Latest articles by The Solar Nerd

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.

Is net metering available in Utah? Net metering is available with some utilities in Utah. Rocky Mountain Power, the largest utility in the state, is currently transitioning away from net metering and offers net billing to new customers. Municipal utilities in Utah offer a combination of net metering, net billing, and feed-in tariffs. We list this policies in detail below. Net metering with Rocky Mountain Power In September 2017, Rocky Mountain Power came to an agreement with solar advocates and state agencies to end net metering for new customers and adopt a net billing scheme that is still relatively favorable to solar customers in the state.

One common misconception about home solar panels is that they’ll keep your house powered even if the electric grid goes down. They can, but only if you have the right equipment to go with it. First of all, let’s understand one thing that might seem obvious: solar panels don’t work in the dark. For the majority of homes that have solar panels, this means having a grid connection that supplies power when your panels don’t generate any electricity.

If you live in a northern or midwestern state in the US, space heating is probably the largest energy consumer in your home. In most climates in the US, central heating is accomplished with the use of fossil fuels. Natural gas is most common, but oil heating is still used in many regions. Even coal hasn’t completely disappeared for home heating use. Basically, there are two types of solar technologies you can use to heat your home: solar thermal, which uses sunlight to directly provide heat, and solar photovoltaic, which turns sunlight into electricity that can be used to power your heating system.