The low bid installer that is proposing to pack the front of your roof with silver frames, white backsheet, and black rounded cell solar panels configured in an assorted array of portrait and landscape blocks is doing you and your neighbors a huge disservice.

Please don’t let him do that.

You may remember that one of the secrets solar companies don’t want you to know is that ‘solar isn’t for everyone’.

You, thinking about installing that ugly solar system on the front of your house, may be one of them.

Don’t get me wrong, systems can be installed tastefully on the front of your home that will not only NOT detract from your home’s curb appeal, but may actually enhance it.

The best solar installations are contiguous and consistent.

They are level and follow your home’s roof lines.

They avoid chimneys, pipes, and other ‘roof acne’ as it’s called in the business.

With certain roof types, an all black solar panel is preferable while other roof types are better suited to a silver and blue style.

Consider this – you are far better off installing a smaller solar system that looks attractive than a larger one that, while it may offset your entire electric bill, makes your house unappealing to your neighbors and any potential future buyers should you sell your home down the road.

Check our Residential Solar Gallery to see what really nice systems look like.

While they say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, ugliness is often widely agreed on.

A tastefully thought out and well-designed solar system will enhance your property and its resale value.

A badly laid out system that is visible from the street will do the opposite, I promise you.

Make sure you stay engaged through the design process, so there are no surprises.

Your installer should provide you with the opportunity to approve the plans prior to HOA and permit submittal.

Look for contiguous shapes and thoughtful design.

If you don’t see it or your roof makes contiguous shapes challenging, consider reducing the number of panels or foregoing solar altogether.

In the long run, you’ll be better off.

To Knowing If Solar Is A Good Fit!

-Scott Gordon

P.S. - Tomorrow is our last day! Tomorrow’s secret is important too, because if you believe what the most solar companies and popular press is telling you about the cost of solar then you may be led down a path that ends in you paying much more than need be for your solar system.

Are You Considering Solar?

Our consultants and engineering teams hold aesthetics as one of the highest priorities. We don’t do ugly solar. So if you are ready to see how beautiful solar could be on your home, then have one of our Solar Energy Consultants get in touch with you to find out if Solar is right for you . Simply put your details in the form below and we’ll get you hooked up with one of our consultants.

The post Solar Secret: System Aesthetics Matter appeared first on HelioPower.

This assumption is a bit anachronistic.

As little as four years ago, solar panels made up more than 50% of the cost of a turnkey solar array.

Today (2013), panels make up less than 20% of the cost of a system as fierce manufacturing competition in China and a glut of a solar panels ‘active’ component – polysilicon – has driven the retail price of a solar panel to below $1 a watt.

So where is the rest of the cost?

Labor now accounts for a larger percentage of the cost than the panels, so do the inverters in some cases.

Racking and balance of system (copper wire, conduit, disconnects, grounding rods, breakers, subpanels, pull boxes, combiner boxes, etc) make up a significant portion as well.

Permitting and local requirements can impact system cost too. For example, some cities promote the adoption of solar by offering free permits while others layer on fee after fee until the permit grows into the thousands of dollars.

We recently installed in a city where the permit costs alone could’ve bought another twelve solar panels!

Other items affecting the cost of your installation include roof type (for example, clay roofs require special preparation which can be costly to do correctly); electrical service age and amperage; internal conduit runs; arrays spread across multiple roofs; ground mounting vs. roof mounting; tree trimming; trenching; non-code compliant additions, structures, and improvements, and myriad other considerations.

To Knowing If Solar Is A Good Fit!

-Scott Gordon

P.S. - In our next segment we’re gonna talk about the ugly side of solar. I don’t want you to fall victim to ugly solar – Solar can be beautiful. Check back soon to learn what to look out for so you don’t get stuck with the one roof in your neighborhood that’s been made ugly.

Are You Considering Solar?

Our consultants will show you every part of your total system cost so you know exactly what you’re paying for. Have one of our Solar Energy Consultants get in touch with you to find out if Solar is right for you . Simply put your details in the form below and we’ll get you hooked up with one of our consultants.

The post Solar Secret: Solar Panels Are Not The Main Cost appeared first on HelioPower.

What are some examples of commoditized home improvements you might ask?

Let’s use windows as an example.

You might be tempted to rationalize that because Company A and Company B both offer Milgard windows, you’ll get the best deal by going with the low bidder since, afterall, they are both using the same product – Milgard Windows in this example.

Unfortunately, you’d be wrong.

You see, the window itself is just one part of a rather complex installation process, but it’s the one part that you focus on most.

What about the process to remove the old windows? What about the techniques used to water seal the new windows after they are installed? Have you considered the experience of the labor being used to do the work?

