With Electricity bills going through the roof, it’s better to place solar panels on that roof, am I right?!
The recent technological advancements into solar energy have paved a new way for more efficient and affordable methods of harnessing solar energy. Well whoever hears about solar, almost always hears about the savings from its installation. But to the more important questions How much does it really cost to install solar panels?
The ideal method of understanding how much a solar system installation costs in the U.S is to look at the list of all costs associated with assembling a system, basically the breakdown of costs to make a complete solar system.
Since there are multiple components to a solar system, the costs may be higher than you expect.
The Solar Panels just take up 30 percent of the cost of a complete solar system.
Other than the panels we have to consider many other components such as other hardware components like inverters, batteries, wires, mounting costs and as well as permit and connection costs.
Give your decision to go solar some time and research for you to find out if solar will work best for you, and if so then how to go about installing it in the most economical and efficient manner. This is so that you benefit the most out of it.
Here’s how you can estimate to a certain degree on how much it would cost to install a solar system.
Estimating the Cost of Solar System Installation
When talking about installing solar panels in residential properties like your home, the costs vary factors such as which state you are in and how large of a system you want to get. Basically the more the energy you want your solar system to produce, the greater and better of solar equipment you’d need to buy.
Fortunately, in the recent years due to increased demands and development of the solar industry, the cost of installing solar panels has dropped significantly. However, most people are still paying on average $3.05 per watt to install solar systems at their homes.
Usually people install a solar system in the U.S with the ability to generate 5 kW (5000 Watts). According to this you can expect to pay a little above $15000 (BEFORE Federal tax credits) to install an average-sized solar system in your house. Government grants and incentives can lower the cost by as much as 30%!
Environment Buddy has vowed to work on finding a cheaper alternative for the people of the United States, contact us right now so we can tell you when we do (we won’t rest before we do )!
How can I get cheaper solar panels/solar system right now?
Lucky you, there are a couple of ways you can get solar at a cheaper cost.
The ideal way would be to use the 30 percent federal investment tax credit, which can be availed up until next year as it was recently extended to 2020. There are additional incentives available depending upon your state in the United States.
Finding out which rebates are available in your area would help you a long way. Here is the Database of the many incentives for Renewable energy and efficiency provided by the North Carolina State University.
These incentives can save you as much as half of the original cost.
Make sure you are dealing with trustworthy/reliable solar vendors
When you hit the markets, you’ll quickly realize there are many vendors selling exactly the same product but at different rates. This is just because the market has become quite competitive nowadays.
So to make sure that you get the best price, don’t make the deal on the first quote you find. Survey the markets, get multiple quotes, go to the forums and see what products people are finding best and most of all, talk to your neighbors who have recently took the decision to go solar. This will inform you about all the necessary information that you will need.
How much money can I save with going solar?
Saving money on electricity bills by going solar is the best way possible. Even though the initial cost put into buying a solar system is hefty, but once it starts working and powering your homes, you will start to see huge savings in the following years.
A tool I’ve found helpful is the solar calculator which will tell you how much a solar system will cost in your area specifically according to your needs. Everyone thinks (Even I used to) that using the solar calculator is just a marketing tool from where the solar vendors can gain access to you. On the Contrary, US Energy Administration recommends this tool for people who are thinking of going solar to obtain accurate information about solar systems customized according to their needs.
The trends of electricity bills keep on rising, when observing the past decade I have realized that the electricity rates have increased by around 3% annually. Considering this, you can save a lot of money in the long term by going solar.
An average-sized home uses around $1200 worth of Electricity, which converts to around 11,000 KWh. Let’s say this home installs a 5kW solar system which will deliver green energy between 300 to 900 kilowatt hours (Kwh) every month. This means your electricity bills would be halved then and there.
This converts to a saving of about 600 dollars over the year, and if you add the incentives like tax credits or net metering, you can expect to save 30% more.
So if you have a durable solar system with reliable equipment, it would easily have a lifetime of at least 25 years, which means you can save 20,000 bucks over that period of time.
What can I expect about solar prices in future?
20 years ago, there was only 4GW of solar power capacity installed worldwide. Over the time, there has been an increase of about 100 times that (400 Gigawatts today).
As the technology is being advanced and more solar equipment is being produced in bulk, the efficiency is sure to increase and prices set to decrease, at an expected rate of 4.4 percent annually.
This is means more and more people are going to opt into buying solar equipment and going solar.
