sustainability

5 Questions to Ask If You’re Going Solar

5 Questions to Ask If You’re Going Solar 150 150 artextima

Are you considering making the change to solar power? You’ve come to the right place. At Jolt Solar, we help homeowners make the switch to renewable energy at affordable rates, saving them money every single month for years on end. But getting solar panels isn’t like walking into the store, putting them in your cart, and checking out. Every solar panel system is custom-tailored to its home, so it’s important to ask a few questions before you make the switch.

At Jolt Solar, we provide free consultations where we will examine your home, determine its viability for solar panels, and give you a plan for moving forward. In these consultations, we will ask most of these questions and more. With that being said, it’s still prudent to think about them on your own, to ensure that you set yourself up with the future in mind.

Here are some questions to ask if you’re considering making the switch to a solar energy system.


How Much Power Do I Use Every Month?

Obviously, no single home consumes the exact same amount of power every month, and that’s one of the frustrations about power bills — unless you’re paying really close attention to your energy usage, the bill can fluctuate greatly. One month it might be surprisingly cheap, only to offset that the next month with an abnormally high charge. One great benefit of solar power is that you can replace your utility bill with a solar payment. Because solar energy covers most or all of your power usage, you’ll be paying a flat rate to pay off your system each month, rather than a variable monthly fee to the utility company.

And that’s why it’s useful to examine your average monthly power usage, as well as your annual trends. Solar energy systems are custom-tailored for each home, and it is possible to have a system that’s too large or too small for your needs. If you overcompensate with a massive system and only end up using a fraction of its power, you’re paying more money than is necessary, which can partially deflate the point of switching in the first place. Meanwhile, if you underestimate your usage and cut corners, you might be paying a decent amount of your utility bill each month in addition to the solar power. It’s a delicate balance and you don’t want to go too far in either direction.

When you consult with our team at Jolt Solar, we will ask for a year’s worth of energy bills. While we can work with a general ballpark, the specifics help us help you best. The actual bills let us design a system that’s perfect for your needs — just enough to give you everything you need, while reducing the risk of underutilization.


Will My Energy Needs Change in the Future?

It pays to cast an eye toward the future when you’re considering solar energy. It’s useful having a history of your energy usage, but it’s also prudent to look ahead, because things change. If your energy usage is likely to increase in the future, consider setting up your solar panel system to accommodate for those changes. Here are some things to think about:

  • Will My Family Get Bigger or Smaller? Do you have little tykes running amuck through their childhood, or do you live with rowdy, restless teenagers who are eager to get out on their own? Are you nursing an elderly relative? Are you a happy couple right now but you plan on having children later? These questions all matter. The bigger your family gets, the more energy usage you’ll want to prepare for. Likewise, if your family will be shrinking in the coming years, we might subtract a little bit from your average energy usage to calculate future trends.
  • Will I Be Driving an Electric Vehicle? For all we know, maybe we’ll all have self-driving electric hovercars 20 years from now. There’s only so much you can predict with certainty, but ignoring the possibility that we evolve into a Jetsons-esque sci-fi utopia anytime soon, you should ask yourself if an electric car is in the cards. Electric vehicles are fantastic, but they do draw upon your home’s power to charge. In the interest of saving money, solar-generated electricity is way cheaper than gasoline, so you should definitely think about it.
  • Will I Be Making Lifestyle Changes?  Some homeowners get a smaller system with the intention of running the AC less, to conserve energy and save money. Conversely, some folks pump it harder to live more comfortably because the solar energy system offers more freedom. Consider what kind of lifestyle changes you’re likely to make. This includes average vs ideal thermostat temperatures, working from home, and so on.


How Much Have My Utility Prices Inflated Over the Years?

One of the most compelling benefits of solar energy is that it effectively replaces your power bill. Under the right system, you’ll use little to no energy from the grid, which means your only monthly payment will be your solar payment. Since this is just paying off a long-term expense, the rate is fixed and will never change over the course of 20+ years.

If you want some motivation for making the switch, see if you can’t dig up a history of your utility payments over the years. You may notice that they’ve inflated a bit. Inflation is a constant in our society; almost everything inflates in price, from cheeseburgers to gas prices. Utility bills are no different, and in 20 years, you could be paying a lot more in power bills than what you’re paying right now. 

Inflation can’t be predicted to the penny, but look at past trends and prediction models for the future, and ask yourself how much money you’d be saving each month under a Jolt Solar plan.

