Latest articles by The Solar Nerd

I personally like the look of solar panels on my house. I think they’re interesting to look at, and they’re often a conversation starter. But my solar panels face the backyard away from the street, so even if I didn’t like how they look, people casually passing by don’t see them. Not everyone has that choice: typically, you want your solar panels pointed south to capture as much sunlight as possible, but doing that might mean facing the panels toward the curb.

With the exploding popularity of rooftop solar, competition among solar installers to capture as much of that market is intense. If you live in one of the hot markets for rooftop solar such as California, Hawaii, the southwest, and some northeast states, there’s a good chance you’ve heard your doorbell ring and found a solar salesperson at your door, ready to pitch you on the benefits of rooftop solar. It’s one thing to buy Girl Scout cookies (Thin Mints!

If you have a very large house, you probably have high electricity usage too, possibly making your home a good candidate for solar. If you’re curious about solar and want to find out how many solar panels you’d need for your home that is 4,000 square feet or larger, the most accurate way to find that out is to get a professional solar installer to perform an analysis. A quick but somewhat less accurate way is to read your monthly electric bill and use our solar calculator to determine what your power generation and estimated system price would be.

Most people know that if you want to cook some, say, chicken wings, it’s a lot cheaper to go to a big-box store and buy a 50 lb frozen box of wings than a small pack from your grocery store. And yet, many people will choose to pay a higher per-wing price and go with the smaller package, because often that’s what makes the most sense. In this one respect, solar panels are a little like chicken wings.

Whether you’re a camper, boater, someone who wants backup power for occasional blackouts or an uninterruptible power supply for important equipment such as a home server or computer, a solar generator can be a great option that also happens to be more environmentally friendly. A solar generator isn’t a generator in the same way that a traditional gasoline generator is. There’s no engine inside: instead, a solar generator consists of a large lithium-ion battery and one or more solar panels to recharge it.

One of the reasons that many homeowners add solar panels to their roof is to help contribute to a better environment. When it comes to climate change, solar panels absolutely are net positive. In 3 or 4 years they “pay back” the energy that was used to manufacture them, after which they generate clean electricity for another couple decades. Coal and gas-fired power plants, in contrast, are never clean sources of energy.

In case it isn’t obvious, this website is a big proponent of solar energy, and home solar panels in particular. In spite of that, there are pros and cons of solar that you should know about before spending several thousand dollars to hire a solar company to crawl around on your roof. For most homeowners, there are two big reasons why they go solar: to save money and help the environment.

Among the premium solar panel manufacturers that are popular in the US, California-based SunPower stands out. Their solar panels are at the top end of efficiency, but they also have an extensive dealer network to support a 25 year product warranty. The strong warranty and installer certification program are some of the reasons why The Solar Nerd network includes several SunPower dealers. While this might make it seem like we’re biased toward SunPower, there are other excellent brands worthy of consideration, such as LG and Solaria.

You’ve got homeowner’s insurance, right? If you have a mortgage, you almost certainly do, because lenders require it. If you’re thinking of adding solar panels to your home or already have solar, it’s definitely a good idea to pull out your policy documents and get familiar with what is and isn’t covered. Insurance plans are personalized, so the coverage in your neighbor’s plan might not be the same as yours, even if you use the same company.

There are a LOT of solar panel manufacturers out there, and knowing which one is the best for your project can be a little daunting. This is especially true if you’re doing a DIY project. If you’re a homeowner who is getting multiple quotes for a solar installation, you’ll be faced with a few choices, but those will usually be limited in scope. Your installer might be a certified installer for one of the premium brands such as SunPower, LG, or Panasonic, in which case that brand will usually be their first proposal to you.