How Much Is It To Install Solar Panels

How Much Will Solar Panels Cost To Install On Your Home In 2022

The cost to install solar panels on your home in 2022 will vary depending on your location, your energy usage, the brands of equipment chosen, and whether it is a DIY installation or a job done by a professional solar company.

Since more than 95% of homeowners choose to go with a reputable local solar company, our solar calculator below shows estimates for professionally-installed systems in your area.

Find out how much a solar system would cost for your specific home

*Based on 370-watt panels

Cost Of Installing Solar Panels Diy

Installing solar panels is complex and requires some know-how. Furthermore, the installation requires a government inspection, so you cant cut corners. Therefore, before attempting this project, make sure you have some knowledge about:

• Household electrical systems
• Basic handyman skills

You may want a DIY solar panel kit if you meet the above requirements. They typically cost $2,000 $20,000 or $1.00 $1.50 per watt. These kits include everything you need to install the panels.

How Much Does A Solar Panel Cost

Prices have been coming down steadily over the years. The total cost will depend on how many kilowatts of power your array will generate. According to consumer reports, after solar tax credits are accounted for, the cost for a solar panel system on an average-sized house in the U.S. in 2021 ranges from $11,000 to $15,000.

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Use Your Solar Panels To Charge Your Ev

Solar panels and electric cars are a perfect pair. Installing your own solar energy system for your home can give you all the electricity you need to supply your house and a solar car charger. That means you can meet all your household electricity needs with clean, emission-free, renewable energy by using solar for your home and electric vehicle .

The cost of solar panels continues to drop, and more car companies are now either already producing or tooling up to start manufacturing EVs. So, most people can now have a solar lifestyle that includes a solar-powered home and a charger for electric cars.

Pros And Cons Of Solar Panels For Your Home

Like most things, solar power has its benefits and drawbacks. At the same time, some economic costs may be defrayed by the social benefits to the environment and lowering your carbon footprint, which may be more important to you than a purely monetary evaluation.

• Green energy that lowers your carbon footprint

• Net metering allows you to sell back excess energy produced

• You may be eligible for certain tax breaks

• Installation and maintenance costs are still high

• Solar only works when the sun is out

• Parts of the system need to be replaced every few years

• Some tax breaks may have expired or will be expiring

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Cost Of Solar Panels For A 4

The cost range for installing solar panels for a 4-bedroom home averages $15,000 to $50,000. 4-bedroom homes in the U.S. have a wider range of sizes. The average falls between 2,000 and 2,400 sq.ft. Assuming occupancy of 2 to 5 people, this puts your total energy costs between homes of 2,000 and 2,500 sq.ft. Your costs can be higher or lower, depending on your total energy usage. The more occupants and the more energy you use, the higher your total costs.

How Do I Connect The System To The Grid To Earn Money

If you can earn money, it will depend on the rules controlled by your local utility. Not all utility companies offer solar credits.

To connect to the grid, you would use a hybrid inverter in place of a string inverter. The hybrid inverter would send excess energy shuttled away from the controller to the grid.

The local utility would monitor the flow of energy from your meter into the public grid, and you would be paid for that energy if such a program is available in your area. The payment may be in the form of solar credits rather than money.

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Understanding Your Solar Loan Calculator Results

Monthly payment: This is the amount youll pay each month toward your loan.

Estimated total interest: This is the interest amount youll pay over the lifetime of the loan. Interest rates on solar loans range from about 6% to 36%, and the rate you receive depends on your credit, income, existing debt and other factors. Borrowers with high credit scores and little debt often get the lowest interest rates.

Total amount repaid: This is the amount youll pay by the end of the loan, including the loan principal and interest.

Local Choices Of Brands And Price Of Solar Equipment

High demand for solar equipment in an area brings in more manufacturers, brands, outlets, and installers to the scene. The market forces of supply and demand will come into effect and bring down the prices naturally.

If you are staying in an area where more and more energy consumers are switching to solar, you will have more choices and lower prices while solar shopping.

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How Can The Solar Panel Installation Cost Calculator Work It All Out Accurately

There are only two things you need to enter into our solar installation cost calculator: your address and the amount of your most recent electric bill. Our calculator knows the electric rates charged by your local utility, so it can determine how much electricity you used based on how much your bill was.

