Solar Basics FAQ

A study by Zillow shows that homes with solar panel systems sell for 4.1% more than other homes. A study by Berkeley shows an average increase of $15,000 to the value of the home when solar system is installed.

See our page on Selling A Home With Solar Panels for more detailed information.

Solar panels receive sunlight and then convert it into DC current. The solar inverters then convert the DC current into AC current for your home to use. Your electrical box distributes power from the solar system to your appliances. If you have a solar battery, excess electricity not used by your home will be stored on it. Any excess electricity not used in your home or stored in a battery will be exported to the utility grid.

See our page on How Do House Solar Panels Work for more detailed information.

To get your average usage, add up your last 12 months usage and divide by 12.

Solar energy is a renewable resource that can be used to generate electricity or heat. Solar panels, also called photovoltaics, convert sunlight into electricity.

See our page on How Do House Solar Panels Work for more detailed information.

Modern solar panels have efficiency ratings of 15% to 22%. This means they can convert 15% to 22% of sunlight into usable energy. The factors involved in efficiency are:

• The quality and efficiency rating of the solar panels used;
• Orientation towards the sun, typically determined by which roof plane they are installed on; and
• Weather conditions in the area and climate.

Solar panels are a great investment for your home or business. They will last up to 50 years proper maintenance! We offer long-term warranties on all our solar panel systems.

Schedule your free consultation now or call us at (602) 753-0560!

Solar systems produce about 1,750 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year per kilowatt (kW) rating of the system. The typical system is around 7 kW, so that system will produce about 12,250 kWhs per year. Production also depends on what components are used in the system and the orientation of the roof to the sun.

Schedule your free consultation now or call us at (602) 753-0560!

Formula for Calculating Watts Into Kilowatt-Hours: kWh = (Watts × Hours) ÷ 1,000

Cleaning solar panels is a four step process:

1. Use a soft brush to remove dust and other objects;
2. Use a hose to wash the solar panels with water;
3. For the areas the hose did not clean, scrub with a soft brush and water.
4. Monitor your home’s solar output with your monitoring app to see if your cleaning increased production.

Cleaning your own solar panels is tedious and can be dangerous on your roof. Instead, leave it up to the professionals at Phoenix Solar Panel Systems. Schedule your free consultation now or call us at (602) 753-0560!

Multiply the kW system size by 1,000 and then divide by the wattage of panels being used. So for a 9.25 kW system using 370 watt panels, the formula would be:

kW Solar System Size to Amount of Solar Panels: 9.25 kW × 1,000 ÷ 370 = 25 Panels

1 kWh equals one hour of electricity usage at a rate of 1 kW, and thus the 2 kW appliance would consume 2 kWh in one hour, or 1 kWh in half an hour. The equation is simply kW × time = kWh.

Production estimates for solar panel systems are typically done with the following calculations. For a 10 kW system, multiple the system size (10) by the derate factor of 0.8, then multiply by 5 hours of ideal sunlight per day, then multiply by 365 days per year. This is:

Yearly kWh Production: 10 kW × 0.8 Derate × 5 Hours × 365 Days = 14,600 kWh Production Per Year.

kW to Watts: Watts ÷ 1,000 = kW

To find out the size of a solar system from the amount of kWh needed or produced, do the reverse calculation of kW to kWh above:

Solar System Size: 14,600 kWh ÷ 365 Days ÷ 5 Hours ÷ 0.8 Derate = 10 kW

Formula for Calculating kWH to Watts: Watts = (kWh ÷ Hours) × 1,000

Watts to kW: kW × 1000 = Watts

A project to install a complete solar system on a home is a large endeavor that, when professionally managed, involves many experts from different fields. The salesperson will know what type of system is appropriate for your home based on years of experience. The draftsman knows how to create a professional design for the solar system. The engineers understand city construction codes and the other legal implications of installation.

There are people employed at solar companies whose entire job is to submit permit application packages to the various cities in the Phoenix area, and they have been doing it for years, as this is not a simple process to learn. Other administrative workers submit applications to the local utility companies.

After permit approval, a host of professional engineers, contractors, and administrative workers are involved in ensuring the solar system is installed safely and professionally on the home, and then guaranteeing the system is interconnected to the utility and working properly. A solar system installed improperly poses a serious safety and fire hazard, not only to the home it is attached to, but to all the neighbors in the area. This is why Arizona law mandates that the city and utility approve every solar panel installation before it is turned on.

In summary, the process to install a solar panel system is very complex and there is no manual or internet website that will take a homeowner through all the steps in detail. A homeowner may be able to figure everything out and install it over a period of many years, but at that point the homeowner will have spent far more money and time than they would have if they hired a professional company to install their solar system. Just like any large home improvement project, it is best to leave it to the professionals that have many years of experience.

Schedule your free consultation now or call us at (602) 753-0560!

Solar energy is a renewable source of energy that can be used to power homes and businesses. Solar panels collect and convert sunlight into electricity, making it a clean and sustainable way to generate energy.

On-peak utility hours are the times of day when electricity demand is at its highest. In most cases, this means during the daytime when people are using lots of appliances and air conditioners. As a result, utilities charge more for electricity during on-peak hours in order to cover the increased demand. If you’re trying to save money on your electric bill, one of the best things you can do is avoid using electricity during on-peak hours. This may mean turning off your air conditioner during the day or doing laundry at night.

If you are in the Phoenix, Arizona area, see our pages on APS On Peak Hours and SRP On Peak Hours.

Electric utilities typically charge different amounts depending on what season of the year it is. The utilities define the seasons by a period of months. See below for how the utilities in the Phoenix, AZ area define the seasons for billing purposes:

APS defines Winter as November through April and Summer as May through October. 

