Are Solar Panels Worth It?

As solar grows in popularity, more and more homeowners are deciding whether it is worth purchasing solar panels. 

Some solar companies keep pricing vague, focusing instead on the promise of massive cash savings. These overexaggerated promises force homeowners to spend hours researching companies and shopping around for quotes to figure if solar is worth their money. All of this can make the decision to get solar panels a daunting choice for many consumers, despite the increase in solar affordability.  

Installing residential solar panels involves a lot of infrastructure considerations, along with legal terminology like solar easements and tax benefits.  To top it off, there are also a variety of purchasing methods. It’s a lot of information and research for a consumer to take in, so at Blue Raven Solar, we choose to offer our customers complete transaction transparency. 

What Does this Mean?

We want each customer to feel confident in their solar purchase. We assist in providing support, to help them gain confidence in making a decision by determining the value of solar with three simple actions:

• Discover why they are going solar
• Estimate potential solar savings and cost of the system
• Provide the best financing options available on the solar market

Discovering Your “Why” for Going Solar

The first step we take with homeowners is helping them understand the major benefits of going solar. By exploring possible benefits, it is easier for homeowners to determine their “why,” or their main reason for wanting to go solar. Consider, what are some of the main benefits of making the switch?

Monthly Savings

The first benefit and most common reason homeowners invest in solar is the monthly savings. In the modern day and age, solar companies use innovative software allowing them to design and install a solar system offsetting 100% of their customer’s electricity bill. Thus, a solar system could leave homeowners paying only a small monthly fee to stay connected to the electrical grid. 

These savings, depending on your preferences, allow for a lot of flexibility in terms of what to expect. By purchasing solar, the monthly savings on your electricity bill combined with green initiative tax credits gives you the power to decide where your money goes. With a Blue Raven Solar free estimate, we can provide a breakdown of all  available options. 

Clean, Renewable Energy

The second benefit of going solar is the environmental impact. Solar panels are one of the most popular types of clean and renewable energy. Solar energy is clean because it does not give off any harmful carbon emissions. 

By installing solar, homeowners no longer depend on coal-burning power plants and can start to positively contribute to the environment. Every solar system installed is equivalent to taking two cars (driving more than 150,000 miles each) off the street. 

Going solar because of its green impact is a great reason to make the switch! 

No More Price Hikes

The third benefit and potential “why” of going solar is the ability to own the electricity powering your home. Most utility companies control the electricity costs of entire cities, and in some cases, states. This means they can bump up the cost of electricity, substantially increasing your monthly bill. 

Over the last 20 years, the price of electricity has increased by more than 60% and is expected to continue. Going solar is one of the only ways to combat utility companies’ monopoly on the price of power. 

Legally Protected Energy

The fourth benefit is a particular term that does not receive a lot of media coverage: solar easements. Easements refer to anything entering or passing through properties. Power cables or sewage pipes are public easements because those pieces of property technically belong to the city or whatever company laid them. They are still on your property, but the owners of those public lines have specific rights. 

Solar arrays come with their own rights as well. With a solar panel, you require sunlight at certain times and specific angles to generate power. If something happens to those angles or exposure (for example, your neighbor plants a tree or a private company builds a tall building), it is your power they are messing with. If you own those solar panels, you have a right to the power they produce and can take legal action against the disruption. You call the shots when you own your own power.  

Increase the Value of Your Home

The last benefit is solar can increase the value of your home. Solar is a hot commodity among today’s homebuyers. Homeowners who install a custom solar panel system on their home can increase the overall value from 1% to 10%. 

By considering each of these major benefits, homeowners can identify or discover their “why” for going solar. Then, they can move to the next step allowing them to determine if solar energy is worth their money. 

Estimating the Cost and Savings of Solar

With a clearer reason to go solar, homeowners will have an easier time determining whether solar panels are worth their price. At Blue Raven Solar, we know every homeowner is different. Even if a homeowner has a great reason to go solar, sometimes their situation does not provide a viable way to save money by installing it on their roof. 

This is one reason we pre-qualify each of our customers before they start their solar journey. Some common scenarios that often prevent homeowners from going solar include:

• Rooftops do not provide enough sunlight exposure
• Taxable income is not high enough to qualify for all tax credits
• Power bills are already too low to benefit

We do not want to sell you a product you will not benefit from. With a free estimate, we can help you determine if you fit into any of these categories. If you do, we recommend you not move forward with solar. By setting these pre-qualifiers as a standard, we have made sure our customers know what they are getting themselves into before they make any payments. We help you know if going solar is worth it for your situation. 

