Solar in Central PA

What size Solar Energy System should I get?

Roof mount Solar

Roof mount solar systems are usually limited by the amount of southern facing space you have on your roof.  By southern facing I mean from about 100° to 260°.  Most people end up trying to put as much solar on their roof as possible.

Ground mount Solar

When there is enough space for ground mounts, money is usually the limiting factor.  Ground mount systems can be more efficient than roof mounts because they are optimized and positioned in the best possible way to take advantage of the solar energy.

With no space or financial limits customer goals become the deciding factor in the system size.

Zero Electric bill

If a customer wants to zero their electric bill we look at their electric usage history and design a system so that the savings on the electric bill plus the money they get for the RECs add up to their annual electric costs.

Zero energy costs

This is the same as the above method only fossil fuels used for heating, hot water, cooking, etc are added to the annual electric bill costs.

Zero electric usage.

To zero the electric usage we design a system that will produce the same number of kilowatt hours our customer uses in a year.  If their buildings uses no fossil fuels then they have a “net zero building”, one that produces 100% of it’s own energy.

Zero energy usage.

If our customer desires to zero their energy usage and they use fossil fuels then they can either switch their fossil fuels to electrical and use the method above or they can design the system to produce more electricity than they use.  However in PA you do not get paid for your NEG (Net Excess Generation).  The NEGs will get rolled over from year to year in essence creating a bank account of energy for you.  This could be a good idea if you are considering a plug-in-hybrid at some point in the future.  The other possibility is if the rules get changed and the power companies have to pay you for your NEG.

Solar panels go up, costs come down!