From here, we use information from the Energy Information Administration that contains the average electric usage of a home in your area for each month of the year. The calculator uses this to estimate what your annual usage looks like. For example, if the average customer in your area uses twice as much power in July as they do in January, then we assume you will too. These usage estimates are typically very accurate.

So now that we know your electric usage, we can figure out how much solar electricity you need to cover it all. The amount of sunshine your area receives allows us to calculate how much electricity a solar panel will produce on your roof, which, in turn, tells us the size of the system you need.

Once we know what system size will work for you, we can figure out the cost. We simply apply the average cost of solar offered by installers in your area to estimate the cost of a fully installed and commissioned solar panel system that will offset 100% of your electric usage.

Calculating Your Energy Production

The second factor you’ll need to consider in your calculations is the amount of energy your system will produce and when it will do that. This can be a very complicated calculation to make, even for experienced solar engineers. However, let’s run through the basics.

One of the most important considerations is the solar irradiation levels available in the home’s geographical location in other words, how sunny it is where you live. When it comes to using solar panels, being closer to the equator is generally better, but other factors must be considered. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory produces maps for the U.S. showing solar irradiation levels and the tools on its website provide detailed solar information for specific locations within the U.S.

Equally important is your home’s orientation: For rooftop arrays, a south-facing roof without trees or other objects obstructing sunlight maximizes the available solar energy. If this is not available, panels can be mounted on external supports and installed away from the house, incurring additional costs for the extra hardware and cables.

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Do Solar Panels Save Money

In the long run, solar panels definitely save money for most homeowners. Like other investments such as Energy Star appliances, the question is how long it takes for the savings to surpass the added initial cost.

Most professionally-installed solar panel systems pay for themselves after about eight years, with DIY systems faster than that.

This timeline will due to a number of factors, including:

• The amount of sunlight in your area.
• The cost of electricity in your area.
• Energy tax or rebate incentives.
• Whether your home was pre-wired for solar.
• The condition of your roof prior to installation.

As you’ve probably noticed, many of those factors depend on the weather and policies where you live. Net metering isn’t available in all areas. An investment in solar will quickly pay off in a region with high electrical costs and net metering, even if it’s more overcast than other parts of the country.

Product Costs Based On The Type Of Panels

Monocrystalline Panel

In general, monocrystalline panels demand $1 to $1.5 of cost per watt. What does that mean? It implies an outfitted 6kW system will fluctuate from $6000 to $9000.

Polycrystalline Panel

Less efficient than their monocrystalline counterparts but still a great choice polycrystalline alternatives often cost $0.9 to $1 per watt. Outfitting 6kW systems will charge you $5400 to $6000 in total. Compared to monocrystalline, its clearly among the better financing options!

Thin-Film Panel

Under most circumstances, thin-film panels run around $1 to $1.5 per watt, pricing an outfitted 6kW system $6000 to $9000.

This number is affordable compared to many rivals on the market, but note that these panels often demand a huge amount of room. Due to that reason, they are mainly utilized within industrial settings.

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How Long Does It Take For Solar Panels To Pay For Themselves

The short answer is about 6-10 years. However, a lot of factors go into calculating the point at which you will break even for the cost of the solar installation.

• Price of the system This is the price of the solar panels , along with necessary hardware, installation, etc. This amount will depend primarily on the capacity of the solar installation, but also on your location and the solar company you choose.
• Incentives and rebates These can be in the form of federal, state, or local rebates, tax credits, etc.
• Electricity usage The more electricity you use, the bigger the system you will need to offset the costs. At the same time, higher usage will ultimately create more opportunity to save money, and this means less time that it will take for you to break even on your solar investment.
• Electricity generation Ideally, you want a system that matches your usage as closely as possible. If you buy too big a system, it will generate far more solar electricity than you can use. You will pay more for a bigger installation, only to waste a large part of what you are producing. With all this waste, it will take a lot longer for those solar panels to pay for themselves. On the other hand, if your system isnt big enough, you are not saving all the money you could. Your initial investment will be lower, but the system wont be able to generate enough solar electricity to make much of a difference.

How Many Solar Panels Will I Need

Its very important to get the right number of panels for your home as this is the starting point to find out how much a solar pv system might cost. The number of occupants in your household will influence the size of the system required as well as the size of your property.

