For any home, installing solar panels can be relatively new; however it is becoming a popular home improvement project for many homes in North America. With solar panel installation, you can surely boost value of your property and also provide lots of savings in your energy bill over a period of time and the cost of the project can be recovered within few years and yet many people avoid taking up the project, as they think it is a daunting task. For making your installation of solar panel much easier at your home, there are 9 things that you must consider:
1. Take help from any consultant
You may get help from any consultant who knows about this process well. An experienced consultant can be very useful to help you avoid any costly mistakes while making a decision.
2. Check how much space is available
Before you start anything, you must take proper measurement of the area where you are planning to install your solar panel. This will help you to make proper layout plan and decide how many panels will be needed to illuminate your home. Also, you can decide their location. The space can either be on your roof, ground or spread between the two.
You also need to study the movement of sun and ensure that location of the solar panels should get constant and reliable sunlight. If you are deciding to place panels on your roof, then check the strength of your roof, whether it can support your solar panel and the rack weight.
3. Calculate your energy requirements
You can calculate the total energy requirements by averaging out all the kWh mentioned at the electricity bill’s bottom part to ensure that you take each season’s energy requirement into account.
4. Do enough research
You can educate yourself, to have better understanding about the solar panels and electricity basics.
5. Decide on your type of system
In order to help you to decide on the right type of system, you need to learn the basic difference between any grid tie and off-grid system.
6. Size the system
Once your decision about your right system is finalized, you will also get the size of the system.
7. Calculate number of panels you need
Depending upon your total electricity consumption, you can figure out how many panels will be needed to produce that and based on that, you can make realistic budget for your system.
8. Investigate solar subsidies
Also investigate the subsidies, tax benefits, rebates and incentives offered by the government, while you are setting up the total budget.
9. Brush up about local building codes
Make sure that you are aware about the local building codes, while doing online research and you can factor them in your requirements, which may also qualify you for any incentives.
A final note
You must also contact your local electrician to ensure that installing any solar panel at your home is safe. In case you are confident that you can install solar panels all by yourself then you can have further savings of 20%-80% of cost of the solar electric system.
Article Submitted By Community Writer