This is Part 1 of our series to help Home Owners go Solar. Click here to read Part 2, Part 3 or Part 4.

• single family home owner with
• an average monthly electric bill in excess of $100 a month,
• have a large roof with very good sun exposure and
• your local utility charges you 12 cents or more for each unit of electricity

1. Is your home suitable for Solar Panels?

Most Solar Panel deals are for Home Owners and not Renters. And,  Solar Panels generally work best for Single Family Home Owners.

However, if you own a Condominium or Town House, and your Association and Town allow Solar Panel installation, you could enjoy the benefits as well.

Let's now look at your home to assess if the roof is a good candidate for solar panels.

1a. Does my Roof have enough Solar Exposure?

Google SunRoof is your best friend for this evaluation.

Open a new tab on your browser and open https://sunroof.withgoogle.com/ and type in your home address on the search box . 

And that is it - Google will show your your home and the best roofs for solar panels in a jiffy.

Bright Yellow roofs facing the South are the best roofs for Solar Panels. Orange Roofs that are facing East or West are very good locations as well. North Facing darker roofs are not good and have less Solar exposure.

If you have clear solar access like the home show above, you are a good candidate for solar panels.  

A Solar professional will make the final assessment, but a visual inspection on google maps with satellite view will give you a fairly good idea if your roof is good for solar panels.

Here are  examples of homes that are excellent candidates for Solar Panels.

And, here are 3 examples of homes which will likely be poor candidates for Solar Panels.

Once again, leave the final assessment to a solar professional. But yours Google Sun Roof report will probably give you the same answer as the Solar Professional.

1b. How much Roof area do I need for Solar Panels?

This depends on your electricity usage.  The higher your usage, the more panels you need and the more roof area you will require.

A very quick and dirty estimate is about 400 square foot of roof area with direct full exposure sun light for each 5000 kwh of usage.  

So if your annual usage is about 12,000 kwh, you probably will need about 900 square feet of roof.  

1b. Is my Roof a good candidate for Solar Panels?

Solar panels can be installed on most standard roof types in the US and Canada. 

Most Pitched Roofs and are built with Asphalt or composite Shingles and those are great for Solar.

Other Roof types including  Tiles, Standing Seam Metal, Flat Roof etc need different kinds of mounting hardware for Solar. The good news is you can install solar on these roof types as well.

Your Solar Professional will be able to guide you.  Make sure they have expertise in your particular kind of roof.

MySolarHome.us can do a custom Home Evaluation for you : just email me at    mike @ mysolarhome.us  .

1c. Will I have to replace my roof before installing Solar Panels?

The best Solar Panel are warrantied for 25 years and have a useful life of 35 to 40 years.

Once you install solar panels, you wouldn't like to replace your roof as that would involve the additional cost of removing the solar panels before replacing the roof.

A good rule of thumb for shingled roofs is to install a new roof prior to solar if your roof is over 20 years old.  Most modern Shingled Roofs have a 30 year or longer Roof warranty.

Shingled Roofs less than 20 years which are in good shape will likely last 15 years or more. And with the added protection from the Solar Panels, they might last and additional 5 to 7 years.

Many Solar companies have Roofing sub contractors to help you make a correct assessment about your roof and even get you a new roof.

2. Will Solar save me money?

Solar Savings arise from Electricity savings, Tax Credits and State Incentives such as SREC's and Rebates. Here we will show you how to calculate your savings on Electricity.   

We have a detailed post on the these different Solar savings in this series.  To dive into the calculation of Electricity Savings,  the first question is :

2a. What do you pay for Electricity?

Depending on where you live, your energy needs are likely served by a combination of Electricity, Natural Gas and Oil.  

Look at your Energy bills carefully and calculate how much you pay for ONLY electricity on average every month (Add 12 month of electric charges and divide the total by 12).  

Ignore Gas and Oil related charges if any. 

Home Solar Panels makes financial sense if your average monthly electric bill is $100 or more.  Remember, Home Solar will only affect your Electric Bill, not your Gas and not your Oil Bill.

So, Why  the $100 threshold.  That's because, going Solar is like buying a new Car.  It is a big investment. And the savings are significant only when you have an electric bill in excess of $100 average per month.

As you have probably guessed, Free Solar is a myth. 

However, Solar is an awesome financial investment if you are spending $1200 ($100 per month) or more on electric every year.  

3. Will Solar save me money?

Assuming you have qualified for Solar:  your electric bill is more than $100 per month and your Roof is suitable for Solar. It's time to look at How much money you can save by going Solar?  And the different ways of going Solar.

The second article in this series takes you through the different ways in which Solar Saves you money.  

The third article talks about the three ways of going solar :

1. Purchase your Home Solar System by paying the cost upfront. 
2. Purchase the Solar Panels using Financing.
3. Rent the Solar System: Also known as the Solar Lease or Solar PPA. 

Overall the idea is to pay less than you currently pay for electricity by by generating your own clean energy from Solar Panels. 

And the fourth in the series is all about different kinds of Solar Panels, Inverters and Balance of System.