Frequently Asked Questions

They sure will. In New York State we have what’s called Net Metering. This means you are allowed to connect a solar electric system to the power company’s system, the grid, and back feed power when you produce extra. Any extra power you make during the day can be used by your neighbors to offset what might otherwise have come from a power plant.

The power company gives you the same price for your electricity that you pay them for theirs. It’s really like a barter system where you trade electrons for electrons. You get credit for any extra you make when it’s light and can use that to buy what you need when it’s dark.

To connect a system you have to sign a contract with the power company. You can’t just connect a system without telling them. It wouldn’t be a good thing for you if you did because the meter you have now will record any power you sell as power you bought. You need a special meter that will also record what you sell. Your bill will show both your purchased kWhs and the kWhs you sold to the company.

This can get a little complicated and helping you to figure this out is part of what we do when we provide an estimate. There are several potential incentives. The first is provided by NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research and Development Authority). You have to pay into the SBC (System Benefit Charge) through your electric bill in order to qualify for this one. Most folks including residential and commercial customers pay this unless you live in a municipal power district such as Massena and Tupper Lake. Municipal power districts sometimes run their own programs so check with your local municipal power authority.

A 30% federal tax credit is available to help offset the cost of a system. Both residential and commercial customers can access this. You need sufficient income in order to take this so it's best to check with your tax preparer to see how much of a tax credit is available to you.

A 25% state tax credit is available to residential customers. Again check with your tax preparer to see if this can work for you.

For commercial customers accelerated depreciation is allowed for solar electric systems.

In a word, yes. The availability of financing for solar electric systems is relatively new in the industry and is one of the big steps recently made to advance accessibility to more and more people. Financing and leasing is now available to both residential and commercial customers. Details and rates vary from person to person and plan to plan. If you want to own the system financing can be used to help you with the purchase. If ownership of the system is not critical, leasing is an option. With this option the leasing company owns and maintains the system. You pay a fee, usually monthly, for the use of the system. The lease payment is often less than what you are paying for your monthly electricity meaning you have more money left over at the end of the month, and you get your electricity from the sun. What could beat that?

It depends on several factors including: the size of your electrical panel, the size of your roof, your annual electric usage and of course your budget. The design of the system is constrained by how much your electrical system can handle based on the National Electrical Code. If you have a good roof to put the panels on, the available square footage is a limit to the size.

In New York you can only put in a system that generates no more than 110% of your annual electrical usage and get incentives from the system from NYSERDA. So, for example, if you use 5,000 kWh per year you can put in about a 4.5kW system. Such a system would take up about 325 sq ft. The shape of the available space makes a difference as to what can actually fit in the space. Figuring this out is all part of the design work that goes into planning a system.

It stands for kilowatt. Systems are rated by their total wattage. 1 kW is 1,000 watts. A solar panel can vary in wattage. It takes (4) 250Watt panels to make up a 1kW system. So (16) 250W panels make up 4kW.

A kilowatt hour, is technically speaking, one kW used for one hour. It is, practically speaking, what you buy from the power company. It is also what you will sell to the power company when you have your own solar electric system.

Output of a system at any given moment depends on the amount of sun that hits the panels, the angle it hits the panels and the temperature. Shade will reduce output the most. In a system that does not experience much shade, and is oriented generally towards the south, you might expect about 1,050 kWhs out of every kW of a system in one year. If you want to estimate how big of a system you might need to make all your own electricity you can add up your total usage for a year, and divide by 1,050. So, for example, if you use 6,000 kWhs per year, you will need about 5.7 kW of solar panels to make all your electricity. If you have shade part of the day, or the orientation is significantly off of true south, you will likely need a bit more.

Interestingly the colder the panel is, the more efficient it is. And the more sunlight on the panel the more power that is made. So a cold sunny day with snow on the ground to reflect light at the panel can be great for generating power. The snow reflects the sun increasing the light that hits the panel and the panel is cold so the electrons can actually move more easily. But cold days are short days and so you still will make a whole lot more power in the long warm days of summer.

Basically two. The solar panels, or modules, and the inverter. The panels make the electricity and the inverter converts it to the AC voltage that is fit to run your home.

A system that has no batteries needs virtually no maintenance. Solar panels have no moving parts so there is very little to break. The inverter, the electronic device that converts the DC electricity from the panels to the AC for the house, also has very little to break. The warranties on the panels are 20 to 25 years depending on manufacturer. Nobody really knows how long they will last because the ones made back in the 1970s are still working. So probably a lot longer than the warranty. Inverters are generally warrantied by the manufacturer for 10 years. Not having seen one fail catastrophically yet we can not say how long they might last. We have had to do minor repairs which usually means replacing the circuit board. When this happens, which is rare, it happens early on in the life of the inverter. The problems we have come across have occurred in the first few weeks of operation and have been easily repaired in the field. We think of an inverter like a TV. It can last for years unless somebody hits it with a car or a lawnmower. Both pretty unlikely events.

We have yet to see an on grid system we have built hit or damaged by lightning. But just in case lightning comes near a system we install lightning arrestors for protection. We do this both to protect the system and because it's good for the house in general. Lighting can enter a building in many ways including phone systems and water lines. Having some kind of lightning protection is a good idea for all homes. Devices such as lightning arrestors can help protect all kinds of electronic equipment in your home such as: TVs, computers, fluorescent lights, furnace and boiler circuit boards, microwaves, water pumps, cellphone chargers, etc, etc, etc…. A well grounded system can also help to protect against lighting. If lighting is of a particular concern to you consider installing a complete lightning protection system whether or not you install a solar electric system.

You can have batteries in your system but you don’t need them for a system to operate. Batteries add complication, expense, and maintenance and unless you have critical loads that you just can’t live without, don’t bother. Most power outages are very short term and the added expense and maintenance of batteries is not warranted. If you are really interested in backup power you might want to consider a generator as an option. We can help you with that.