Specialization – in other words,

• Does the company specialize in window installation or are they a jack of all trades?
• Are they using high quality installation components or is this where they’ll cut corners?
• Does the company use its own employees or subs to perform the work?
• Have you spoken with any of their customers that have had their product for more than a year or two? How has the installation held up over time?

Of course, there are myriad questions we could ask, but the point is, while the product itself may be a commodity – windows – the employee’s experience and expertise are not.

Not by a long shot.

As you can imagine, we see this all the time in the solar business.

While the panels are a commodity, the folks engineering, installing, and maintaining these systems have widely varying levels of expertise.

If you had to choose between an established and specialized solar company versus a one man show working out of his garage and learning on your roof, which would you pick?

After all, the solar panels are the same, right?

The answer here is obvious, but many customers don’t ask the right questions and often pass on an experienced quality installer for a ‘Pete in the pickup’ because Pete’s price is lower.

Problem is Pete works out of his house, doesn’t have the proper insurance, and is planning to use day laborers to drill holes in your roof and run high voltage electrical conduit.

Scared? Good, you should be.

We clean up these messes all the time, usually after the system stops working; the roof starts leaking; and Pete is no longer answering his phone or email.

It’s important to understand how long the contractor you’re working with has been in business.

After all, any workmanship warranty you receive from the contractor is only valid if the contractor remains in business.

It also helps if the contractor you select has a service department. Otherwise, who will be dispatched to repair your system should there be a problem?

Chances are that the contractor working out of his garage hasn’t been in business long and the same person who sells you the system, is likely the same person who installs it and services it. Not a very scalable model over time if you ask me.

Remember, the old saying, “You get what you pay for?” It wasn’t created in a vacuum.

Neither was ‘caveat emptor’ aka ‘buyer beware’.

If price is your only consideration because you’re assuming your home improvement is a commodity, since the product itself is a commodity, you’re treading into dangerous territory indeed.

Focus on getting the best value, not the best price.

There is a major difference between the former and latter.

Unfortunately, the majority of consumers these days confuse the two. Don’t be one of them.

To Getting It Done Right !

-Scott Gordon

P.S. - Tomorrow we’ll talk about where the real cost of a solar system is. Many people think it’s the solar panels. That’s not true anymore. Come back tomorrow to see where the real cost is.

Are You Considering Solar?

HelioPower’s construction teams are some of the best (if not the best) in the business. We have a huge book of praise devoted to them. You can have our team install your solar, simply have one of our Solar Energy Consultants get in touch with you to find out if Solar is right for you . Simply put your details in the form below and we’ll get you hooked up with one of our consultants.

The post Solar Secret: Solar Has Become A Commodity Because Some Can’t Deliver On The Real Skill – The Home Improvement! appeared first on HelioPower.

Why?

• You may live in a condominium complex or other type of attached home and the HOA owns the roof and won’t let you install solar on it.
• You may be a renter.
• You may have an electric bill under $100 per month.
• You may live in a forest and your roof gets very little sunshine.
• You may need a new roof.
• You may have unpermitted structures on your property that need to be brought up to code before the city will issue a permit to build your solar system.
• You may not qualify for financing.

There are myriad of reasons why your home may not be a good solar candidate.

A reputable solar company will let you know if your home isn’t good for solar.

In fact, they probably will refuse to come out to your home and conduct a ‘free site audit’ since they know it’s a waste of their time and yours.

If you’ve gotten such feedback from a couple of solar companies and persevere long enough, eventually you’ll find a slick salesman who will gladly sell you a solar system to ‘eliminate your electric bills’ even though it’s sitting under a tree or worse.

Sage advice is to understand that most solar salesmen are commission only and if even one of them tells you your house isn’t a solid solar candidate, you should listen, because they’re doing you a tremendous service and likely saving you a lot of money, frustration, and heartache.

To Knowing If Solar Is A Good Fit!

-Scott Gordon

P.S. - In our next piece, we’ll talk about commoditization. People may tell you that Solar has become a commodity and true or not, there is one part of putting solar on your home that is absolutely not a commodity and if you make a poor choice in this area you may be paying for that mistake for years to come.

Are You Considering Solar?

Our consultants will help you determine whether or not you are even a good fit for Solar before ever giving you a proposal. Have one of our Solar Energy Consultants get in touch with you to find out if Solar is right for you . Simply put your details in the form below and we’ll get you hooked up with one of our consultants.

The post Solar Secret: You May Not Be A Good Candidate For Solar appeared first on HelioPower.

