Latest articles by The Solar Nerd

If you used The Solar Nerd calculator, you’ll have an estimate of how many solar panels you need to generate all of your electricity. But then the question is: will that number of panels actually fit on your roof? You might know the square footage of your house, but that doesn’t tell you the area of roof that’s available to fit solar panels. What you want is a big rectangular area without any shade.

If you’re thinking about covering your house or garage with solar panels, or even building a solar pergola, you’ll want to know something about solar panel sizes. I’ll get to that, but first let’s clarify what we mean by size. It could mean a number of things: The physical dimensions of the panel, or The power output of the panel in watts and volts This article will focus on the first question, but also mention how dimensions and cell count affects power output.

A lot of the time, homeowners feel the need to hide their solar panels by mounting them on a rooftop away from the street. But with a little creativity, solar panels can be used as an attractive architectural design element. One of the underappreciated characteristics of solar panels is that they can be used to provide shade. With some smart design, you can make use of this by integrating solar panels into shading structures for your homes, such as pergolas, canopies, and carports.

Your roof keeps the rain off your head. It’s one of the most important components of your house, and an expensive thing to replace. When you get a new roof, you want to make sure that your investment is protected. But installing solar panels on a pitched roof involves drilling dozens of holes right into the roof. Sounds scary, doesn’t it? First of all, it’s recommended that you don’t install solar panels on a roof that has 10 or fewer years of life left in it.

If you’ve used our solar calculator or looked at the map of solar homes around you, you’ll know that going solar is pretty easy and increasingly common. As the price continues to drop, it becomes affordable for more people. But what if you want to go completely solar? What if you don’t want to use any fossil fuels at all in your home? Yes, it’s possible to go completely solar in your home.

If you’re a homeowner who’s ever done a major home renovation, you’ll know that certain upgrades will mean an increase in property taxes. When you do a home renovation, in most municipalities this will involve getting permits for things like electrical, plumbing, or construction work. When property tax assessment time rolls around, the assessor’s office will typically review any permits for the property. If it looks like significant renovation work was done, your taxes could go up.

A solar photovoltaic system is made up of a number of components that generate electric currents, or have electronics that emit electromagnetic fields. In addition, certain types of solar cells are made of elements or compounds that have known toxicities, such as cadmium telluride and gallium arsenide. So does this mean that putting solar panels on your roof increases your risk of cancer? In short, no. While components that make up a photovoltaic system do emit varying degrees of electromagnetic fields, those fields are within the limits established by the FCC for electrical devices.

If you’re a solar homeowner, you’re basically a sunlight farmer. And as a farmer, you want the biggest crop so that you can get the best return on your investment. When you live anywhere in the United States, assuming that you have a sky obstructed by trees or buildings, your solar panels will receive the most sunlight if they face south, because the sun is in the southern sky. But does that mean your solar panels have to face south if you want to maximize your return on investment?

You may have heard something about renewable energy technologies like wind power and solar power being bad for birds. Even Donald Trump weighed in at a rally, saying “The wind kills all your birds. All your birds, killed. You know, the environmentalists never talk about that.” So, is it true? Does solar power kill a lot of birds? The answer is no. First of all, there are different types of solar power.

Is net metering available in New Hampshire? Yes! Net metering is currently available from all electric utilities in New Hampshire. Credits for excess generation are banked and rolled over to the next month. Such credits may be carried forward indefinitely, but customers may elect to be paid for their credits at the avoided cost rate, which will be lower than the residential retail rate for electricity. The New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission website has the complete text of the current net metering rules.