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How Much of a Difference Can Solar Make in Your Home?

Even though I know it happens — I’ve spoken to enough homeowners with solar PV arrays, read the case studies, and seen the evidence all around me — it always astounds me when a homeowner shows me an electric bill where the balance is $5 or less, just the basic hook-up charge to be connected to the grid for electricity.

It’s true. You absolutely can make your home electric bills virtually vanish with a solar PV array installation of the right size. A qualified contractor will know exactly how large of an array you need for your home. But, if you can’t (yet) afford an array that will power your entire home, even with all the incentives and tax credits available, that’s okay. One of the many great things about solar is it’s infinitely expandable — as long as you have space on your roof or on the ground, you can add more solar panels to your home.

Contractors quote the figure of 50 to 60 percent savings off your energy bills for the average home. A.J. Nystrom of Innovated Solar, says, “There’s really no such thing as an average.” The amount of shading on your roof, your roof’s orientation, and your home’s energy consumption all makes it difficult to calculate, without a specific, personal analysis, exactly how much you’ll save with solar. Having said that, Nystrom notes, “A 5 kiloWatt system, in many cases, is enough to fully power a 1,400-square-foot house.”

Online tools like EcoOutfitters’ free Solar Savings Report can provide a good estimate of how much money you’ll save with solar, how much your array might cost and even how much you’ll reduce your family’s carbon footprint with solar. Because going solar isn’t just about saving money, it’s about creating a more eco-conscious lifestyle by using clean, renewable energy. If you’re a parent, (like many of us are here at EcoOutfitters), you’re teaching your kids about the importance of preserving our environment, and setting a real-life example, too. You’re playing a part in giving them a better world to grow up in. Is it even possible to put a price tag on that?

Post Written by DawnAllcot
A full-time freelance writer, Dawn frequently covers energy efficiency, green living, and topics like LED lighting and whole home control systems for a number of blogs and technology trade magazines. Dawn is proud to live in New York as the state vies to beat out New Jersey as the East coast top dog of solar energy and is waiting for the Solar Renewable Energy Certificate legislation to pass before installing solar panels on her Long Island home.