Top 5 Reasons to go Solar

5. Energy independence
The installation of solar panels makes you less dependent on foreign energy sources with constantly fluctuating prices. While the supply of fossil fuels decreases each year, causing your neighbor’s energy bills to rise, you can relax knowing that you have access to an infinite supply of clean energy. In fact, every hour, the sun radiates more energy onto the earth than the entire human population uses in one whole year. All we need to do is capture it!

4. It works no matter where you are
The sun shines everywhere. Even in upstate New York in the dead of winter (believe it or not). Solar actually works great in the cold!

3. It’s low maintenance
A misconception about solar panels is that they need a great deal of maintenance to keep them clean and continually producing electricity. This is not the case! Solar panels are virtually maintenance free. Once they are on your roof or in your yard, that’s it. The only moving parts in your solar system are contained in the inverter, which converts the DC power your solar panels generate into AC power, which the appliances in your home use. Concerned about cleaning your solar panels? Rain and other precipitation keep them spotless. If it snows, the panels will still heat from the sun and the snow will slide off. If you choose to go with a ground or pole mount system, snow can be easily brushed off, but it is not necessary. In fact, when you receive your proposal from Earthsponse, a 30 year weather study by Nrel is taken into account, which factors in the days when poor weather conditions may occur.

2. You’re helping the planet
With the noticeable climate change occurring throughout the past few decades, we need to be thinking about the amount of greenhouse gases we are releasing into our environment. Most of the electricity in the U.S. is still coming from non-renewable, polluting sources, such as coal and other fossil fuels. Solar is the perfect remedy!

1. It saves you money!
Perhaps the most important reason to go solar is to save you money on your electric and hot water bills. Your system is constantly producing electricity, even when you are not using it. Through net metering, you can sell that unused electricity back to the grid at the retail price. Not only that, no matter where you are in the U.S. there are incentives to help make solar affordable to you. The federal government provides a tax credit, worth 30% of your system cost, with no cap! Other states provide more incentives. To see what your state has to offer, visit http://dsireusa.org/.

Along with these incentives, solar will add value to your home. Every $1 saved on your utility bill can add up to $20 on your home’s resale price, according to the National Appraisal Institute and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

-Lisa Dougherty