Bucks County residents have been increasingly embracing solar to meet their daily energy needs. Although their reasons vary from environmental consciousness to financial prudence, there is a consistently growing interest in home solar systems across the county.
For all those solar customers, here’s an easy-to-follow list of lesser-known tricks and tips to get the most out of your solar installation.
- Leave Sufficient Space Between Solar Panels
Solar companies generally leave sufficient gaps between solar panels when installing them on the roof. However, when confronted with limited roof space or under customer pressure, they may be forced to over utilize the available area. Don’t let that happen.
Leaving plenty of space between the panels allows you to maintain them easily. Cleaning dust and debris, clearing snow, and doing other tasks would be a breeze. In fact, the heat retained by the PV cells is often sufficient to melt the snow. Leaving space between the panels allows snow to melt and flow down.
- Choose Microinverters Over String Inverters
Microinverters are one of the best innovations for solar systems. They come with up to 25-year warranties, as against 10-year warranties offered on strong inverters. They also allow you to extract more power from your solar panels, monitor your system at the panel level, perform better in a host of conditions, and offer rapid shutdown capability.
- Install a Robust Mounting System
Solar customers often underestimate the importance of the support required for installing solar panels. PV cells can be quite heavy. When you are installing several of them, the weight can become overwhelming for a weakly-built roof.
Generally, the solar company inspects your roof for its strength and ability to support the solar system. If required, a mounting system may have to be installed to distribute the weight to load-bearing structures.
- Make Your Home Energy Efficient Before Installation
Think about it. The less energy you consume, the lower the number of solar panels you need, lowering the capital investment you make. Making your home energy-efficient doesn’t require much effort. Replace inefficient devices and appliances with efficient versions. Fluorescent bulbs are out. LED bulbs are in. Insulate your house, fill the holes and crevices in your attic, and plug leakages in your indoor air conditioning.
- Run High-consumption Devices During the Day
Solar energy is available in abundance during the day. At night,relying on grid power to meet your nighttime energy needs can be expensive because of the higher rates during peak hours.
So, try to perform energy-intensive tasks like laundry, water heating, and so on during the daytime. Eitherway, thanks to Pennsylvania’s net metering program, you can still save money despite the hours of energy use.
