Solar Nerd articles about: Homeownership

Selling a house is always a stressful event, so anything that adds complication is unwelcome. Having home solar panels can be no big deal or make selling your house more difficult, depending on how you paid for them. An upside is that solar panels can add significant value to a home, which is something that your real estate agent can help communicate. There are also some things that you should do as a seller to make sure that the next owner has access to monitoring and knows what to do if issues crop up.

Moving houses is a big pain. Organizing all your stuff, packing, unpacking - nobody enjoys doing tha†. But for better or worse, packing your solar panels isn’t something you’ll have to worry about. There’s a few reasons for this that I’ll cover in this article. The bottom line is that if you have solar panels and you’re selling your house, you should plan for the panels to stay behind. While it might be technically possible to do so, it’s not a practical idea to remove your solar panels, take them with you, and reinstall them on your new home.

All-electric homes are fast becoming one of the latest home trends. If you want to have cleaner indoor air, the latest technology, or save money (and who doesn’t?), an all-electric home might be right for you too. It also makes a lot of sense if you have solar panels, or you’re thinking about it. If you can generate enough electricity from rooftop solar panels, you can power all of the appliances in your home and still have a monthly electric bill that’s near zero.

Do you already have solar panels on your home? Normally that’s a great thing, but maybe you’re looking at your monthly utility bill and wondering why it’s not lower. For most people, helping the environment is one reason why people go solar, but the top reason according to market research is saving money on your electric bill. This is why it can be so frustrating if you’ve spent thousands of dollars on a solar installation or committed to a 25 year solar lease and you’re looking at a monthly electric bill that’s still pretty high.

For most people, their home is their biggest financial asset. Drilling holes into it might seem like a bad idea, but that’s usually what’s needed to install solar panels on a roof. And yet, this does not need to be cause for concern: there are millions of homes with solar panels around the United States, and the majority of them are problem-free. Solar panels do not need to cause roof leaks: they can last problem-free for 25 years or more.

I live in Buffalo, a city known for chicken wings and wicked snowstorms. Despite my city’s reputation for snow, much of the year is great for solar production. Still, I can expect to lose at least a couple weeks of energy production in the middle of each winter due to snow collecting on my panels and blocking out sunlight. It doesn’t take much snow to curtail electricity production. If there’s just a light dusting, there might be enough residual heat energy in the glass to melt the snow.

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.

One of the great things about solar panels is that they just sit there, silently turning photons into electricity and making you money. They can essentially be maintenance-free for 25 years. But one question solar homeowners often have is: if my solar panels are dirty, what’s the best way to clean them? The best way to clean your solar panels is with tools you probably already have: a bucket of plain water, a soft brush or cloth, and the kind of extension pole you would use to squeegee your second floor windows.

If you’re thinking of buying a house that already has solar panels installed, there are some questions you’ll need to run through with the buyer before you sign the contract. But first, if you’ve never thought about home solar until you came across them in your real estate search, you probably have some questions. Home solar has become wildly popular, with now more than 2 millions solar installations across the United States.

For many people who are thinking of adding solar panels to their house, knowing whether they will add or reduce the value of your house is a really important question. While it makes sense that any type of improvement to your home, including solar panels, should increase its value, there are a few caveats to be aware of when it comes to solar. First of all, when it comes to the question of whether or not solar will increase your home value, the answer in most cases is yes.