Knowing Your Solar Goal
One of the amazing things about going solar is the independence you have during the process and at process completion by having the ability to power your life on your own using energy from the sun. Solar panel systems, if ethically priced, will be priced according to your electricity usage per month and then compared to kw usage by a solar engineer. That is where the size of the system for purchase comes in.
However, before a system size is finalized, it’s important to consider a couple of things and ask the question “What is your goal with going solar?”
There are many reasons someone can decide to go solar. Obviously there are the environmental reasons, which have driven the solar industry and are the reason our company exists! In this case, your pocketbook is not as important as having panels on your house and producing solar at your expense, for the community. Jackson Solar has had customers who want extra panels for this reason, although we do not suggest it since solar is so expensive in our current market. The goal of Jackson Solar is to make solar affordable for every home.
The most common goals to choose from are equally a question of financing as well as energy production:
- Fasted system payoff time with a moderate elimination of your electric bill
- Complete elimination of my electric bill
- A good combination of both
So, what do we mean by this? Jackson Solar recommends option: #1) Fastest system payoff time with a moderate elimination of your electric bill. If your solar panels produce MORE energy than your home requires, the money you spent on upsizing your system will NOT benefit you and you will not get that energy overproduction back from the grid. To avoid spending an excess of unused money on home power, our solar engineer will do their absolute best crunching the numbers of your energy bill with kw systems to select a system size that produces as close to your monthly energy usage as possible, SLIGHTLY undershooting as to NOT overproduce. This could look like you paying, in our Jackson Solar customer experiences, sometimes $20 more for energy usage outside of what your solar panels produced that month on your home. Obviously, sometimes it’s more, sometimes it’s remarkably low. However, in terms of optimization, we believe it is better to slightly undershoot on system size than to overshoot because all of the money you spend will be going to your power usage. If you overproduce on your panels, some of your money will NOT be going to your power usage.
Option #2 is a fine and popular option: A complete elimination of the electric bill. If this is what you want, we can make it happen. In fact, a lot of Jackson Solar customers do select this option. In this case, our solar engineer is looking at your monthly electric bill and comparing it to kw systems and will typically select a larger system (meaning it is more expensive) so you do NOT have to pay anything on your electricity bill monthly. We can almost guarantee that you will not ever have an electric bill again moving forward with this option.
Option #3, a good combination of both, is also a wonderful option. This means that after reviewing your monthly energy usage, our solar engineer will select a system size that will most likely completely eliminate your bill some months, and other months it will not and your home will be using a small amount of energy from the electric company. There is still the risk that you will be experiencing overproduction, which is why we do not suggest this primarily. However, this is a great section option in regards to optimization and return on investment following option #1.
Your solar goal is personal to you, and that is the beauty of solar! It is all about greater independence, and here at Jackson Solar, we want you to have the opportunity to participate in the creation of your unique system design by having the freedom to choose your solar goal. We value your input and we put our customers first!