Residential Solar Energy Explained

Residential solar energy is no longer just for the early adopting environmentalists in Berkeley, CA or for cabins so far out of town that they're completely off the energy grid. Its time has come, and residential solar energy is now being adopted by the masses. A majority of the people who go solar are still mostly motivated by environmental concerns, but now financial goals are playing into their decision as well. Namely, homeowners want predictable energy costs, and going solar can provide just that.

On the environmental side, going solar can reduce pollution, slow global warming, reduce your carbon footprint, reduce dependence on fossil fuels, and can generally make you feel good about the energy you're saving. Just read what Andrew Kin had to say about having solar panels on his townhouse in Los Angeles. It's inspired him to use less energy too. Better yet, your friends may follow your lead and switch their homes to solar energy.

Federal, state, and local solar rebates are bringing the price of residential solar energy way down such that it is getting competitive with the heavily subsidized coal energy that makes up much of the grid energy. In some states like New Jersey, the incentive programs are so aggressive that a system will pay for itself in 3 or 4 years, and will end up saving a homeowner a tremendous amount of money over it's 25+ year life, all the while supplying clean energy to their home.

In other areas, like San Francisco, it may take closer to 7-10 years for a system to pay for itself if you buy it outright from the start. You'd pay a larger lump sum up front, then have an extremely small energy bill for the next 25 years and the savings from the energy bill will pay for the system in 7-10 years. Beyond that the savings are all upside and home owners often end up saving tens of thousands of dollars, if not hundreds of thousands over the life of the system.