Unfortunately some solar companies sell only a couple of system sizes, yet these systems (often on the smallish side of things) will eliminate 100% of everyone’s electric bill 100% of the time.

And if you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you.

Here’s the thing, if a solar company has told you a 2KW system will produce enough electricity to offset your $400 electric bill, you’d be right to be suspicious. The solar system simply won’t make enough kilowatt hours annually to accomplish this.

However, this is a common practice of second and third tier solar companies, and often unsuspecting and trusting consumers fall for this deception.

Sadly, many consumers take the solar salesman’s pitch at face value and don’t know to ask for a California Solar Initiative EPBB annual production estimate.

This is a third party calculation of a solar system’s annual production of kilowatt hours.

Why is this important?

Let’s say you’re a customer with the $400 electric bill.

It’s likely you’re using roughly 1,200 kilowatt hours per month if your utility is SCE, PGE, or SDGE. A 2KW solar system on an unshaded south facing roof in California would produce 300 or so kilowatt hours a month on average.

Therefore, you are still buying 900 kilowatt hours a month from your utility!!

Hardly the 100% offset the solar salesman promised you. In fact, it’s not even close!

Of course, you won’t figure this out until your first annual utility ‘true-up’ a year from now long after the salesman has left for greener pastures.

This is why it’s important to choose a reputable solar company that will custom design and build a system specific to your individual needs.

This simply can’t be done with a couple of cookie cutter solar systems.

Additionally, many solar salespeople don’t take the time to explain to their customers that their solar system will produce a fixed number of kilowatt hours every year.

This lack of education combined with a sales pitch of ‘you’ll never have an electric bill again’ can be quite devastating.

What I see happen in these scenarios is that the naïve customer (having the best intentions) uses WAY MORE electricity.

The customer runs his AC more, leaves lights on, runs the pool pump and Jacuzzi more, etc.

Since the electricity is unlimited and free, they reason, I don’t need to worry about how much I’m using.

Unfortunately, this poor customer will wake up a year from now with an annual utility ‘true-up’ in the thousands of dollars and be quite unprepared for it.

We’ve seen it again and again.

If you don’t want this to be you, you need to clearly understand how much electricity your solar system will generate and keep your consumption within the bounds of that production.

To Knowing Actual Production Values!

-Scott Gordon

P.S. - I’ve got a bit of bad news for you… You are probably not a good candidate for solar. Many people aren’t. Unfortunately, some slimy salesman won’t tell you if you fall into that category. Check back for our next installment to find out why solar may not be for you.

Are You Considering Solar?

Have one of our Solar Energy Consultants come give you a custom solar design and proposal. Our consultants will help you determine exactly how much electricity you use and how much you will likely use in the future and custom design a system that will produce exactly the right amount. Simply put your details in the form below and we’ll get you hooked up with one of our consultants.

The post Solar Secret: Solar Has A Maximum # Of Kilowatt Hours appeared first on HelioPower.

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“How does the interest rate on this solar lease compare to that of other financing options available to me?”

This question is of particular importance to those who may wish to take Federal Tax benefits associated with home improvement interest payment deductions.

While homeowners are eligible to ‘write off’ interest payments on home loans associated with home improvements against taxable income, this benefit is not available to interest associated with solar lease payments.

Thus, wouldn’t it be nice to know if you are leaving any money on the table by not taking advantage of these potential tax benefits?

Since the effective interest rates and money factors are curiously absent from the contract documents you’ll see, we’ve take the time to reverse engineer these rates and provide them at the various ‘escalator’ levels you may encounter in a solar lease.

An escalator is a compounding factor applied to your monthly lease payment or price per kilowatt hour (if you’re considering a power purchase agreement).

These escalators typically run from zero (0%) to 3.9% depending on the finance company and particular product you’re presented with.

Here’s the skinny on effective interest rates at the various common ‘escalator’ levels:

0% Escalator =   5.754%

0.9% Escalator = 6.212%

1.9% Escalator = 6.735%

2.5% Escalator = 7.056%

2.9% Escalator = 7.273%

3.9% Escalator = 7.824%

Armed with this knowledge, you now know how to compare leases and ppas against other financing options that may be available through other programs.

One final thing to watch out for:

Make sure you pay particular attention to the ‘residual value’ that may be called out at the end of the lease term.

Keep in mind that most solar leases/ppas, if you were to delve deep into the weeds of the legalese, make it clear that at the end of 20 years, should you buy the system, it’ll be the greater of the residual value or third party appraised value.

This residual value will increase the effective interest rates above from a quarter to a full point depending on the amount remaining or appraised.

To Understanding Real Costs!

