In this article, we will discuss whether residential solar panels are worth the investment.
If you are planning on building a custom home in Ontario, solar panels are definitely worth considering. As the builders of your dream home, the experts at L. Patten & Sons can help you with this and other important decisions - contact us today to get started.
Now let’s assess whether it’s worth adding residential solar panels to your existing home or a new build.
Read on to learn more about whether residential solar panels are worth the investment.
Are Residential Solar Panels Worth The Investment?
In early 2020, we continue to see growth in both energy costs and concerns over global climate change. Residential solar panels help reverse those trends, reducing both the cost of powering your home and your personal carbon footprint.
Here are three reasons why residential solar panels are worth the investment.
1) Residential solar panels save you money
The biggest benefit of residential solar panels is the savings on your energy bill.
“The pros about using solar energy for your home are long term,” according to Mike Holmes, a famous Canadian builder/contractor, businessman, investor, television host, and philanthropist. You are going to consistently save money on the monthly output of electricity for years. The cost of energy keeps going up — so if you can minimize that cost, it’s a smart investment.”
It’s important to note Ontario uses a net metering system. As a result, once you’re connected to the distribution system, your local energy company will continue to read your meter and subtract the value of electricity you supply to the grid from the value of what you take from the grid.
What you’ll see on your bill, therefore, is the “net” difference between these two amounts. If your residential solar panels supply more power than what you extract from the grid over the billing cycle, you’ll receive a credit toward future energy bills! The credit can be carried forward only up to 12 months.
Residential solar panels will save you money in the long run.
2) Residential solar panels help the environment
With solar energy, you no longer have to worry about leaving a large carbon footprint.
Solar energy is clean and renewable. By adding residential solar panels to your custom home, you will be curbing the effects of global climate change by cutting down on your use of fossil fuels.
You can choose not to power your entire home with solar energy and install a smaller system to power a percentage of your home. Even in that case, though, you are still greatly reducing any negative impact on the environment on top of saving money. Talk about a win win!
Solar power is a renewable energy source and therefore important for environmental sustainability.
3) Residential solar panels don’t require much maintenance
One of the great things about residential solar panels is they don’t require much effort or cost in order to maintain once installed.
In terms of cleaning, you can usually maintain a solar panel using the same equipment that you use to wash your windows. You shouldn’t experience any issues as long as you provide regular care and don't allow dirt and other environmental elements to settle on the panels for too long.
Here's a quick tutorial on how to clean your solar panels. You can also install a monitoring system to keep an eye on the performance of your solar panels, and when the performance goes down you'll know that maintenance is required.
Watch this video for some quick tips on how to clean your residential solar panels.
Residential solar panels: Further considerations to keep in mind
There are two main things that keep people from installing residential solar panels: initial cost and aesthetics. Here’s what you need to know:
Initial cost of residential solar panels
The average cost of a solar power system in Canada is between $15,000 and $30,000. That cost is dependent on several factors, and can be further broken down per province. That price range applies for a 7,500kW system (required for an average home), but changes depending on the size of your custom build.
Additionally, output on the panels is guaranteed for 25 years, so you may need to replace your shingles before installing new panels.
It is a significant investment to be sure, but the up front cost allows you to take comfort in the energy and environmental savings for years to come outlined above.
Balance the initial cost of residential solar panels with the long terms savings.
Aesthetics of residential solar panels
You may be reluctant to have seemingly unattractive solar panels installed on top of your home or free standing in your yard. Most residential homeowners in Ontario put solar panels on the roof, while rural homeowners tend to put them on the roof of their house, shop, or in their yard.
For custom home builds, you can tailor the positioning of the solar panels in order to optimize the aesthetics. For example, a south facing roof is best, east and west facing are good, north facing is just OK.
It's a relatively new technology and some aren’t used to the futuristic look, so you might want to forego the benefits for a more traditional home.
Having said that, the improvement of solar aesthetics is becoming a top priority for residential solar panel manufacturers. As a result, those homeowners on the fence due to aesthetics will be more willing to make the leap.
Please note: Recent changes in regulations state that if the property owner pays residential rates for hydro, then no ground-mounted solar panels will be allowed; all panels must mount to the roof or wall of a building. Furthermore, this building may not exist for the primary purpose of acting as a support for the panels. A local building official will be required to certify that the building has another primary purpose.
All of the above should be factored in your decision. Consider whether up-front costs and aesthetics outweighs saving money and the environment. In our estimation, it’s worth it!
Your custom home build can easily incorporate residential solar panels.
Trust The Professionals At L. Patten
The professionals at L. Patten specialize in custom-built homes in Collingwood, Creemore and the Blue Mountains area.
Let over 50 years of experience building custom homes work to build you the home of your dreams!
Contact us today to get started.
"As an interior designer I have great respect for a company with the construction and management skills to build a home on time and in budget while meeting a client's vision. Through every stage of construction the Patten team took our design and turned it into reality. We have our dream home."
- Maria Cumming