Increasing number of people are installing solar panels enabled roofing systems for their houses, as they are becoming more aware of the long-term benefits. Also, with rapid adoption, the costs of installing solar panels at your home are decreasing a very fast pace, which again in turn is promoting solar power installations across the board.
How does solar power work on your property?
Solar power systems generally are producing at their peak capacity during the afternoon, when most people would not be home utilizing that electricity. On the other hand, electricity is more in demand at homes normally during the mornings and evenings. Net metering takes care of these ups and downs in the normal day-to-day electricity generation and consumption.
Net metering accounts for the surplus electricity that is supplied the electric grid you are on when your system is producing more than required electricity. When this happens, your power supply meter runs in the reverse direction from what it normally does. When your solar power system is not generating enough electricity for your needs, you can then draw power from your utility grid in the same way you were taking it before installing the solar power system. This give and take between your solar power system and the utility grid makes sure that your excess production will still be utilized when you are not using it and your deficits will be taken care of, so you continue enjoying smooth and seamless power supply.
Additional Power Production Guarantees a Profit On Your Property
When your solar system produces additional power than that you use over the course of a month, your power utility bill will receive a credit depending on the net number of the kilowatt-hours you supplied back to the power grid. Whereas if you produced less power than what you used in a particular month, you would be buying electricity from your power utility to fill in the difference. In such instances, you would be paying for the power that you used after deducting the excess amount of electricity that your solar power system produced. This also has a deep impact on the cost of your property as it produces surplus power. For instance, a good real estate company in Pakistan can appraise your house’s value with the current power you are producing. This will help you putting a premium on your property.
Generally, most of the homes that have installed solar power systems will be producing surplus amount of electricity in the summer months and will be using additional electricity from the power grid during the winter. Since such variations in consumption and generation of electricity are very predictable, your power supply utility will not be sending you a monthly refund when you will be producing excess electricity. Rather, you will be building up extra credit amounts during the summer months, which can be adjusted when your generation falls down below the consumption needs during the winter months. A suitably designed solar power system can produce sufficient electricity to fulfil your complete electricity consumption for a year.
Another major benefit of net metering is that the homeowners are credited for the excess power they produce at the same rate as they pay for their consumption. Net metering has paid a great role in popularizing solar power everywhere.
Financing Options for going Solar
For those who are not able to pay for the installation outright, there are a number of other financing options also available. These options include PPA or the power purchase agreement, low-interest loans, solar leasing.
Though the savings that one gets from installing the solar power system by themselves are very attractive, it is now believed that a well-designed solar power system can in fact boost the value of your use if and when you decide to sell your property.
A recent study has revealed that homes with an average solar power system earned a premium of roughly $15,000 on sale, which implies that homes with installed solar power systems did earn premium and a higher selling price compared to others. For instance, if you are living in Capital Smart City Islamabad and want to go solar, then the value of your home will be at least $15000 higher than those which do not have solar installed in their home.
Things could be slightly different though depending on whether you paid for the system in cash or through a loan or a lease. For instance, if you are living in Lahore Park View City and have a leased solar setup on your home, then the premium can be anywhere from $10000 to $12000.
If selling a home that has a solar power system installed under a power purchase agreement or a power lease, the new owner would have to take on these payments and hence the system will get no value during the appraisal. And if the new owner intends to install the latest and a more modern system, the existing system would in fact be a liability for them. For selling the house you would thus be required to transfer or pay off the lease or the PPA and even spend some more on repairing the property.
On the other hand, if you had brought and installed the system by paying the total amount outright, the appraiser can add the system to the value of the house after determining the current value of the system. This would naturally increase the value of your house by at least the value of the system if not more.
If your house has been appraised at say $400,000 and the analysis by the appraiser values the used solar power system at $25,000, then the retail lenders will be able to lend based on the value of $425,000.
If you are living in a community or an area which also is a home to people who are generally more environmentally conscience, it is very likely that your home with a solar power system installed would appear to be more appealing to the prospective buyers, which might allow you to get a better value for your house and also sell it faster. But if your home is located in areas where people are not very particular about the environmental causes, the solar power system could in fact be a hindrance in your sale, with you having to even discount the value of your property from what you would be otherwise expecting, or even have to remove the system.
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