-Scott Gordon

P.S. - Our Next Secret Is A Huge Misunderstanding In The Solar Industry! We will be talking about the reason you simply can’t turn your AC to 50 and run it all the time once you go solar. If you do, you will get hit with a huge electric bill! We will talk about why in the next installment.

Are You Considering Solar?

Have one of our Solar Energy Consultants come give you a custom solar design and proposal. Our consultants will help you calculate the implied interest rate of any lease you may be considering so you know what the REAL cost is and can help you make a decision informed on the REAL numbers. Simply put your details in the form below and we’ll get you hooked up with one of our consultants.

The post Solar Industry Secret: A Solar Lease Has An Implied Interest Rate appeared first on HelioPower.

Cut Energy Costs the Free, Cheap, and Easy Way:

1. Clean door seals on your refrigerator, freezer, and oven to prevent leaks. Replace damaged seals.
2. Vacuum or dust the condenser coils of your refrigerator or freezer to prevent overheating and increase energy efficiency.
3. Adjust your thermostat to reflect the time and weather changes
4. Replace disposable filters on your air conditioner or heat pump, or hose down permanent filters every month or two, as the manufacturer recommends.
5. Remove built up lint and dust from the clothes dryer exhaust duct, the outside dryer exhaust terminal, the back of the dryer itself and behind the lint screen.
6. Clean the lint screen every time you use your dryer.
7. Spray a light detergent and water solution (check manufacturer guidelines) on the outside condenser coils of your air conditioner or heat pump and rinse to clean.
8. Remove furniture, weeds, and debris that block air conditioning vents and equipment.
9. Flush out built up sediment from the tank of your water heater. This both increases the storage capacity of the tank and lengthens it’s usable life.

Cut Energy Costs on a budget:

1. Cut your AC costs by having a professional conduct an annual check up and filter cleaning for your central air conditioner. Doing so typically reduces AC costs by up to $120 per month during the hottest months of the year.
2. Weatherstripping and caulking around drafty windows and doors can save up to 5% on heating and cooling costs.
3. Change out those inefficient incandescent light bulbs. A typical home with 45 standard light bulbs will save up to $500 per year by changing to energy efficient bulbs.
4. Change out those big flood lights. One 150 watt floodlight can cost up to $125 per year to operate. Switching to a low voltage replacement will produce the same amount of light and save you up to $90 per year.
5. Vampire energy (energy used by devices in standby mode) can cost you $80 or more per year. Using smart power strips can save you cash by eliminating vampire loads in your home.
6. That old refrigerator in your garage could be costing you $20 per month if it’s over 10 years old. Check to see if your local utility has rebates available to upgrade to an energy star refrigerator.
7. Replace that old single speed pool pump. An energy efficient, variable speed pump can save you more than $300 per year in pool filtering costs.
8. Go solar. Once you’ve made your home as efficient as possible with these low cost techniques, eliminate the remainder of your electric bill with a solar system. Today solar financing is available to a wide spectrum of buyers and solar pays for itself in as little as five years.

To learn more about energy efficiency strategies, visit Energy Diet or HelioPower’s energy efficiency page.

The post Cut Energy Costs This Spring appeared first on HelioPower.

Chances are if you pay cash, you’ll get a better deal.

In the current resurgent housing market, those having to deal with banks and property appraisers are at a distinct disadvantage when competing against cash buyers.

The same is true for solar.

This isn’t necessary because you’ll get a cheaper price since solar companies can command the same price for systems regardless of finance mechanism.

I also would lump HELOCS, PACE, and other types of traditional financing into the ‘cash’ bucket.

Why? It isn’t about how much you’ll save upfront, but how much you’ll save over time.

First, solar companies are incentivized to install cash customers first.

Why? Third party leasing companies can take months to pay solar installers for systems they finance.

With cash customers, solar installers typically receive their final payment when your newly installed solar system passes the city/county’s final inspection.

As a result, customers paying with cash and traditional loans get bumped to the front of the queue.

Second, when you pay cash you receive all of the incentives directly.

If you can take a 30% federal tax credit, why pass that benefit to a banker in a high rise in New York City?

You also receive any state and local incentives, as well as, any renewable energy credits (RECs) that may be available to you.

Third, if you are financing through traditional means or using an innovative program like HERO, you can deduct the interest from your federal taxes.

If you lease the same system, while there is an interest rate associated, you cannot deduct the interest you are paying month in and month out.

Last, when you own the system, you receive the full benefits of ownership.

In other words, all of the savings and returns (often in the teens as measured by percentage rate) accrue to you. Best of all, there are no lingering questions about what happens if you sell your home or whether you own the solar array at the end of the 20 year lease.

