Solar panels make it possible for homeowners in Vacaville, CA to harness clean, free energy throughout much of the year. Although solar panels won’t eliminate your energy bills entirely, they can significantly reduce your spending. From lowering carbon footprints to improving the value and appeal of properties, these installations provide tremendous returns.
Start Cutting Your Energy Costs Immediately
Even with only moderate amounts of sunshine, many households are able to produce energy with their solar panels. With the right setup, you can easily collect energy on sunny days and store the excess in batteries for use when it is cloudy or dark outside. At certain points of the year, solar panels will harness energy continuously throughout the daylight hours. In summer, when your energy use is likely the highest, you may not have to pay for energy at all if you have the right setup. With air conditioning likely accounting for half or over half of your home energy use from late spring to early fall, solar panels will allow you to keep everyone in your home cool without breaking the bank.
Increase the Marketability of Your Home Investment
Solar panel installation is becoming one of the best investments that many California homeowners can make in home improvement. If you ever decide to sell your property, you’ll find that a lot of prospective buyers in your area are conservation-minded. People are looking for efficient homes with overall sustainable designs that cut their carbon footprints, limit their spending, and keep them up-to-date with the latest market expectations. Installing solar panels will also allow you to command a higher asking price if you ever sell your home.
There Isn’t a More Effective Way to Lower Your Carbon Footprint
There are a lot of things that California residents can do to reduce their environmental impact. Many locals are trading their gas-powered vehicles in for all-electric models (EVs) or purchasing hybrid automobiles instead. You can swap your current gas-fired heater out for an all-electric option, and you can swap your standard water heater for a tankless, point-of-use design. However, nothing will have a more significant impact on your home energy use than solar panel installation.
The energy that solar panels harness is completely clean, entirely free, and capable of meeting far more of your needs than other upgrades. You can use the energy that you harness from your solar panels to power your EV, your new water heater, and your new electric heater. Once these panels are put in, there will be no extra effort required on your part to reap their rewards. Having solar panels installed on your home will give you an easy and effective way to support every other sustainability upgrade that you’ve made.
You Can Take Advantage of the Clean Energy Tax Credit
If you’re concerned about the upfront cost of upgrading to solar, consider some of the incentives that you can take advantage of. Although there aren’t any rebates offered by the State of California, there are benefits at the federal level. For instance, the Clean Energy Tax Credit will allow you to write off up to 30% of your spending on panels, batteries, and installation. With these deductions, your end-of-year tax liability will go down, and you’ll either owe less in taxes or get a bigger return.
Sell Energy Back to the Grid
Many homeowners in Vacaville spend thousands of dollars to receive electricity and gas service from Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) each year. Imagine opening your monthly energy bill to find a credit rather than an owed amount. This is a change that you could enjoy following your solar installation. PG&E offers credit for energy that’s fed back into its grid at near-retail prices. Taking advantage of credits offered by your energy company can help you have reliable energy at very low costs.
Solar Panels Are Sustainable
Solar installation is a highly sustainable choice. All you really need to support solar energy use in your home is a sunny location and a structurally sound roof. These systems are virtually maintenance free and can last up to 25 years. In most cases, this is about the same as the lifespan of a residential roof. Thus, if you put your solar panels in when your roof is initially installed or shortly thereafter, you won’t have any excessive out-of-pocket costs until it’s time to replace everything. Solar panels are an excellent, set-it-and-forget-it solution to high energy bills and higher-than-average carbon footprints.
Feel Good About Using Your Appliances
California homeowners walk a delicate balance between having access to some of the most innovative and convenient technologies and appliances in the nation and feeling guilty about using them due to high energy costs and increasingly high carbon footprints. With solar, you don’t have to change your habits to establish a sustainable lifestyle. You can crank your air conditioner up whenever your living environment grows hot, run your washing machine and dryer whenever you need clean clothes, and indulge in hot baths or showers to your heart’s content. The vast majority of energy that you use for these activities will be both clean and free.
Limit Your Reliance on the Grid
The feasibility of using solar to get completely off the grid is limited. This remains true in even perpetually sunny areas. However, most homeowners are able to greatly limit their reliance upon outside energy supplies by having solar panels installed. If your area is subject to rolling blackouts in summer or during other times of high energy demand, you’ll be grateful that you have another reliable way to keep your home powered.
Assess the Integrity of Your Current Roof Before Investing
Despite the many impressive benefits that solar panels provide, it’s important to first consider the integrity of your current roof. Timing is everything with solar panel installation. If your roof is separating its valleys, has a warped or bowed substrate, or has shingles that are rapidly losing their granules, it’s likely time for a roof replacement.
You’ll get the best results from new solar panels when the roofing beneath them is fully intact. Thus, now may be a good time to have them put in if you’ve recently replaced your roof or if your planning a roof replacement in the very near future. If you intend to pay for roof replacement just one to two years from now, you should time your solar panel installation accordingly.
We proudly serve residents of Vacaville, CA and the surrounding area. We offer reliable heating, cooling, and plumbing service. We also provide advanced indoor air quality solutions and solar panel installation. Our team can provide a whole-home performance analysis to evaluate the overall efficiency of your home. This service includes an evaluation of your indoor air quality, an inspection of your insulation, equipment inspections, and much more. If you’re ready to lower your carbon footprint and reduce your monthly energy bills, contact Cozy Home Services today.
