Thinking About Solar Energy for Your Roof?

Although residential solar energy has a lot of home owners excited about generating clean, renewable energy that lowers monthly electric bills, the fact is that solar doesn’t make sense for every location. Knowing about potential deal breakers and other location-dependent pitfalls makes you a smarter consumer. Here’s what you need to consider before taking that next step and engaging a solar installer:

1. In the Northern hemisphere, the ability of solar panels to produce electricity is greatly enhanced if the solar array is oriented to the Southern sky. If you’re not sure whether you have a Southern exposure on your roof or on your property (for pole mounts), head over to Google Maps and punch in your street address. From the satellite view, you should be able to (roughly) ascertain whether you have a roof that faces South. If you don’t have a (primarily) Southern exposure, the investment in solar energy probably doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, because the array won’t be able to fully capture the sun’s rays. One caveat: in some cases, a Southwestern exposure can be a passable replacement for Southern exposure.

2. Shade is a solar energy killer. Even if you have a roof that faces South, you can run into production degradation due to shading from trees, other buildings, dormers, chimneys and other obstructions. On the next sunny day you have while you’re at home, take a look at the location where you think solar panels might be installed. You’ll want to watch from 8am to 5pm and you’ll want to note whether your target location gets shade. Note the times when the location is shaded; this is critical information that any solar installer will ask for.

3. How old is your roof? What kind of condition is your roof in? Most residential solar arrays end up on the home’s roof. Not only does an roof array look good, it also tends to eliminate a lot of shading. However, you don’t necessarily want to install solar panels (rated at 25-30 years of life) on a 12 year old roof. Ideally, the roof should be in good condition and less than 5 years old. If it doesn’t fit those criteria, the sensible thing would be to replace the roof at the same time you install the solar energy system.

Hopefully, you have a location and a home that looks like a good fit for solar. If not, there are options. For instance, you could hire a tree company to prune or remove trees that create shade. Or you could use a pole mount in your yard if your roof doesn’t orient to the sun’s path in the Southern sky. There are usually workarounds to these hurdles, and they are usually pretty easy to implement.