If you need even more motivation, ask yourself this related question: “where has my power been coming from until now?” Spoiler: the answer is “dirty fossil fuels that are poisoning people near and far” in almost every part of the country, so that’s all the more reason to cut up that bill.


Will I Be Selling My Home Soon?

Admittedly, solar power isn’t a perfect investment for everyone. In theory, every homeowner should have it, but certain circumstances may make it a more questionable investment. One of these circumstances is relocation. If you have plans on moving within the next five years, you’ll definitely want to sit down and evaluate whether or not it’s a prudent investment. 

Even so, don’t write anything off the table until you’ve spoken to our team of solar energy professionals. At Jolt, our mission is to make solar affordable and accessible to as many people as possible, and it’s not impossible for solar to yield positive returns, even if you’re not sticking around for a decade. It depends greatly on how much value solar adds to your home, and what happens to the solar loan you’re paying off.

In most cases, homeowners pay off the remaining balance of their solar bill when they relocate — this is often made possible by the additional value that the solar system adds to their home, often reaching thousands of dollars more than comparable non-solar homes. However, it’s also possible to transfer the loan to the new homeowners. They will have to qualify for it, but if they do, it’s a fairly easy transition. Either of these are viable options for solar power if you don’t plan on sticking around for the long haul.


Who Should I Order Solar Panels From?

Finally, if you’ve settled on the idea that you definitely want solar energy for your home, it’s important to make sure you’re working with the right people. There are many solar companies out there, and you’re going to want one who stands by honesty, integrity, and quality. Look no further! At Jolt Solar, our company was founded by experienced solar professionals who have seen it done wrong and knew we could do better. We’re streamlined to help homeowners like you get started with solar in a way that’s easier, more affordable than ever, and low-stress with no high-pressure sales tactics. We provide solar systems for homeowners in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas, and Utah, with more states to come in the following year. 

You might hear naysayers try to tell you that solar energy systems are complicated, expensive, and confusing. We’re here to dispel that myth. Solar power has never been easier or more ubiquitous than it is now, and we’re here to help everyone we can to step into the future of renewable energy. Contact us today to get started!

5 Benefits of Solar Energy

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Welcome to our first official blog post here at Jolt Solar! If you stick around and continually check our blog (which we hope you do), you’ll quickly learn that we have a lot to say about solar. We are, after all, a solar company, and we want to inform as many people as possible about the wonderful benefits of making the switch to solar power.

 

In our blogs, we’ll be talking about just about everything under the sun that relates to solar energy. We’ll talk about how solar energy is affordable and accessible to everyone, contrary to popular belief. We’ll talk about common myths and misconceptions. We’ll talk about what separates Jolt Solar from other companies. We’ll talk about renewable energy, and the science of solar. But, as much as we could talk about these things (and many more), none of it really matters if you have no interest in solar power in our first place.

There is one important question that’s foundational to everything we want to talk about — why switch to solar energy? If this remains unanswered, all that other stuff we want to talk about doesn’t matter a whole lot. And that’s why, for our first post, we’ll be diving into the benefits of solar energy. Here are several things you have to gain from making the switch to solar:


Pay Less Every Month — Even While You’re Financing

There are plenty of great benefits to solar that are part of this list, but we understand all too well that money talks. It’s hard to blame anyone who sees cost as the biggest barrier to solar power. These are trying times after all, and no one wants to add superfluous expenses to their bills.

 

If that describes you, then you’ll take some comfort from the information you’re about to read. Did you know, when you order from Jolt Solar, that you can actually be paying less than what you’re paying for power right now? Solar power reduces your power utility bill to much lower levels — sometimes you don’t even need to pay it at all!

 

The common response to this is “well, yeah, solar saves you money, but not really, because you still have to make payments on your system.” 

 

The above statement isn’t false, but it is misleading, mainly because people are still getting their information from 15-20 years ago when solar payments were far more costly than they are now. When you partner with Jolt Solar, the amount you pay for your solar system every month can actually be lower than your net power bill. And, best of all, we offer $0 down plans because we know there are countless young homeowners looking to get a fresh start. 

 

With zero up front and a smaller monthly payment than what you’re currently paying, money shouldn’t be an obstacle for anyone. The best part? Once your system is totally paid off, you’ll have virtually no payment at all. Not bad, if you’re planning on sticking around for the long haul!


