5 Common Solar Energy Mistakes to Avoid

Putting a solar module array on your home’s roof is a big investment and you want to do it right from the start, to avoid problems in the future.

One way to do it is designing a solar system compatible with your needs and space limitations, one that takes into consideration your energy usage and ROI (return on investment) goals, in other words, how much money will you be saving on your utility bills and how long will it take for those savings to pay for the system in full, before everything it produces is pure profit.

Because remember that a good solar system will last you over two decades and any mistakes you avoid now, will ensure that it keeps producing power for years to come.

1. Grid-tie or off-grid

A common mistake for those starting on the renewable energy path is thinking once you put a solar system on your roof, the electricity bill will stop coming. Unless you’re in a rural area with no electric cables in the vicinity and have a sufficiently large battery to store the excess energy your solar system is producing during the day - what is called off-grid -- that’s simply impossible.

If you live in an area tied to a grid, buying an expensive battery to store it’s simply not feasible and would be a costly mistake. 

Most solar power systems in urban areas are still grid-tie, meaning there’s a connection to the electric utility. 

The utility company will credit you for the extra power your solar panels (also known as modules) are producing and you’re not using. In the same way, they will charge you for the electricity you use when your solar modules are not producing energy (at night or in very dark cloudy days).

Aside from that, there are other fees that a utility charges to all its customers for the connection and service. You simply can’t avoid paying those.

2. What’s your size?

You need to figure out how much of your energy needs do you want your system to cover: 70%, 80%, 90%? Each number means more panels with higher voltage and more powerful inverters.

But it’s not just a matter of how many solar panels you can fit on your roof. You also need to take into consideration the number of “sun hours” in your area, the panel orientation, shading and other variables that impact how much energy those solar modules will produce. 

To figure out how much money will your system save you, there’s a simple calculation.

For instance, if you live in Los Angeles and you’re looking at a 5 kWh solar power system, you’d multiply 5 x 1,900 (from the map above) x .20 ( the cost of each kWH of electricity in your region) x .78 (to account for the electricity lost due to wiring and conversion from DC to AC energy). That will give you $1,482 in savings for a year. If you pay $125 a month in electricity, you’ll be nearly covering your entire energy cost for a year. Not bad!

Also, it’s important to take into consideration what the future holds. Maybe you have a teenager in the house who’ll be leaving for college in a couple of years or you’re saving to buy an electric vehicle that you want to charge at home. Either of those situations will reduce or increase your energy use. Talk to the installer to see if there’s space to upgrade or reduce the solar power system down the line. 

And if you need to increase your solar energy output, you’ll probably have to upgrade your inverter load. If there are changes coming in the near future, you might want to consider microinverters, which are attached and control each individual panel and allow for much more modifications in the future without impacting the rest of the modules. 

3. Leasing vs buying

Another costly mistake could be leasing your solar system.

While the offer may sound good at first glance - you pay nothing to have the solar panels installed on your roof and you simply pay a monthly fee - the reality is that in the long run, this may be costly.

For one, if you lease, you don’t get incentives and tax credits associated with purchasing a solar power system, which can deduct a significant amount of money from the price.

Also, you’ll pay a premium rate to lease the panels, which includes interest and if you decide to sell your home and your lease has not expired, you might have trouble getting the buyer to take on the lease. You might have to pay the “buyout” clause in the lease contract and add it to the price of the house, but that diminishes the attraction for would be buyers. 

4. Overpaying for installation

National providers offer you to design the system, buy the parts and install it, but that comes with a 100-200% additional cost to put it on your roof. 

If you’re electrically-inclined, you might want to do it yourself. Fortune Energy has a wide variety of solar equipment to cover just about every solar array configuration and power output. 

Another way to cut costs is to buy the equipment yourself based on your needs. You can easily figure this out with the Hahasmart price checker, which allows you to get an estimate on the cost of material and installation by simply imputing your address and energy usage. In just a few seconds you’ll be able to see how much money you can save with solar energy and how long it will take you to repay that project.

If you buy the system, you can hire a contractor to do the actual installation. Ask for a few bids and talk to each solar installer to see which one is the best fit. 

5. Putting together a system made of different parts

If you’re on a limited budget, you could be tempted to buy different parts (a few panels from this wholesaler, a few more from this other one), and inverter that looks about right, etc.

A solar power system is not a puzzle and if you’re buying incompatible equipment, it simply will not work. You might end up with inverters that don’t fit or are not capable of taking on the load produced by the solar panels, or solar modules of different sizes that can’t be easily arranged in an array; or components that don’t wire together because they have different connectors.

One way to avoid this is by buying a solar power kit, where all the equipment is guaranteed to function and work harmoniously. Fortune Energy offers such kits for different size systems. 

HahaSmart Blog - More Solar Tips and Guide
HahaSmart News - Stay Informed
Your Solar Incentives - See Credits and Incentives in Your Area
Check Your Home's Solar Price - See How Much You Save
Register Now - Unlock The Lowest Solar Prices in Your Area