Latest articles by The Solar Nerd

Homeowners who want to go solar are usually interested in helping the environment, but for many people the top reason for adding solar panels to their house is to save money. Fortunately, everyone in the United States can be eligible for a federal income tax credit, which is currently worth 26% of the total system costs. For example, if you have a solar system with an invoice price of $20,000, the credit can reduce the amount of federal income tax you owe by $5,200.

A homeowner’s association (HOA) is a management organization for a private community that makes and enforces rules for that community. It collects fees that pays for the upkeep of common property of the neighborhood, such as landscaping costs and common areas. On top of that, an HOA often has bylaws designed to maintain a common appearance to homes. For example, it may dictate the type of roofing materials that are permitted or the color that you’re allowed to paint the exterior.

Titan Solar Power is among the very largest solar installers in the United States. According to Solar Power World, they are ranked #1 in the nation for residential solar installation by kilowatts installed. This list is little misleading however, because it excludes Sunrun, which doesn’t report its numbers to Solar Power World. Nonetheless, Titan is a huge company that operates in 11 states. If you’re shopping around to find an installer for your home solar project, there’s a very good chance that you’ll come across Titan.

If you want to use solar energy to keep your smartphone or portable electronics charged, you can find hundreds of choices on Amazon. We took a close look at a few of them in an earlier article. While some of them do a pretty good job, it’s also true that most of them don’t work nearly as well as most people expect. If a product is advertised as a solar phone charger, you generally expect it to actually charge your phone on a sunny day.

Enphase, the maker of the most popular microinverters in the US solar market, announced that it will be releasing the latest version of the IQ series later in 2021. Product releases from Enphase are often a big deal, because microinverters and power optimizers now dominate the residential solar market, accounting for about 80% of all installations. New features from Enphase are good news for consumers, and also have the potential to move other inverter manufacturers to adopt those features to stay competitive.

If you have a home with a solar array, it’s pretty common to find yourself using more electricity than you did when the solar panels were first installed. Solar homeowners tend to be interested in other green technologies such as electric vehicles, heat pumps, and induction cooking. If you installed solar panels years ago and then, say, bought a Tesla, you may find that your solar panels no longer fully cover your electric bill.

From the start, let’s make it clear that there are no serious proposals to power the planet using only solar energy. The renewable energy technologies available today - solar, wind, geothermal, tidal, hydro, along with energy storage - are complementary. Each technology has strengths and weaknesses, but when we use all them in concert, it’s possible to power the entire planet with clean energy. Even so, it’s an interesting thought to consider how many solar panels we would need if that was the only power source available.

If you’re a more detail-oriented (or perhaps nerdy) person, you might spend a lot of time studying the technical specifications of your home solar system. Maybe you want to better understand a system you already own, or you’re comparing quotes from installers and trying to make the best choice. Once you get beyond the basics like the system output and inverter type, one of the concepts you might encounter is called inverter clipping, which is closely related to the DC/AC ratio of the system.

Freedom Forever is a relatively new company on the solar installation scene, but it has grown very quickly, reaching 6th place on the Solar Power World list of residential solar installers. In the most recent year, Freedom Forever installed 92 megawatts of solar. The company operates in most of the major solar markets in the US and employs over 1,700 people. If you’re looking for a solar installer for your home, there’s a good chance that you’ve come across their name.

For the fiscally-minded homeowner (and what homeowner doesn’t care about their investment?), adding home solar panels can be a way to add equity to your house, slash electricity costs, and make a great long-term investment. On top of that, you’ll be helping the environment too. Sounds like a no-brainer? Maybe. How much you can actually save with solar panels depends on a few factors. For example, not every roof is equally suited for solar panels.