Solar Panels are obviously the key component in a solar power system. This website is dedicated to providing you the consumer with all the information you need to make the best decision for your circumstances when it comes to Solar Panels for your home or business. What's more the content on this site is completely unbiased because the site does not sell any solar equipment.

When it comes to the question of how many Solar Panels you need the answer depends on what are your goals and also what is the net metering policy of your utility in your state. If you look at your utility bill you should be able to calculate the total number of kilowatt hours (kwh's) of power that you use in the period of the bill and if you get all of your bills for the year you should be able to calculate the total number of kwh's you use over a year.

Invariably when a consumer is considering going solar they will have two or more companies pitching for their business with different Solar Panels. Often the solar contractor with a higher efficiency panel will cite this as a good reason why you should purchase their system. It sounds reasonable that a Solar Panel with a higher efficiency should be more expensive than a system using less efficient Solar Panels but is it really worth paying more for panels with higher efficiency?

The length of time that a Solar Panel lasts is something that is of obvious concern to you if you are thinking about buying Solar Panels for your home. In answering this question it is necessary to discuss the different types of Solar Panels as they are each likely to have a different working life.The first type of panel is the amorphous, thin film silicon Solar Panels. These have the distinction of being both the least efficient and the least expensive panel you can buy.

When asking the question how much do Solar Panels cost the first thing that you have to clarify is whether you wish to buy a single solar panels or whether you want to know the costs involved in getting a full solar power system installed at your home. For most people what they really want to know is the total cost of installing solar panels on their home. This is usually a very different figure to just the cost of the solar panels because it also includes the cost of an appropriate solar inverter, a framing system to attach the solar panels to your roof, installation by a qualified professional (this is often a necessary pre-requisite to claim solar incentives or solar tax credits) and all the permitting and paperwork required by both your utility and your city or county government.

The term solar generator can be a bit misleading. Some use it to describe a standard grid connected residential solar power system. To the extent the phrase is being used in this sense then this page describes then these links will help you find out about the different components of a residential solar power systems:

When you buy a solar panel you are effectively getting two things. a physical product that produces solar electricity and a promise from the manufacturer that this product will continue to produce that amount of power for its warranted life (usually 25 years). The question you have to ask yourself is:

It was once the case that if you were searching for the lowest costs per rated power, or in other words, pay as little as possible for a certain amount of electricity, you should investigate if thin-film solar panels could in fact be a better choice than Monocrystalline or Polycrystalline solar panels.

Lead generation in the solar industry is a major issue for solar installers looking to grow their business and help more consumers take advantage of the benefits of solar.A report published by GTM research late in 2014 put the cost of customer acquisition in the US solar market at $0.49 per watt. If the average size of a residential solar installation in America is 5 kW then the average cost of attracting a new customer in the residential solar market in America is around $2,500.00.

This question goes to the core of why some solar installers are growing strongly and others are falling by the wayside. The difference is that the larger and more successful companies know how to properly value a new solar customer and so they value not only the gross margin they will get from the first job they win from a lead source, they also value the downstream referral jobs they will get from the word of mouth recommendations of that customer. This has only been possible because these companies have invested in high quality CRM and sales tracking software and have paid vigorous attention to ensuring their staff use these systems properly.

SolarReviews recently spoke to several solar lead generation companies at the 2015 SPI conference in Las Vegas and they all told me that their leads were organic and that they did not use telemarketing. However, when I pressed further none of them could show me the exact website or exact content that was generating their so called "organic solar leads". When pressed further it appeared most of them did use outbound methods to attract the type of lead volume that the large solar companies demand.

The first thing to do is to try and contact the consumer quickly. Large solar companies try and have their call centres call new solar leads within 2 minutes of receiving the leads. The idea is that if they are searching for solar right then and there they are in a receptive mood to talk about it. Who knows if they will be in an hour, a day, or a week. If you are a smaller solar installer that does not have the dedicated resources to do this then you may be better to buy exclusive leads. Exclusive leads are leads that are only sold to one installer. The obvious advantage of these leads is that it is not such a race to contact them but it is still good practice to make contact as soon as you can. However, as noted on the Exclusive Solar Leads Page often customers entering their details into a lead generation form that is going to only one installer will also enter their details into other lead generation forms and so sometimes you can still end up competing with quite a few installers. Where this is the case quick contact is still important.

The cost of solar leads varies greatly around the country. In short the cost of a solar lead varies with the level of competition in the market.States with highest energy prices and strongest incentives are typically the busiest solar markets in America and typically have the most competitive markets with solar companies fighting it out for market share.

Solar energy is energy which is created from either the irradiation or heat energy within the sunlight radiated from the sun. Solar power is captured when energy from the sun is converted into electricity or used to heat air, water, or other fluids.

The photovoltaic effect started to attract scientific attention when Albert Einstein wrote his 1905 paper on the photoelectric effect: "On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light". Bell Laboratories, while working on silicon semiconductors in the 1950's, discovered silicon had photoelectric properties and quickly developed Si solar cells, achieving 6% efficiency. Early satellites were the primary use for these first solar cells.

Solar thermal applications use the heat in sunlight to heat water or other fluids. A solar hot water service is the classic example of this. In simple terms, the heat energy in the sun passes into the water, the water heats up and hot water is nice to shower under. The second major use of solar energy that has increased in usage only recently in US homes is solar electricity. Solar electricity is created by the photovoltaic affect.

Once you have decided that the return from installing solar panels on your home is attractive to you, (and you have found some local installers that have a good reputation by reading their reviews) the decision you have to make is what are the best solar panels to install. This requires us to consider two separate questions;

For most American home owners the most significant attraction to solar power is the fact that once the capital cost of installing it is paid off the energy is free. This means the only real question that consumers must ask themselves is whether the payback period on the capital investment is better than the returns they would get form investing their money in other ways. You may be surprised that we now list this as the leading advantage of solar energy. The reason we do this is that most home owners are now more interested in the financial aspects of installing solar rather than the environmental benefits.

There are 3 types of technology utilised in the solar panels available on the market today, these are monocrystaline, polycrystalline, and thin film amorphous. As the names suggest Monocrystaline and Polycrystaline are both types of solar cells that are made from crystalline silicon. Almost all quotes you will get when considering buying solar panels for your home will use crystalline solar panels.

Both string inverters and micro inverters convert the Direct Current (DC) solar panels generate into an Alternating Current (AC), the type of electricity that is used in your home. A standard inverter (also known as a string-inverter or central inverter) is a standalone box that is typically installed close to your fuse box and electricity meter. There is typically only one, or possibly two, string inverters on each residential solar installation.

Very few American's actually purchase their solar systems with a big wad of cash. As is the case in the auto industry in America most residential solar consumers who have purchased solar for their home have either entered into a solar agreement where payments are spread over the life of the system or, if they have got a cash price from an installer, they have used some other finance to pay this upfront price.