What is the best place to buy solar panels?

Solar panels are still a bit expensive, but I'm tired of my electric bills, especially with game systems adding to them. And hoping to swallow the pill and buy a solar panel soon.

I don't know where to start though, and where and what I should buy. I can Google, but a lot of these sites may not have the best advice or even have an agenda. Someone here might have found a great method or deal to get started on solar. And then finally I will be a green gamer!

I think before you start to consider pricing on solar panels, you need to look into whether or not you're a good candidate for them. You're going to front ~$10k-20k+ for solar.

The facing of your house, how much sun you get, how long you're going to live there, the location you live in, etc are all huge factors into whether or not it's even worth the upfront cost. Then, you still have to consider HOA if you have one, and village ordinances.

Answer probably varies greatly depending on what state you're in (assuming you're in the US). I've only done a bit of research since I'm waiting until my next house to take the plunge, but it seems like a lot of companies a pushing leasing panel so you have zero up front cost, though you'll never really own the panel. Getting into a solar lease might also make it more complicated to sell your house, so there's that. Personally I'd buy outright and pay for the installation if I thought I'd be in my house a long time.

If you intend to pay up front for the system, you should also look into how much your electric provider is going to pay you to feed the excess power you generate back into the grid. If that price is very low, it's going to take you a long time to make your money back.

They are a big investment. You need to see if you are a good candidate for it first.

• Do you get enough sun and do you have enough appropriate surfaces to support them?
• Does your local grid support easy integration? Will you need a new meter box?
• What do your local laws say and what is and is not prohibited?

To answer those, you will probably need a local expert to have a look at your property at the least. Then then you can figure out what will work for you or if its cost effective. They are a huge long term investment. Will you still be this house in 10 - 20 years?

I definitely don't even have that for a down payment on a car right now. Maybe I'm not quite ready for this.

On the positive side, there definitely aren't any ordinances where I live that would prevent me putting any up. The roof also gets pretty decent sun. Though there are quite a few tree.

I could probably take some pictures of my home, but I seriously doubt posting pictures of my house publicly for the whole internet would be the secure, best idea ever.

Since the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, it's optimal to place panels facing south (if you live somewhere on the northern hemisphere and vice versa). There is also an optimal angle depending on latitude. Out of 8766 hours a year the amount of sun-hours ranges anywhere from 2500-1000 sun hours, that's something that you can google fairly easily.

Today installation costs can exceed the price of (cheap) PV-panels, so it might be better to spring for mono-crystalline panels with a long life.

My electronics teacher at shool always told me. Don't do Solar-panels for the money cause in the end you aren't saving all that much. Do it because you wanna make a statement. This was in 2009 and photosensitive panels weren't really a thing for consumers back then. Like mentioned in this thread the way your house is facing is pretty important. Also depending on your government you might get some money certificate for producing green energy which is handy cause your generating the most electricity when you don't need it during the summer.

Used to work for a solar/alternative energy distributor and the answer you want is you don't really. The advice I would give is to look at a web tool like solar estimator to find programs you can exploit to reduce costs via rebates or grants. Also look into solar hot water heating before PV as it tends to have a much faster break even point (dependIng on available programs). Finally, if you don't mind some diy there are a ton of projects you can take on to save some energy. My fave is passive solar hot water heaters, a simple pre heater tank that sits in the sun bringing your hot water up in temp before hitting your water heater.