SRP defines Winter as November through April, Summer as May, June, September, October, and Summer Peak as July and August.

Solar panels are made of many different materials, including silicon, cadmium telluride, and copper indium selenide.

If you plan on being in the home for another year or more, you will still see a lot of savings from going solar. Our customers typically save $500 to $2,000 on their energy costs in the first year after going solar. How much money you save in the first year depends on many different factors including the size of your home, your family’s energy use habits, and the utility solar price plan you choose. Those with high utility bills will save more money by going solar than those with low utility bills, but the percentage of savings is typically the same across the board.

If you plan on moving out of your home, but keeping the home as a rental property, going solar will increase the value of your home and the low utility costs will be an attractive incentive for renters. If you plan on selling the home within six months, purchasing a solar system is probably not right for you, as you will not see much benefit in the short time you will remain in the home.

See our page on selling your home with solar panels for more information.

Schedule your free consultation now or call us at (602) 753-0560!

This is a charge that electric utilities include in some of their rate plans. Typically, the utility measures the average demand of a home over a one hour or 30 minute period, and then charges the customer a multiplier of that demand.

For example, if a customer averages 8 kW of demand over the period measured, and the demand charge is $15 per kW, the customer will receive a $120 demand charge on their bill that month.

See APS Solar Rate Plans and SRP Solar Plans for information about demand charges in Arizona.

A grid fee, also known as a monthly service charge, is the amount of money a utility company charges per month to be connected to their grid when you have a grid tied solar system.

For APS grid fees, see APS Rate Plans (After Solar).

For SRP grid fees, see SRP Rate Plans (After Solar).

The buy back rate is the rate at which the utility company credits customers per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for sending electricity from their home solar panel system to the utility grid. The utility installs a second meter at every home that goes solar in order to measure the amount of electricity sent to to the utility grid. Customers receive a credit on their utility bill each month for the amount of kilowatt-hours they sent to the grid that month.

See APS Solar Buy Back Rate.

A watt is a unit of electricity that measures energy transfer. It was named after the engineer James Watt.

AC current is an electric current that alternates in direction. It is caused by the back and forth movement of electrons in a conductor.

DC current is the flow of electrons in one direction through a conductor. It is the most common form of current used in electronics.

A demand manager, also known as a load controller, is a device that is often installed with a home solar panel system. This device limits the total “demand” a house can use. Demand is the amount of electricity in kilowatts (kW) that the house is using at any given time. This is not to be confused with kilowatt-hours (kWh), which is the measure of how much electricity is used over time.

The more appliances that are run together, the larger the demand is. In the Phoenix, AZ area, the appliance that uses the most demand is the air conditioner. An air conditioner can use between 1 kW and 5 kW in demand, depending how big and efficient it is. Other appliances in the home use demand as well, but typically less than the air conditioner.

The demand manager has a demand limit setting, and the circuits of the large appliances in the home are hooked up to the device. Say, for example, the air conditioner uses just under 4 kW and the demand limit setting is at 4 kW. If someone in the home turns on the electric dryer, the demand manager will cycle the air conditioner off. This is how the demand manager stops the home from going over a certain demand. The device does not stop people from using the large appliances, it just turns off other large appliances to keep the demand low.

Electrical Demand is the amount of electricity in kilowatts (kW) that the house is using simultaneously at any given time. The more appliances that are run together, the larger the demand is.

For example, the average air conditioner uses 4 kW of demand and the average clothes dryer uses 3.5 kW of demand. When the air conditioner and clothes dryer are run simultaneously in a home, the demand of the home will be 7.5 kW.

See Arizona Appliance Wattage Chart.

A kilowatt of electricity is the common measurement for electrical energy. All of the appliances and electronics in your home consume energy measured in kilowatts. A kilowatt is 1,000 watts. Kilowatts are used for measuring electricity because the amount of electricity that appliances consume. For example, an air conditioning unit uses about 4 kW. Stating 4 kW is easier when compared to stating 4,000 watts.

A kilowatt-hour (kWh) is a unit of energy: one kilowatt of power for one hour. Kilowatt-hours are a common billing unit for electrical energy delivered to consumers by electric utilities. The kilowatt-hour is a composite unit of energy equal to one kilowatt (kW) sustained for (multiplied by) one hour.

Net metering is a system where excess electricity produced by a solar panel system is sent to the utility grid. The utility company credits the customer for every kWh sent to the grid. The customer only has to pay for the difference between the amount of electricity bought from the grid and the amount of electricity sent to the grid. If the customer sent more electricity to the grid than what was bought, the utility pays the customer per kWh based on the utility’s buyback rate.

See APS Rate Plans After Solar and SRP Rate Plans After Solar.

Off-Peak utility hours are times of day when electricity demand is lower. This is typically on the weekends and in the mornings during the weekdays. As a result, utilities charge less during Off-Peak hours. If you’re trying to save money on your electric bill, one of the best things you can do is use your large appliances, like your air conditioner and clothes dryer, only during Off-Peak hours.

If you are in the Phoenix, Arizona area, see our pages on APS Off Peak Hours and SRP Off Peak Hours.

Solar energy is the energy that is in sunlight. It is a renewable energy source that can be used to heat, cool, and power homes and businesses.

See our page on How Do House Solar Panels Work for more detailed information.

Offset is the percentage of your home’s total electricity usage from the last year that will be produced by your solar system over a year’s time. See below for the recommended offsets in the Phoenix, AZ area:

In APS territory, you typically want 100% to 110% offset.

In SRP territory you typically want 50% to 75% offset.