Homes with solar panels sell $14,329 more on average

A study by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory notes that panels increase home value by $14,329 on average. Residences with solar power systems sell for 3.74% more than comparable non-solar properties.

One of reasons for this is that it’s an investment that pays for itself. Any upfront costs are paid back in the reduction of energy bills. Customers gets a return of at 2-3 times their initial investment over the life of the system. However, these numbers assume you’d reside in the same house for the full duration of the warranty. This is typically not the case. This is one of the main reasons why people are hesitant to get solar.

Outfitting your home with a grid-tied solar energy system drives up property values and provides a selling point for real estate agents to market a listing. If you don’t live in your home long enough to break even on energy costs, the premium home buyers are willing to pay to move into your solar-ready home will be more than enough to cover the investment. Since the average system is $10,000-$18,000 in materials, homeowners can recoup the cost of the hardware when they sell their home. That’s on top of the expected savings from decreased energy bills and tax incentives, which already pay for the system 2-3 times over the life of the warranty.

Newer is worth more

Newer PV systems are made from more efficient materials, have more years on  warranty, and are less likely due for replacement parts. As PV systems age, their value depreciates, and tend to be worth less when you put your home on the market. There are many factors to think about when figuring the cost of solar panels in your home, but the three things we know for sure is that installing solar panels will increase its value, those solar panels will pay for themselves in a few years, and they save you hundreds of dollars a month on your electric bill.

It is hard to say exactly how fast the return happens because there are so many factors to think about when installing solar panels beyond the size of the home and how many people are using the electricity, but for most people in the US, the payback is between four and a half years and seven years. 

Influential factors

Some of the factors that affect solar panel efficiency include the amount of direct sunlight the home receives, cloud cover, temperature, and weather. Someone who lives in a cloudy climate with snow in the winter is going to get a different output with the same solar panels than a person in a warm sunny climate. Someone in a colder cloudy climate is going to need more panels than the person in the sunny climate to get the same energy output.

On the other side, if it is 100 degrees out and the homeowner uses the air conditioning all day, while heating a pool, and leaving the television and lights on all the time, they are going to need more solar panels to cover the extra power needs.

Other factors like whether your state participates in net-metering and the rate at which they buy back power will influence how fast your solar panels pay themselves off, as well as how you paid for them. If you received a home improvement loan to pay for the panels, then you have to add the interest rate, and how long it will take with the added interest. For more information, click here.