Solar Power for the Home

Although it seems quite expensive initially, when it comes to providing electricity for your household, solar power is the best way to go long-term wise. If you want to save money on your electricity bill or live a greener lifestyle, then you should consider solar power for the home.

Advantages

The initial cost of solar panels is very hefty, often costing a homeowner tens of thousands of dollars. However, once you get solar panels, the cost of your electricity bill will go down or you may not have to pay anything for electricity at all.

Basically, solar panels are a one-time cost while you’ll need to pay electricity bills every single month for the rest of your life. There has been a huge surge is solar power for homes across American and Australia in particular. Meanwhile, the cost of electricity increases by around 5 percent each year. The monthly bills you pay each month for electricity will eventually surpass the one-time cost of solar panels.

Also, adding solar panels to your home will increase its value. That means that you will be able to sell your home faster and for much more than if the home didn’t have solar panels.

Disadvantages

Everything has disadvantages, and solar panels are no exception. The biggest con of solar panels is the initial cost. Some people understandably cannot afford to dump tens of thousands of dollars on solar power system, no matter how good of an investment it is.

Although you will save money in the long run, it may take years or even decades before your savings due to the solar power system surpasses the initial cost of the solar panels.

With solar panels, you will probably have very little space on your roof for anything else, and you may have to cut down trees, remove chimneys, and other tall structures in order to improve the efficiency of the solar panels.

Cost

The cost of a home solar power system depends on how much electricity you plan to use, and how big your home is. Obviously, if you don’t use up much electricity on a daily basis, then you will be able to get a solar panel that is cheaper and smaller than usual.

Solar panels prices are coming down, but they are over the thousand dollar mark. You can get help financing solar panels by taking advantage of government rebates. With the help of thse rebates, you may be able to save up to 50 percent on the initially cost.

As you can see, you should consider many things before you purchase a home solar power system, as that is a very huge investment. Before you install solar panels for your home, think about the pros, cons, and the overall cost of the system.

Comments are closed.

Popular Articles

Hidden Reason to Get a Home Inspection

Just another example of why you should get a home inspection prior to spending your hard earned money on your dream home. As you can see by the picture, a shoddy repair job would have given a few clues something wasn’t right. As a buyer of a house, what would you have done next?

Part of my passion as a Dallas and Fort Worth area home inspector is to get to the bottom of little things that others wouldn’t think to observe. My first move was to look at different areas located around this particular area, ie, laundry room, bathroom, etc.… Read the rest
Cleaning and Maintaining Your Jetted Tub

I recently performed my routine maintenance on the jacuzzi tub we have in the master bath. I thought I would share some of the tips I’ve picked up during my home inspection career. I’m always seeking to better my knowledge on questions that may come up during one of my home inspections.
All whirlpool bathtubs have a small amount of residual water left in the pipeline. Minerals in water begin a process of calcifying around the insides of your pipes. This hard scale build up not only restricts water flow, but becomes a perfect breading ground for infectious bacteria. As the algae breaks off, you will see it in your bath water as ugly black flecks.… Read the rest
Roof Flashing

The main purpose of a roof is to protect the home from the elements. Rainfall is the #1 culprit of water getting underneath the roof structure. Water needs to be shed away from valleys, chimneys, ridges, eaves, rakes, skylights, roof penetrations and roof to wall intersections. Water built up in these particular locations can cause serious damage to the structure in wood rot and not to mention mold which is known to cause respiratory problems. The water usually doesn’t just stop there, it can penetrate down the attic structure, to the ceiling sheet-rock or down a wall and cause even more serious issues.… Read the rest
Top 5 Reasons to Move to Renewable Energy

With advancements in renewable energy technology, many people are starting to be turned on to its potential. If you’re thinking about going to renewable energy, here are five reasons that you may want to go ahead and make the move to this type of energy.

1. Saving Money

One of the reasons that you may want to make the switch to the renewable energy is to save money. In today’s market, regular forms of energy are getting much more expensive by the day. The way things are going, you may end up paying quite a bit more for electricity from the electric company than you would from a renewable source of energy like solar panels.… Read the rest
Home Savers Foundation Repair

The number one question I get during home inspections is “How is the Foundation”. I decided to write this post to help people understand the North Texas area conditions regarding foundations. Movement in the foundation can be caused by many factors, the most common reason is differential soil movement. In the North Texas area many homes are sitting on top of expansive clay soils. Another term for this type of soil is “Sponge Soil”, increasing in volume in moisture gain and decreasing in moisture loss. When this volume increases or decreases in a uniformed matter all around the home, problems may not develop.… Read the rest
Draining a Water Heater

Very few homeowners realize the need to drain a few gallons of water from your water heater twice a year. Regardless of the type of water heater you have, gas or electric, water heaters can develop a build up of sediment at the bottom of the tank. This build up can cause the water heater to operate inefficiently, shortening the life span of the appliance. Prior to draining water from your tank, you need to understand the proper way and safety concerns of performing this task. It is very important that when you are doing this maintenance to your water heater, you make sure the appliance is turned off and that you protect yourself from a potential burn.… Read the rest
Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program

10 Easy Ways to Save Energy in Your Home

Most people don’t know how easy it is to make their homes run on less energy, and here at Leahy’s Inspections, we want to change that. Drastic reductions in heating, cooling and electricity costs can be accomplished through very simple changes, most of which homeowners can do themselves. Of course, for homeowners who want their homes to take advantage of the most up-to-date knowledge and systems in home energy-efficiency, Home inspector energy auditors can perform in-depth testing to find the best energy solutions for your particular home.
Why make your home more energy efficient?… Read the rest
Be green save money and feel warmer inside and out

Ok, being green isn’t always fun, it can be an inconvenience; and so can trying to save money. Unfortunately both of these things need doing and now is the time to start.
Fortunately, the two items often go together quite nicely, sooo if you feel like you should be saving more, and you would like to help the environment too, try these tips and kill 2 birds with one stone, so to speak.

Be Cooler With Your Heating

Learn to be smarter with your heating. Turning down your thermostat is the easiest way to start, but also consider turning radiators down or off in rooms you rarely use, and shut the doors to keep the heat in.… Read the rest
Storing Your Lawn Equipment for the Winter

How many people actually maintain their lawn equipment and store them properly before the winter season hits. In this article, I will show you how to perform some common routine maintenance on your gas powered mowers, weed trimmers and spreaders to insure they will operate properly for next spring.
Mowers
Fill the gas tank on your mower just enough to complete the last mowing. Afterwards, run the mower until it runs out of gas. If gasoline is left in the tank all winter, it turns stale and collects water droplets from condensation. If to much gas is in the tank to run out, you can drain it or worst case, purchase some fuel stabilizer from your local auto parts store and add the recommended amount to your tank.… Read the rest
The Truth About Replacing Windows

I’ve listened to some outrageous claims from window replacement companies. The usual sales tactic is how much return on your investment by replacing your windows you’ll get. The fact of the matter is the new windows could take anywhere from 13 to 20 years to receive your investment back. Unfortunately, a lot of consumers believe the window company’s claims. I hear this myth repeated many times while doing home inspections throughout the Dallas and Fort Worth areas.
Don’t get me wrong, new windows can be a very good thing, but it miffs me just a bit that a vast amount of dealers in the market try to hype the return to make it sound as if your investment will be recouped in no time at all.… Read the rest