What Do Real Homeowners Think of Going Solar with Solaria?
For this month’s blog, we had the great privilege of interviewing Joe and Lisa, a couple from the Seattle area who recently installed Solaria PowerXT® solar panels on their home. Joe and Lisa have been documenting their solar experience on their YouTube channel and Instagram page called 47Solar. 47Solar is an excellent resource for homeowners who are thinking of making the switch to solar. Joe and Lisa’s passion for solar and green living is infectious. Check out our interview below.
Joe & Lisa’s home solar system
Home & System Stats
Size of Home (sq.ft): 1,500
Size of Solar System: 9.7kWh system
Why did you decide to switch to solar? Did climate change or tax incentives play a role in your decision?
We have been aware of climate change for many years and have also been aware of the improvement in solar technologies. So, when we purchased our house a couple of years ago, we began discussing the potential for solar panels on our roof, especially since half of our roof faces south west, which is good positioning for solar panels here in the pacific northwest. We wanted to also reduce our carbon footprint and help generate renewable energy for the grid, while serving as solar panel early adopters in our city and neighborhood. We became aware of federal tax credits and Washington state sales tax breaks during our research.
How did you learn about Solaria?
Our solar panel system installer included Solaria as one of the options available to us. Solaria was the best aesthetically looking (solid black frame and panels) system choice given to us and it was important for us to have good looking panels on our roof since they would face the street for many years. The fact that the efficiency is also superior to the other options we reviewed helped finalize our decision.
What was the process like from start to finish? i.e., from finding an installer, to choosing panels, to installation.
The entire process took about 5 months. We initially looked at a few Seattle area installers, had some initial discussions and narrowed it down to two. We then had the two companies provide full solar panel layout plans, panel options and full quotes. We selected the winner based on a few factors. Northwest Electric and Solar provided a solar panel layout plan and projected solar production numbers which made the most sense to us. We appreciated their detailed panel layout plan, conduit run and related electrical plan work, so decided to award them the project.
Are you satisfied with your switch to solar? Have you encountered any notable issues since switching?
Since the installation and activation of our system in mid-July 2020, our system has produced 6.37MWh of renewable energy to power our home, charged our EV and provided some energy back to the local grid. We have not encountered any issues with our system and have been very happy with it.
Any advice for other homeowners thinking about going solar?
Prior to having solar panels installed on your home, make sure your roof is new or newer to ensure you don’t have to worry about having to install a new roof shortly AFTER installing solar panels. We had to have our roof replaced about a year after we purchased our house, so we made sure to go with a long-life shingle to ensure we wouldn’t have to worry about it after we had our solar panels installed. Take advantage of local, state and federal tax and other similar benefits offered on solar panel systems as they can help mitigate the full system cost. If you’re on the fence about installing solar panels on your home, reach out to someone who’s already gone through the process. We’ve had many neighbors and even a couple of folks driving by our home stop to ask questions and ask about our experience and we’re always happy to talk solar!
Additional comments
There is a lot of information about solar panels available online, so do your own research and learn some of the terminology, typical system details and general related information to make sure you’re knowledgeable when speaking with and selecting an installer and appropriate system specs for your scenario. After you have solar panels on your home, be willing to talk to your family, friends, neighbors and even strangers to share your newfound renewable energy knowledge!
A big THANK YOU to Joe & Lisa for participating in this interview and committing to educating folks on this topic.
To learn more about owning a solar system and green living from Joe and Lisa, follow 47Solar on Instagram and YouTube.
Do you have a solar question or topic you’d like us to write about?
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