This article was updated on June 08, 2023
Solar energy has become a fixture in the life of many people. While industrialized nations are slowly embracing the alternative as a new means to get energy, other countries have embraced photovoltaic solar panels as the means to move forward as a society.
Many African countries have experienced the joys of electrical power for the first time in many years thanks to this type of technology. In the USA solar panels still, have a long way to go before being on par with established electrical grids in big cities.
The story tends to be a tad different in the countryside and in certain suburbs where solar panels are a way of life.
Solar Panels – The Tech That Makes Life Easier (But it Costs You)
The number of reasons behind the adoption of solar panels are multiple and very different at every location where it’s present.
Most users go with solar energy for two reasons: because they are very conscious about the environment, and because they need to save money due to the increasing costs of electrical powers.
If you ponder the expenses of electrical power across a few years against the one-time investment done in solar panels is easy to figure out why more and more people are drawn to solar energy as a way to solve their energy problems. The technology itself it’s still expensive, but in a weird paradox, it has never been cheaper to install solar panels than it is right now.
The most critical fact backing up the adoption of solar panel energy it’s how sustainable it is over time. The current market output with this green energy is to drive down the costs as more people adopt the tech. The business model has lured more people over the past ten years, with at least a 70% increase of households adopting the technology, numbers that outdo the early adopters that went off grid between 1960 and 2008.
If you are still wondering why you should get solar panels, we can offer some guidance. Sit back and read up:
You Will Save Money – A Ton of It
Let do some math real quick to illustrate this point: your average set of photovoltaic solar panels will run you down between $10,000 and $30,000 depending on your location and the size of your home.
Those figures scare off everyone in an instant, but let’s take a second look at it: the average electricity bill will set you back from $50 to $200 a month. In a single year, you will spend from $600 to $2,400. If you are following us so far, you probably already noticed that your solar panels will be paid off after five years on average, depending on the size of your monthly bill. After you are done covering the costs of the panels, your house will be equipped with lifetime electrical power supply, and you will end up saving at least $60,000 if you live in your house for 30 years.
You Can Get Some Tax Benefits
The USA government has a longstanding program that offers a 30% solar tax federal credit on residential and commercial real estate properties. Many states provide other types of tax credits as well if you use the technology for the improvement of your town or city. Remember that these benefits expire by the end of the year if you don’t declare them properly. Getting a 30% credit from your taxes may not feel like much of a difference on your budget, but they do have a considerable impact on the tax returns of the next fiscal year, especially for established companies.
It’s a Way to improve your Property
Green energy trends aside, a household equipped with solar panels is often seen as an asset when it’s placed in the market. Real estate agencies can charge a premium of $10,000 over the regular price of a house if it comes equipped with photovoltaic panels.
The current average solar system processes around 3,600 watts. This means that you can anticipate an extra $5 in the resale value for every additional watt generated by the system installed in your home. If you consider the fact that the cost of every watt right now is about $3, and is expected to drop in the future, that can only mean that solar energy will keep bringing people while being a smart investment for your house.
You Will Contribute to Keep Our Planet Alive a Little Longer
Let’s put some perspective on the benefits of using solar energy: a single set of photovoltaic panels in an average sized house can offset at least 180 tons of carbon dioxide over 30 years. This is almost the same a planting ten soccer stadiums full of trees. Yeah, that’s not an exaggeration, it becomes an inviting figure when you consider the fact that the current rate of consumption of energy is draining the world dry of fossil energies as well as coal while endangering the environment to levels that could prove to be fatal to life on earth given the well-documented effects of global warming.
You Won’t Have to Worry About Power Outages Anymore
The measured power output of the sun provides almost four million tons of energy every single second. The technology we have developed to use that powers can only access .0001% of that figure, and that’s a damn shame, but also a challenge to create more effective technology. With the current equipment, you can switch the power on your house permanently and forget about power outages for life.
You can Store Your Own Power if you Need It
The evolution of solar panel technology now allows homeowners to go completely off the grid even at night times. Some systems can store energy on their own, while some others can place the excess of power on batteries to be used at your discretion or even to sell it to the local grid if you need some extra income.
Solar Panels Require Little to No Maintenance
Most Solar panels system require little to no maintenance, a yearly checkup by the installers should do the trick, but you still need to wash the surface of the panels on occasion and make sure that they don’t get overshadowed by any obstacles such as tree branches.
If your installation is placed at floor level, you need to make sure that there is no debris blocking the sensors and that they are kept clean at all times. If you tilt them 15 degrees of inclination, they can be easily cleaned by the rain. It’s unlikely that you need to replace them unless a blunt object hits them or a natural disaster hits your home, take good care of them, and they will last forever.