When a customer passes the pre-qualifying stage, we know they can benefit from going solar. Then to verify and work towards creating a high production system, we ask the homeowner for their latest energy bill(s) to build out an accurate and custom solar proposal. 

Our proposal team will use the homeowner’s billing information as well as sunlight tracking software to determine how many panels their home will need to offset 100% of their energy bill (or whatever percentage the homeowner desires). With a proposal built out, one of our solar specialists will meet in-person or virtually with the homeowner and walk them through the cost, savings, and installation process. 

If a homeowner has any questions, the solar specialist will answer all their questions with full transparency. At the end of the meeting, homeowners are left with a physical and/or digital proposal containing details on the solar array design, exclusive financing options, and how long it will take to pay off the homeowner’s initial investment. 

Typically, the average homeowner will see a return on their investment within six to nine years of installation. If the customer decides to finance their panels with a loan, we do our best to make the monthly payment lower than their original electricity bill payment, so they are saving from day one of their solar journey. This falls in line with our aim to maximize our customers’ savings and confidence since the overall benefits of ownership vastly outweigh the short-term benefits of leasing. 

Considering Ownership Over Leasing

There are generally three ways to approach installing solar panels, which you can learn more by reading: Solar Seems Right For Me. Should I Lease Or Buy?. These three different approaches include:

• Power Purchase Agreement (PPA)
• Solar Lease
• Solar Purchase

Plenty of companies will push for whatever deal sells you on their product. They might talk up how leasing saves on up-front costs or how they will do all the monitoring for you. They might, however, avoid mentioning how you do not get the tax benefits or how their contract includes price escalators to match the increases of normal utility companies. 

A lease also complicates any attempts to move. Instead of owning property with solar, you are trying to convince someone to buy your property AND whatever leasing contract you are under with solar. The equity you gain from owning the system becomes a hassle for you to deal with and you lose out on another benefit. 

At Blue Raven Solar, we encourage solar ownership. That way, you build your home equity, and gain every benefit available from owning solar—but we are not here to pressure you into a too-big commitment, either. We want you to have every resource at your fingertips so you can make the best decision. Let us give you a free estimate at no cost to you.

How Do Our Free Estimates Work?

Any homeowner can access our free estimate form through our website. All we need from you is your contact information and a representative will reach out and ask a few questions. 

We will ask about your geographic location to help determine your property’s solar exposure, as well as your current energy usage to project how much solar could save you. We will then provide you with a savings report at zero cost. 

Providing the Best Deals in the Industry

With an accurate proposal, you can quickly determine if solar panels are worth the time and investment. If you are still on the fence, you are welcome to take as much time as you need to reflect on your initial “why” for going solar, as well as incentives that may affect your decision. 

Unfortunately, this methodology is a rarity within the solar industry as most solar companies try to pressure homeowners who are on the fence with unrealistic promises or exaggerated claims on how much you will save or need to pay up-front. At Blue Raven Solar, we believe our no-pressure approach and competitive solar promotions allow homeowners to make a clear decision they will be happy with years down the line. So, let’s take a deeper look into our latest financial offering. 

Blue Power Plus+

As a solar company, we know not every homeowner has tens of thousands of dollars of disposable income to pay for a solar system up-front, which is why we have developed a financing program called BluePower Plus+.

This exclusive financing option allows homeowners to take out a monthly loan 5% to 40% less than their current power bill, meaning they will still save money every month. In addition to these monthly savings, we also cover a homeowner’s first 18-months of solar loan payments! This way you can start saving cash immediately.

No matter how you pay for your panels, Blue Raven Solar also ensures you qualify for local and national incentives like the Federal Investment Solar Tax Credit (ITC), which allows homeowners to use 30% of the cost of their solar system as a tax credit for the following year.

The Blue Raven Solar Way

Determining whether solar is worth it depends on a homeowner’s situation. It is our priority to help our customers understand exactly how their current situation connects to solar.  

You still might not know if solar is worth it for you or your home, and that is okay! We recommend you start by looking at some additional solar resources including: the cost of going solar, our solar installation process, and more information about our team.  

Request a free solar quote and estimate your savings today!