You own it – plain and simple.

If you sell your home, you have an attractive revenue generating feature for your buyer. If you stay in your home for the next several decades, you’ll have a home improvement that pays for itself over and over again.

Having said all of this, there are times when combining cash with a pre-paid lease or power purchase agreement makes sense. When? Typically, this combination makes the most sense for those who do not have the ‘appetite’ to take the tax credit.

This means that the customer is not currently paying federal income taxes or paying sufficient federal income taxes to need a tax credit to offset the liability. For these individuals and families, allowing a third party to take the tax benefit and pass the savings on to the customer is a win-win.

Thus, it pays to know your federal tax exposure before you commit to anything. Knowing this will guide you toward the right solution for your individual situation.

To Knowing All Your Options!

-Scott Gordon

P.S. - Pay attention to our next secret! I will be going into the real cost of a Solar Lease, I promise it’s not what you think… 

Are You Considering Solar?

Have one of our Solar Energy Consultants come give you a custom solar design and proposal. Our consultants will always show you a full cash price so you can compare it against any financing options and will guide you to the best options based on your tax appetite.

The post Solar Industry Secrets: Cash Is Still King In Solar appeared first on HelioPower.

You might be asking yourself: “Who benefits from microinverter and DC optimizer technology and who doesn’t?”

The answer to this question isn’t complicated and can be reached by simply asking yourself: How will shade and a broken up roof affect my solar system’s electrical output over time?

This will help you determine if the investment in microinverter and the technology risk, over time, is worth it.

For example, if you happen to have a large open roof surface (or area to ground mount your solar panels) that has absolutely no shade whatsoever, chances are quite good that the marginal number of additional kilowatt hours you receive from optimizing solar panels individually simply won’t be worth it.

A solidly built and reliable ‘string’ inverter from a tier one manufacturer, like SMA, will do the job just as well for less money.

Plus, it will have only one point of failure instead of many.

If, on the other hand, the location you’d like to install your solar panels is partially to heavily shaded and/or broken up – think of a roof with lots of small surfaces but no big surface – then it’s likely you’ll receive tremendous benefit from the use of microinverters or DC optimizers.

In situations such as these, individual panel optimization can pay big dividends both in the short and long term.

Before you let a solar company take you down one road or the other, be sure to understand your installation’s shading characteristics and the congruity (or incongruity) of the area where you intend to install the solar modules.

To understanding roof characteristics!

-Scott Gordon

P.S. - Tomorrow’s insider secret is a doozy! I will tell you why you the one type quote you absolutely must ask your energy consultant for that will enable you to accurately measure the real cost of any financing offer you may be considering.

Are You Considering Solar?

Have one of our Solar Energy Consultants come give you a custom solar design and proposal. Our consultants are trained to look at roof spacing and shading characteristics. This way they can design a system that’s right for you – wether or not that includes individual panel optimization.

The post Solar Industry Secrets: Micro Inverters & DC Optimizers Aren’t For Everyone. appeared first on HelioPower.

With a few notable exceptions (like SunPower and Sanyo) most silicon wafer based solar panels are essentially identical.

They are all roughly 15% efficient and made roughly the same way.

What matters now is not the panel, but the manufacturer of the panel.

Is the manufacturer bankable?

In other words, will the maker of your panels be around for 25 years to honor their warranty?

This issue is of major concern to the solar leasing companies as they will be on the hook for any warranties should the manufacturer go belly up.

Thus, many of these companies restrict solar integrators from selling panels that don’t conform to the leasing company’s bankability assessments.

Of course, bankability alone doesn’t guarantee the manufacturer of your solar panels will be around for the next 25 years, but so many solar panel manufacturers today are selling their products below the cost to make them in the first place that their long term survival is highly unlikely.

Just like in the early days of the automotive industry when hundreds of car companies competed just in America,

Only The ‘Big Three’ survive today.

Over the next couple of days, I am going to write more about specific insider tips that are guaranteed to give you an edge in the solar purchasing world.  Thus giving you all of the control in the sales process and not at the mercy of what the sales person may or may not choose to tell you!

See you tomorrow!

-Scott Gordon

P.S. - Be sure to keep an eye out for tomorrow’s insider secret! I will tell you about the two technologies that often get upsold to many unsuspecting solar clients that is entirely useless for 80% of them and only serves to add more failure points to their system with no real benefits. 

Are You Considering Solar?

Have one of our Solar Energy Consultants come give you a custom solar design and proposal. They will let you know all your options when it comes to selecting the right solar system for your home.

The post Solar Industry Secrets: Most Solar Panels Are Essentially The Same appeared first on HelioPower.