For a long time, anybody who wanted to go solar had to fork over a ton of capital up front and accept that they might never get it back. However, over the last decade things have changed dramatically. Today the cost of installing residential solar energy systems has never been lower, while the potential return on your investment has never been higher. And while the process of making the switch to solar power can be extremely complicated, thanks to companies like Understand Solar, you don’t have to figure it out on your own.
Understand Solar is a third party solar energy advocate. They don’t sell solar panels, and they don’t install them. What they do is provide free personalized solar energy assessments, educate consumers, and put them in touch with local installers.
To get your free personalized solar energy assessment, all you have to do is fill out their simple online form and provide a few details about your home. After that, an Understand Solar expert will contact you via phone to go over your assessment and answer any questions you may have. If you’re ready to move forward, they’ll set up in-home estimates from multiple highly-rated local installers. But absolutely no commitment is required.
Your assessment may reveal that, for one reason or another, solar energy just isn’t right for you. If that’s the case, your Understand Solar representative can explain why. However, you might learn that solar energy makes so much sense for you, you’re practically losing money if you don’t go for it.
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The average cost of installing solar energy systems has dropped a whopping 70 percent over the last decade. Obviously, as the startup costs have gone down, solar energy systems have become much better long-term investments. However, figuring out whether solar is a good investment for you can still be very complicated.
The first step is figuring out what local, state, and federal government subsidies and tax incentives are available to you. Then you have to determine how much sunlight your home gets, which determines how much solar energy you can capture with a photovoltaic power system. This depends on where you live as well as the positioning and architectural features of your house.
After that, you have the most complicated factor: determining the effects of your local electric company’s rates and policies. For example, do they charge flat rates all the time, or are the rates higher during peak hours? Do they charge higher or lower rates based on your consumption? Do they allow net metering, which lets you use any extra electricity you generate and put back into the grid at a later time? What are the projected rates over the next 10 to 15 years? Questions like these will determine how much or how little money a solar energy system can save you on traditional electricity.
Finally, there’s also the issue of how much value a solar power system will add to your home. Generally speaking, homes with solar energy systems sell faster and for higher prices than homes without solar energy systems. But the full value added will depend on the real estate trends in your area plus the answers to the questions above.
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When it’s all said and done, the experts at Understand Solar may help you realize solar energy is not a good investment for you. However, you may discover that, when you factor in projected increases in electricity rates over 10-to-20 years, all the money you’ll save on traditional energy, plus the value a solar energy system can add to your home, solar panels can be a very good long-term investment. In fact, depending on where you live, it’s even possible that an investment in solar energy could outperform traditional investment portfolios over the course of 15-to-20 years.
Of course, you won’t know how much an investment in solar energy could be worth to you until you get your free personalized solar estimate from Understand Solar. So what are you waiting for? Click here now to get started. It won’t cost you a thing, but it could very well change your future for the better.
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