Learn about Solar Panels with HI SOLAR

Are you thinking of installing solar panels. Do you want to know if it will affect your home’s property value? Are you thinking of buying a home with solar panels or selling your home which has solar panels already installed?

In this article, we’ll try to help you better answer the question, “Do solar panels increase home value?”

Do Solar Panels Increase Home Value?

So, do solar panels increase home value?

The answer is a bit more complicated than a simple yes or no.

Yes, solar panels can increase your home’s value, but panels don’t always increase property value. Some of these factors are in your control while others are not. The most important thing to remember is that you need to own your solar panel system. A lease on solar panels won’t increase home value. If you do not own your solar panels, it is unlikely that they will increase the value of your home.

Solar panels that were purchased outright are usually counted as a real estate addition to the home by home appraisers. The same will apply if you purchased the solar energy system with a loan that has since been paid in full. If you are still making payments on a solar loan, ownership and added home value will depend on the contract of the loan. If you do not own the panel system outright, the panels are not yet permanently part of the home.

To learn more about how solar panel system ownership affects real estate transactions, check out our article “Buying and Selling Homes With Solar Panels.” This article will give you a good look into how your solar panel system should factor into the home buying or selling property value equation. Whether you’re making payments on a loan or you signed up for a Power Purchase agreement, this article will help you figure out what you should do when transferring ownership of solar panels.

Other Factors That Can Affect Solar Panel Home Values

Although solar panel ownership is the most important variable determining whether or not your solar energy system will increase your home’s property value, it’s not the only one. Here are a couple of other factors worth considering.

Age

Solar panel technology is changing at a rapid rate. Solar panels from 10 years ago are not like the solar panels of today. If you own a newer solar energy system, your home will likely appraise for more than it would with an older system. Additionally, as a solar energy system ages, it slowly becomes less efficient. This means potential buyers might benefit less from the system as it possibly produces less electricity.

System size

You might think that the bigger the solar energy system the more value it would add to your home. That’s true to some extent, but not nearly as much as you would think. Studies show that people who value solar energy systems value them regardless of their size. They mostly appreciate the fact that their next home goes the extra mile to go green. As solar energy systems grow in size, the value of your home will probably increase as well. But only incrementally.

Neighborhood

It should come as no surprise that different parts of the country share different values. This holds true for solar energy as well. For some people, green solar energy is viewed more favorably than it is by others. The location of your home and the shared values of your neighbors might influence how much potential buyers will care that you have a solar energy system installed.

Other Benefits To Solar

An increase in your home’s value isn’t the only benefit you’ll get out of your solar energy system.

Installing solar panels could help you save money on your electric bill by paying less for power than you might have to your utility company. Our solar representatives will help custom design an ideal solar energy system for your home. This investment will help you maximize your monthly savings on your electric bill and your independence from your local utility company.

Second, there are green benefits you can enjoy as well thanks to your solar energy system. People love knowing that they’re part of a growing movement for more sustainable living. If you get a new solar energy system installed to your rooftop, you can enjoy the fact that you’re doing your part to keep our air clean, our water unpolluted, and our earth cool. The more people that join in and push the solar energy power movement forward the more we all get to enjoy its compounding benefits.

No Matter What Your Reason is For Going Solar, You’ll Get Value From It

We know you’ll get a lot of value out of your panels no matter what your ownership status is. That’s true whether you own your solar energy system outright or you’re making payments through a loan or lease. Solar installation can help your property value.

If you’ve been thinking of updating your home by going solar, you should contact a Hi Solar representative. Our reps will help you analyze all of the different variables which could affect your future solar energy system’s effectiveness. They’ll give you a better idea of how you would benefit from it.

Let Hi Solar help you go solar today!

This depends on your roof space and the size of the inverter. If you have sufficient roof space and additional capacity in the inverter you could increase the size of your system. Or you could add a second system to your roof. Please note: At this time, the solar Feed-in Tariffs in each state have limits on the system size which to they apply. Increasing the size of an existing solar power system could affect your eligibility for a Feed-in Tariff. Please call us for further information.

If your solar panel system is connected to the grid, it will shut off in the event of a blackout. This is to prevent emergency responders and electricity utility repair-people from being injured by your panels sending power back to the grid. However, there are certain inverters you can buy that provide backup power in a blackout when paired with a battery.

It’s easy to check your solar power system at any time. The majority of inverters offer a built in display that gives you a live data feed of how much power your system is generating. Most systems will give you historical data showing how your system has been performing over time.. If your solar inverter is wi-fi ready you can see your performance through web application on your mobile

The easiest way to find out how much you pay for electricity (and how much electricity you use per month) is to take a look at your utility electricity bill. Alternatively you can call Hi Solar to guide you reading your electricity bill to find out exactly what you use, need and have to look for.

The Clean Energy Council are the body that is responsible for developing standard and regulations that promote renewable energy. The clear thinking folk at the Clean Energy Council realize that a 5kW of solar panels will only operate at 5000w when the sun shines at a 90-degree angle to the panels, the temperature is 25 degrees, and there is 1000w of irradiation: or hardly ever. So to get reasonable use out of your inverter, it’s wise to oversize. By how much? The CEC surmised that the panel capacity should be no more than 33 percent of the nominal output of the inverter before your panel’s production starts getting wasted, and the Renewable Energy Credit payout is misused.

It's hard to say about average installation time without knowing the size of solar power system. Bigger the system, longer the time it require to be installed. Let's take 6.6kw system for installation which takes around 8-10 hrs, start to finish.

Since this depends on how long approval takes, it varies state-to-state. South Australia currently has the fastest meter approval and installation timeframe of 1-2 weeks. Western Australia is the slowest at about 4-8 weeks.

The amount of roof space required depends on the size of the system. For example, a small 1.5kW system requires 12m² of roof space. This is ideally an un-shaded and north-facing part of the roof. The system is modular and can be arranged in a way that best suits the roof.

When you install a solar energy system on your property, you save money on your electricity bills and protect yourself against rising electricity rates in the future. How much you can save depends on the utility rates and solar policies in your area, but going solar is a smart investment regardless of where you live.

Grid connected solar panel systems are connected to the electricity supply grid. An inverter converts DC low voltage power generated by the solar panels to 240V AC household supply. The smart meter also manages how much electricity is drawn from or fed back into the grid. When excess “Green” electricity is fed into the grid, the meter ticks backwards, so the household only pays the difference between what is fed and drawn.

Net metering is the system that utilities use to credit solar energy system owners for the electricity produced by their solar panels. With net metering, you only pay for the electricity that you use beyond what your solar panels can generate. Net metering policies differ from state to state – from Sydney to Perth to Melbourne – so make sure to do your homework ahead of time.