The energy obtained from pure sunlight is considered to be one of the best forms of renewable energy and is an excellent eco-friendly power source for running your home. As such, there are several people out there that wish to install these panels but don’t know if their homes are compatible with them or not.
There are several solar panel installers out there that tell you if your home is a good location for solar panel installation or not and if you want to know more about them, you can check out this site here to do so. Besides these installers, however, there are also a few other ways through which you can check their compatibility with your home all by yourself.
If you too wish to utilize the energy obtained from sunlight for meeting your electricity requirements but don’t know if your house is the right choice for it, then don’t worry, because we have you covered. In this article, we will list various options through which you can check if your house is an optimal choice for panels or not. Read the article till the end so that you don’t miss out on crucial details.
Check Whether You Actually Need Solar Panels
The first and foremost thing you need to ask yourself before you consider installing solar panels for your house is whether you actually require them for your electricity. It doesn’t make financial sense to install the panels in a house that generates way less than the average amount of power bill of the standard household in your country.
Panel installations don’t come cheap and if you aren’t even going to utilize their power to their maximum capacity, it doesn’t make sense to get them. According to various experts, the minimum amount of power bill that justifies the most basic solar panel installation is a power bill of 80$. Any less and you don’t require solar panels for your house.
Figure Out the Type of Your Roof and Its Slanting Angle
While solar panels are compatible with most roof types, there are some that they just don’t seem to work with as well as they do with other roof types. The prime example of such roof types is the clay and wood roof type. While you can still install panels on these roofs, it doesn’t look as aesthetically pleasing and requires advanced mounting procedures that may cost you extra charges depending on your panel installers.
One more thing you need to check is the size your roof can provide for your solar panels. If your roof has a very small amount of roof space, you won’t be able to install a large number of solar panels which in turn will hardly make any dent in your home’s power consumption.
One more lesser-known aspect is the angle your roof is situated at. If the angles on your roof are too acute or too obtuse, which sometimes happens with custom homes, then your panels won’t get a decent angle to receive adequate sunlight after they are installed.
Examine How Much Sunlight Your House Gets
There are various websites and apps out there that can easily tell you if your location is a good choice for sunlight after you simply input your address in their system. While these websites can provide a basic check on your location’s weather, they don’t actually tell you whether the panels are a good choice for your particular house.
However, that aspect is easy to check as well. All you need to do is to ensure your roof is not, or won’t be, blocked by a tree and its shade. The next aspect will be your roof’s angle and the last one will be its size. Simply input all of this data in an advanced online calculator that measures your house’s solar energy potential and see if your home is good enough for the panels to be installed.
See if the Local Weather Around Your Home Is Suitable for Solar Panels
Many people think that the panels you install on your home can’t operate without getting direct sunlight and are thus ineffective in areas with cloudy weather. This couldn’t be further from the truth because panels can generate electricity from direct and indirect sunlight that comes off in tiny rays through clouds.
Thus, solar panels can be a viable option even in areas that constantly have clouds around them. However, they won’t work at the maximum effectiveness they are designed for and will only be completely useful if your area experiences sunlight from time to time.
That being said, there is one type of weather that panels don’t do well in and it is the snowy weather. If you live in an area where it constantly snows around the year such as the northern European countries, it is a good idea to keep away from solar panels as the accumulated snow renders the panels useless.
Considering the local climate and weather of your town or city is vital to knowing whether installing panels is a good option for your home or just a waste of funds.
Check if Your Roof Is Ready for Solar Panels
Roofs actually have a shorter lifespan than the panels you are thinking of installing over them. If it has been quite a few years since you last replaced your roof, it is probably a good idea to get your house’s own roofs replaced first and then installing panels over it. The last thing you want is having a broken or leaky roof underneath your carefully installed panels where repairing the roof means removing the panels which comes at its own risk of breaking them into pieces.
If you know your roof is old, but you don’t have the financial capacity to replace it as well as install the panels themselves, then staying away from solar panel installation is the best financial choice for your family and children until you can budget both of the options together.
Conclusion
There are several ways through which you can easily tell if your home is an optimal choice for solar panels or not. We hope this article was insightful for you and if it was, please consider following our article for regular updates as it will help us out immensely.
