Congratulations, you’ve decided to upgrade your home with solar energy. While this is an exciting journey, you still have some work to do. Fortunately, Green Power Energy is here to help you navigate through this journey and provide guidance.
Do Some Homework
Step one in transitioning to solar is researching some information about your home. In Connecticut, we have high electric bills. In fact, at 18.41 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), we’re the most expensive state for electricity in the continental United States.
For example, the average household uses 10,399 kWh of energy per year. At the national average, 10.6 cents/kWh, that’s an annual electric bill of $1,102.29. At Connecticut’s cost of 18.41 cents/kWh, that same bill would be $1,914.46 – a difference of $812.17.
The first thing you’ll want to determine is how much of your energy usage you want to have covered by solar. For example – if your annual usage is 10,000 kWh, we can design systems to provide 5,000 kWh or 50% of your usage. Once you determine how much you want to save, we can begin designing your system.
Conducting an energy audit may also be a great idea. Energy audits will help you identify areas of inefficiency. Once those inefficient areas are addressed, you overall will drop and save you even more money. If all of this seems overwhelming, speak with one of Green Power Energy’s solar consultants where you will receive expert guidance with a smile.
Preparing Your Home For Work
Once your home audit is complete and you know how you want out of your system, it’s time to start making physical preparations.
Obviously, you’ll want the maximum amount of sunlight reaching your solar panels. While walking your property to identify trees and other obstructions may be helpful, Green Power Energy can also help you run a shading analysis.
Like everything we do at Green Power Energy, shade analysis is taken very seriously. Our solar consultants will use an online tool, Aurora, to assist you in pinpointing which trees pose a threat to your energy production.
You’ll also want to check-in with your third-party energy provider regarding their stance on “net metering”. With net metering, excess electricity is fed into your electric utility’s grid when your system is producing more than you need. When this happens, your meter actually runs in reverse. If you produce less electricity than you use in a given month, you must buy electricity from your utility to make up the difference.
Finally, it’s important to note that solar upgrades require access to your electrical panel. Your electrical panel is most likely in your garage, outside, or in the basement. In any case, our installers will require an unobstructed path to the electrical panel.
Call Green Power Energy
At the end of the day, Green Power Energy is your partner in helping you upgrade to solar power. Whether you’re unsure of what you want from your system or you’re not sure about a particular tree in your yard, our solar consultants will help you out every step of the way.
Visit Green Power Energy today for more information.
