Latest articles by The Solar Nerd

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.

Solar homeowners always want to see their solar panels generating as much electricity as possible. But even if you live in one of the sunniest cities in the country, there will always be cloudy days. Or maybe you live in a place where the weather is more temperate, and you experience a mix of sun and cloud. If you want to go solar, you might wonder if certain solar panels perform better than others in cloudy conditions.

The San Francisco Bay Area is the part of California that includes not just the City of San Francisco, but nine surrounding counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, Sonoma, and San Francisco. The Bay area gets plenty of sunshine: the average year has only 68 days of precipitation. It’s also cooler than other regions of California, which is good for solar panels (because solar panels produce less electricity when hot).

The Inland Empire is a part of Southern California that lies east of Los Angeles. With lots of sun and an arid climate, the Inland Empire is one of the best regions in the country for solar. For example, the city of San Bernardino averages around 16 inches of rain and 280 sunny days a year. In comparision, the US average is 38 inches of rain and 205 sunny days.

Residential solar has taken off like crazy in the United States in the past decade. About 162,000 people in the US work in jobs directly related to solar installation, while solar in general employs a quarter of a million people. That’s a lot! It’s a huge new sector of the economy. But like any other business sector, there are excellent companies, and some not-so-excellent ones too. With thousands of solar installers around the country, it’s inevitable that some operations will be poorly run, fall behind their competition, or generally face challenges that cause them to close up shop.

The photovoltaic effect was first discovered in 1839 by Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel when he was 19 years old. Becquerel’s early experiments involved silver and platinum and generated only tiny amounts of electricity. It wasn’t until decades later that the first true solar cell was built using selenium by Charles Fritt in 1883. Those first cells still weren’t very efficient, only converting about 1% of the incoming light into electricity, but were a significant advancement.

There are thousands of rooftop solar installers across the United States, and most of them are honest companies that do good work. Unfortunately, like any industry, there’s always a few bad apples. There are great plumbers out there, but you could also end up with a company that tries to fix a leak with silly putty. This is why when you hire any type of contractor, whether it’s to install solar panels on your roof or fix a leaky toilet, it’s always a good idea to do a little research so that you can become a better informed consumer.

Many electric vehicle owners also happen to be interested in solar electricity. That makes sense, because if you’re an early adopter for either of these technologies, helping the environment was probably one of the factors in your buying decision. If you have a Tesla now or you’re planning to get one, you might want to know how many solar panels will you need to install on your house to charge it.

Those little solar powered landscape lights that you can buy almost anywhere are convenient, and look great too. The best part is being able to add landscape lighting to your yard without having to run wiring. Just stake them into the ground wherever you want, and you’re done! Where are often aren’t so great is product quality. I’ve thrown away a lot of cheap solar lights before concluding that I needed to spend a little more money to get something that I wasn’t going to break after only few months.