How to get the best quote on solar panels for your home
Last updated by Andrew Sendy
The fall in solar power system prices and the extension of two key solar subsidies (the 30% solar tax credit and the net metering law) mean solar can be a really, really good investment. Some zero down solar products being offered in the market are saving home-owners $80 a month on their power bill without the home-owner making any investment.
To explain this more fully, this means you pay nothing up front for the solar, your monthly utility bill becomes nothing and the solar payment can be up to $80 less than your current power bill.
This result can be achieved either with a home equity line of credit, a lease or on a PPA agreement.
In key states like California, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey moving from buying power from your utility to buying power from a solar provider is as simple as going from paying 20-22 cents per kilowatt hour to your utility provider to paying 16 or 17 cents for the same power from your solar provider.
Utility providers give you a few kilowatt hours per months at a very low rate but once you use more than the price per kWh (kilowatt hour) can quickly rise above 20 cents per kilowatt hour.
This is a risk free profit of $60-$80 per month. What is even better is that after the loan, lease or PPA term finishes you have free power for the rest of the system life.
Yep, thats right, some of the solar salespeople that have been hassling you over the last few years may actually be telling the truth. Who would have thought !!!
As a home owner currently paying $150 or more per month for power it really is worth becoming familiar with the basic facts about solar while it is still heavily subsidized and while the option remains open to make a risk free profit with solar.
To get this message out key industry participants, such as SEIA have thrown their weight behind the growth of these 2 companies.
The largest dedicated solar reviews and ratings website in America. The site contains reviews of both solar installation companies and solar panels
Originally developed with support from the US Department of Energy this site houses the leading solar panels payback calculator in America.
These sites provide you the home owner with a much needed platform where you can find out everything you need to know about solar before negotiating with a solar company.
The offering of these sites has recently been improved by the release on SolarReviews of data showing the average costs of residential solar panels installed in 2015 in each county in America.
The data shows that the actual costs of solar panels installed is well below what some official government websites say it is.
For example, the Californian government website states the average cost of installing residential solar panels in is currently
$5.25 per watt
.However, the SolarReviews data puts the average cost of installing solar panels in California at
$4.17 per watt
.The SolarReviews.com data is taken from more than 80,000 requests for quote that have been requested by consumers through the Solar-Estimate.org site in the last 12 months and the responses of installers to these requests.
Until the release of this pricing data on SolarReviews.com the Solar-Estimate.org website was the only way that a consumer could get information about fair market pricing before they spoke to an installer.
The way the site works is you enter your details, utility and monthly power bill and it displays an online estimate of how much solar you need and the market pricing based on the average pricing of the installers that service your area. It then gets three of those installers to provide their live prices and an accurate bid for your house.
This Californian government website data also shows, that when compared to people who didn't arrange their solar bids through this site, www.solar-estimate.org users have been able to get much better pricing than the market average.
Andrew Sendy, Chairman of SolarReviews.com said
Good information and transparency of pricing data is the key to consumers getting offered the best deal on solar. Solar companies know that when they offer a price to a user of the www.solar-estimate.org site, and now also the www.solarreviews.com site that the user has been given access to accurate pricing information and that they will not win the work from these consumers unless they offer a good deal.
However, price is not the only thing that is important when buying solar panels for your home or business. When you install solar you are going to have a long term relationship with the provider and so it is important that you consider the quality and reputation of the installer and the equipment they are selling you.
A cheap solar system is no good if in 5 years down the installer and the manufacturer of the equipment are out of business and the equipment fails.
Read what consumers have to say about solar installers in your area
This is where SolarReviews steps up to the plate.
This site shows you the reputation of both the solar installer and also the brand of solar panels they sell you.
There are significant variances in cost between the cheapest and best solar installers and the cheapest and best solar equipment. SolarReviews allows you to access the benefit of feedback from approximately 20,000 consumers who have already gone solar and have been generous enough to share their experiences with SolarReviews. The ratings of installers and solar panels gives you an easy way to compare quality.
With the addition of pricing data from Solar-Estimate.org, SolarReviews has now become the first website to offer consumers highly accurate and unbiased information about both price and quality, the two biggest factors a consumer needs to consider when considering a purchase of solar.
With this information at hand you will get the best solar deal for your house and start saving money quickly.
There is still time to get you solar installed before the peak of summer if you pick your vendor now.
Solar systems generate their maximum savings for you in summer months when the days are longer and the irradiation in the sunlight is stronger, so now is the time to get your bids from solar installers.