Truly Renewable Energy

Most people have a general understanding that solar energy is “green” or “renewable,” but when you ask them to explain what that means, they often give you a blank face. There’s nothing wrong with that; we don’t expect everyone to be a walking encyclopedia about solar power.

 

However, understanding is important, and to grasp why renewable energy is such a big deal, it’s important to know how things work under the traditional system.


Solar Energy vs. Grid Power

Without solar power, it’s 99.9999% likely that your home is being powered by the grid (a.k.a. your power company). The grid feeds electricity to your home, day and night, and it’s connected to a massive utility infrastructure that is laced throughout the entire region near you – farms and suburbs and high-rises alike. But that power isn’t magically generated; it has to come from somewhere. That “somewhere” is a power plant. Power plants get most of their energy from burning fossil fuels and converting them into electricity. And, unfortunately, fossil fuels are finite. They create copious amounts of toxic waste continuously, and eventually, we will run out of the few sources. This is why fossil fuels such as coal are referred to as “non-renewable” energy sources.

 

The problem with fossil fuels and non-renewable energy is two-fold. First of all, there’s the problem of waste. Byproducts from non-renewable energy sources aren’t easy to dispose of and are usually poisonous to all forms of life. Excessive usage of fossil fuels is a key factor in climate change, and if we don’t find an alternative soon, we’ll be in big trouble. Secondly, these resources are, once again, limited. Even if environmental danger wasn’t an issue, we would still run out of them eventually. There’s also all kinds of economics and shady politics around control over fossil fuel resources, because Monopoly is a great game when you’re winning right? Suffice to say, it’s way better to use a source like the Sun that shines equally on everyone.

 

The beauty of solar energy is that it doesn’t come from a power plant — it comes from the Sun. This is great, because the Sun is basically infinite. Well, not technically, but let’s just say that we’ll be long gone by the time it burns out in several billion years. Solar energy creates no waste after the solar panels are manufactured and installed, and every day, that boundless supply is refreshed as the sun rises over the horizon.


Solar Can Increase Your Home’s Value

If you’re worried that your solar panels are going to turn away buyers, think again — maybe a few decades ago, people would skeptically scorn your investment, but not today. Solar power, now more than ever, is seen as an asset instead of a liability. New homeowners don’t care how the panels look, good or bad, because they’re prudent enough to understand the financial and environmental benefits.

 

It’s impossible to say with confidence how much a solar system would increase the value of your home. But on average, it tends to bump the home’s selling value by a few thousand dollars, and in some places as much as $10,000 – $30,000. This, of course, depends greatly on the solar panel system, the size of the house, and the age of the equipment. But here’s one thing you can definitely bet on. Nobody, and we mean nobody, is going to pay less for a house that has solar panels preinstalled. 

 

People love solar-equipped homes because it means they can reap the benefits without putting in the work. At Jolt Solar, one of our biggest selling points is how easy it is to get started with solar energy, but some people just aren’t convinced, and they’d rather just be able to walk into a home and have it turned on from day one. You can bet they’ll pay a little more for that!


Solar Provides Peace-of-Mind

One annoying part about grid power is that you’re, well, reliant on the grid for your power, and that’s reflected in your bill. While the power grid is mostly reliable, this can cause some uncertainty. First off, it guarantees that you’re out of luck when the grid goes down. This doesn’t usually happen, but it’s certainly a possibility, especially when weather or natural disasters come into play.

 

It’s possible to add a battery to your solar panel system, which can store excess energy. Should your grid power go down, a battery-powered solar system could still create energy for your home. The panels would continue to bring energy throughout the day, and the battery would use stored energy through the night.

 

And, let’s not ignore the convenience of a predictable monthly bill. Your monthly solar payment will always be the same, which can hardly be said about your utility energy bill. You will sometimes have to pay for energy that your solar power didn’t cover, but it’s usually not much, and for people in a precarious financial situation, every dollar and cent counts — that predictable payment can do wonders for a tight budget.


It’s Easier Than It’s Ever Been

There’s one more argument for solar on top of all these reasons — it’s just so easy now to get started. In less time than it takes to buy car insurance from a certain amphibious reptile, we can have you signed up for solar with a $0 down payment. At Jolt, our priority is making things as easy, painless, and affordable for you as possible. For many new millennial homeowners, cost and convenience are high priorities — we can deliver both. What are you waiting for? Contact Jolt Solar today to get started.

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