Below is a list of the rough amount of roof space you might need to fit a solar PV system. These sizes are not strict guidelines and this is especially important to know as different manufacturers produce panels of slightly varying sizes. A skilled solar installer will be able to give you an estimate of the size and price of a solar PV system for your home. You can get free, no-obligation quotes through our simple form.

Get Free Solar Panel Quotes: Get quotes and compare prices.

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How Utility Companies Affect Solar Power Costs

If your utility company allows you to have net metering that is, they supply you with a special meter that will spin backward when you generate more electricity than you use your annual bill can average out at zero. Because of shorter days in the winter, youll likely be a net purchaser of electricity in that season and a net producer in the summer months. A grid-tied system like this is different than off-grid systems used in remote locations with no electrical service those require batteries, which can significantly increase overall system costs.

Are Solar Panels Worth The Cost

Investing in solar panels is expensive, but the long-term benefits make them worth the cost. Solar panels are a good solution if you have consistently high electricity bills or your cost is more expensive than in other areas of your state.

Solar power also helps customers reduce their fossil fuel use and overall carbon footprint. These are just a few of the benefits of installing a solar power system. See the infographic below for more long-term advantages of going solar.

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How Does Net Metering Work

Simply put, if your home is able to take advantage of solar net metering, solar energy that is collected in abundance and not needed in your home will run through your meter and out to the grid.

A digital meter on your house records electricity moving in either direction as it comes into the house and as it leaves. The net part of the term means that the homeowner pays the net amount for the electricity used by the house minus the extra sold back to the grid.

In states where net metering is in effect, consumers can sell the excess solar energy they produce back to their local utility. That lowers their electricity bill, shortening their payback period and raising their cost savings.

According to Solar Reviews, homeowners in Delaware, New Hampshire, Oregon and Washington, D.C. can take the best advantage of net metering because of a combination of factors including policy, inclusion, fees and rollover policies.

Solar Batteries Add New Complexity To Estimating Average Solar System Cost In 2022

Prior to 2020, more than 90% of residential solar power installations were simple, grid-tied solar systems. Grid-connect systems are so popular because they are the cheapest to install and they offer the shortest payback period.

However, because theyre connected to the grid, they have no source of backup power in the event of a power outage. Now, many people are considering adding a solar battery to their solar systems in 2022.

There are four reasons for this:

• The frequency of storms and wildfires has made utility power less reliable in recent years, which is increasing demand for a backup power supply when the power goes out.
• Utilities across the country are changing their net metering programs to offer below-retail rates for excess solar energy production that is sent to the grid.
• Time of Use electric billing makes home energy storage solutions more attractive because the battery can be charged when utility rates are cheap and discharge when rates are most expensive, allowing homeowners to avoid paying peak pricing.
• The 30% solar investment tax credit can be used to cover a battery as long as it is connected to a solar power system. There are also a number of state and utility incentives, like Californias SGIP incentive, that help reduce the cost of battery installations.

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Solar Incentives Available In Virginia

One of the biggest factors in solar’s cost is the available incentives. Both federal and local Virginian governments offer incentives that cut solars installation costs, making paybacks even better.

One of the most robust incentives is the 30% federal solar investment tax credit . This incentive is available to all those who pay federal taxes. Youll get back 26% of what you spend on your solar energy system back through a tax credit.

In addition to this tax credit, businesses can take advantage of 100% bonus depreciation. With this, you can push all the tax savings from the depreciation of the solar system to the year the system is placed into service.

On a state level, theres a solar property tax exemption. Installing solar can increase the value of your home, raising your property taxes. But in Virginia, your taxes wont go up. That said, local municipalities have the option to forgo this exemption, so it may not be available everywhere.

Virginia also requires their utility companies to offer net metering. This is a great solar-friendly program that helps you maximize your solar investment. Youll upload that extra electricity to the utility grid with net metering. In exchange, youll get a credit for each kilowatt-hour of electricity. That credit can be exchanged for a kilowatt-hour from the utility at any time.

Solar Panel Cost For A 1500 Sqft Home

Solar panels for a 1,500 sq.ft. home cost between $7,000 to $32,000. Like smaller homes, your total energy needs vary by household. The more electric-based appliances you have, the more panels you need. And, the more these appliances are used, the more panels you need. If you only want to reduce your dependency slightly to lower your bills, you can get by with fewer panels. If you want to reduce your dependency by a larger amount, you need more.

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