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Residential solar power systems are the most popular application of solar panels. They steadily rise in popularity in the USA, especially in California. Prices for solar decrease, while electricity is slowly getting more and more expensive. What is more, the state encourages people to switch to renewable energy with solar incentives, like Federal Solar Tax Credit.
The average size of residential solar and wind power systems in the United States is 5-6 kW of power. That’s enough to greatly offset the energy consumption of a medium-sized home. Most of the systems are grid-tie which means that the houses are connected to the grid, but everything in it is powered with solar energy. All the excess electricity that the array generates can be sold into the grid — it’s called net metering. Your utility exchanges your energy for credits that can be used to pay your bills. While solar panels don’t work at night, the electricity rates are lower at night anyway.
Net metering is the main way in which residential solar power systems pay for themselves. The average payback time of a solar system in the USA is around 7 years. The length of ROI highly depends on your location. In California, for example, there is a lot of sunlight and lots of solar incentives, which allows solar panels to pay for themselves in 5 years. In the northern states there isn't much sun and some of these states don’t even have an established net metering policy, so payback takes longer. However, since the lifespan of a PV module exceeds 25 years, solar power residential systems still sometimes pay 2-3 times for themselves.
A PV system for home generally consists of solar panels (12-35 modules), an inverter to turn DC from panels into AC for appliances and addons, like wires and optimizers. You can also go for a hybrid inverter and add batteries to your system to ensure uninterrupted power supply. For remote locations where there are no power lines, off-grid system design is recommended, where you rely on panels during the day and on batteries at night.
Solar power residential systems cost highly depends on the panels that you choose. They vary in output, efficiency, temperature behavior and quality. Generally 60 and 120-cell panels are used to build home systems. Asian panels are known to be the cheapest and highly efficient. NA brands offer sturdy high-quality panels for medium price. The most expensive panels come from companies like LG, REC, Panasonic, Solaria. However, these brands offer the best warranties, the highest quality, and their products are packed with latest innovations. Oftentimes, even though they are slightly more expensive than average, these panels make the best residential solar power systems.
If you want to make your own home system, please use our solar calculator. To start, it asks for your location to figure out the number of sun hours in your area, your solar panel of choice and the inverter that you prefer. After that it provides you with a cost estimate, the area that the system needs, and potential savings that your system should bring in. It’s a great tool for planning solar power systems for residential use, easy to use and the whole process only takes a few minutes.
To make the task of planning and purchasing a solar system, we offer kits where the components already match well together. A grid-tie kit normally includes panels, inverter and some wires. Please take a look at residential solar power systems for sale that we offer and don’t hesitate to contact us for any questions. Our staff will be glad to help with your order. Here is how we operate:
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