lifestyle — either extremely rich, up there with luxury cars and inground hot tubs in the list of “things old people can afford, but not me”, or the extremely eco-conscious, i.e. “things those crazy hippies on the West Coast love, but aren’t realistic for most people”.

Indeed, younger homeowners still may have a fear of solar power, even while they wholeheartedly support the idea of green. The reason, of course, is money. For many millennial and gen-z homeowners, the bare minimum is the only option. Property prices are higher than ever, and wages aren’t exactly catching up quickly. Solar seems like an unattainable option — at least, until time and opportunity open up one’s finances.

But what if we told you this was a myth? What if we said that solar power could actually reduce the amount you’re paying in bills every month, even while the system is still being financed? What if we told you you could sign up for solar in less than 15 minutes, with no upfront fees or down payments?

That’s right — at Jolt Solar, we make solar affordable and accessible to everyone. Here’s what you need to know about solar energy if you’re a young and/or new homeowner.

If you didn’t already know, one of the biggest benefits of solar panels is that they reduce your monthly power bill — often down to nothing at all, depending on how much power you use. That’s right, if you play your cards well, you won’t even have to pay a penny in actual power fees.

But it’s not that easy. You still have to cover the cost of the actual solar panel system, which isn’t just any cheap gadget. A solar system is a small construction project for your home. Most people finance over the course of many years so that you’re paying a fixed monthly amount. Even if your power fees have been all but eliminated, a bill is a bill.

This is usually what scares people away from solar. And this is why we need to clarify what we offer here at Jolt — with our solar energy systems, you can save money on your total bills every month, while your system is being financed. Our solar plans are so affordable, that even with the financing, it will be less than what you’re currently paying for power. That doesn’t sound too bad, right?

With solar panels, you’re effectively just replacing your current bill with a different one, until the system is completely paid off and you don’t need to pay anything at all. But that new bill is cheaper, and 100% predictable. You’re paying the same amount every month instead of the fluctuating payments that you pay to your power utility provider. That’s what we offer here at Jolt.

The important thing that new homeowners need to know about solar plans is that they last for quite a long time. Most plans range from 20-25 years, so they’re ideal for homeowners who are committed to the long haul. You did the same mental arithmetic when you compared your rent to taking out a mortgage. It’s theoretically possible to reduce the payment period, but just like mortgages, that would result in higher monthly payments. While this seems like a tremendous period of time, it’s right in the same league as a mortgage, making it an attractive bundle option.

When you buy a new home and set up solar right when you move in, the solar payments essentially just replace what you’d usually be paying in power bills. If done from the beginning, it’ll just feel like a foundational aspect of your home ownership. And once the payment period is over, you’ve got all kinds of lovely benefits — a life that’s free of mortgage payments and power bills.

Think about it like this – when you bought your last car, did they offer a chance to fill up the tank at a low fixed rate that matches your auto loan term? Obviously not, but if they did, it would be hard to say no. (Psst: you should get an electric car if you’re going solar – knock out your gasoline expenses for good too!)

We mentioned earlier that cost is the biggest barrier to adopting solar power. The second biggest one, however, is the “wait and see” mentality. In a nutshell, a lot of folks are hesitant to adopt solar, because they’d rather “wait and see” what’s around the horizon.

Maybe solar prices will be cheaper in a year or two. Maybe there will be some breakthrough that cuts costs. Maybe the government will launch some mandate that provides free solar to everyone (sure, and Canada will pay for it). No matter what is around the corner, there’s always someone pining for it.

20 or 30 years ago, the waiting game was actually a pretty good strategy. This is because solar energy was still relatively new, and was going through a lot of innovation, both in its manufacture and efficiency. But technology always levels out somewhere, and eventually solar did too. The world’s finest engineers have been perfecting the modern solar panel for decades, and at this point, we’ve got them running about as efficiently as possible. In other words, you shouldn’t expect any major changes in solar panels for a while. We’ve reached the point where new innovations and price drops yield diminishing returns, and the price has stabilized at a certain range that’s fairly consistent across the entire solar industry.

With that being said, there’s no good reason to wait around for solar. Will it get cheaper over the years? Yes, but that price drop will be negligible compared to the drops that have happened in the last couple of decades. At this point, it’s more worth it to just invest now and enjoy the benefits right away. So who cares if you can get panels that are 5% more efficient in a couple years? You just spent two years’ worth of power bills waiting!

If you’re a new homeowner, you probably aren’t intending on selling your home anytime soon. In fact, maybe you’re prepared to stay for the long haul — those 15-30 years that correspond to your mortgage. Nevertheless, it’s useful to know that solar panel systems do, in fact, increase the value of your home. A solar system can add anywhere from $9,000 – $30,000 on the selling price, usually scaled to the size of the home and the system.

This is valuable information for anyone who may consider a relocation at some point. Perhaps you’ll land a new job, or your family will grow and you’ll seek to upsize. Whatever the reason for relocation is, a solar system shouldn’t be a deterrent. If you’ve spent some years making payments, the extra value from solar is quite often enough to pay off the rest of your balance of   — and then some. 

This isn’t a temporary trend either. Solar is becoming increasingly more popular, and the demand is only going to rise in the coming years, especially as the issue of curbing climate change and investing in the future of the planet becomes a bigger talking point in public discourse.

At Jolt Solar, we realize that countless homeowners are deterred from solar power for a variety of reasons. Our mission is simple: to spread the word, wide and clear, that solar power is more attainable and affordable than it’s ever been. This technology isn’t reserved for the old or the rich. It’s not some experimental nonsense, and it saves homeowners money instead of adding to their budget. What’s not to like?

Best of all, at Jolt Solar, we make it easy to get started. Ordering a solar panel system with us is quick and easy; in a 15 minute phone call we can have you set up. No joke! We provide solar systems to homeowners in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas, and Utah, with more states to come in the following year. If you’re in any of these states, there’s never been a better time to go green. Contact us today to get started!