Bringing Solar Energy to Your Home

By: Solargies

In 1931, Thomas Edison had a conversation with U.S. manufacturing giants. Edison said, “I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a generator of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we accept renewable energy.”We have waited 76 years, but a green energy company has finally found a fresh idea. The sun supplies enough energy to earth in one hour to supply all of our power needs for 365 days and then some. But currently solar power generates less than one half of 1 percent of our residential electricity requirements. Why?In the past, solar energy has been too expensive and too complex. To switch to solar, U.S. residents had to save money for years.

The average homeowner pays $40,000 to switch their home to solar power; plus homeowner are responsible for the installation, maintaining the solar panels & related materials, managing permits. Who has the patients (or the money) for this?A fresh company has a creative idea to restrict all of the traditional barriers to solar energy. This solar energy equipment provider offers: No solar panels purchase. No installation investment. No maintenance expenses. No permit hassles. No operational problems. No rate increases. No way!When we first found out about this solar rental concept, we were so interested that we contacted this solar energy equipment provider. It seemed almost too good to be true. Like most new ideas, their strategy is so non-complicated it makes you question why no one thought of it before.You simply pay this green company the same rate per kilowatt for power that you used to send to your energy company, but it gets even better. This green company will lock-in that your rate per kilowatt for up to 25 yrs. With ever increasing energy rates, this gives homeowners comfort and can add up to significant savings. This green company even have a solar energy service on their corporate website that displays how much you may save over 1, 5, and 25 yrs. The author saved over $18,000 and by using green power; it is the just like taking 27 trucks off the road or planting four hundred trees. Nice!In the past, “going green” implied a lot of hassles. Now, you get to feel good about helping the planet but most “green” products are more expensive than their “dirty” counterparts. this solar rental company, utilizing renewable solar power can actually costs less money. This is all made possible by net-metering laws that require the power companies to allow solar generated electricity to flow into the grid and then enable the consumer to pull that same amount of energy off of the power system at no cost to the customer.

Basically, the grid becomes a energy container. The energy meter spins in the opposite direction during the day when the sun is out and in the positive direction at night when the customer draws that power back off the grid.These laws were passed because residential power production was the number one cause of pollution in the United States last year. There are still 9 states that have not joined the party.***** To find out more about Residential Solar Energy you may visit the website http://www.Solargies.com/Residential_Solar_Energy.htmPeople may be still a little skeptical about this new concept. We asked some hard questions.Detailed Customer Questions:Q. How can this green company afford to install this complete residential solar energy system with no investment by the homeowner?A. Because the company handles everything; from the solar grade silicon to the final installation, they squeeze costs at each stage of the value chain. Plus they are building the largest plant for solar energy in the world. When you combine their vertical integration with our economies of scale, they are able to produce the residential solar energy systems at half the cost of the competitors.Q. This sounds like this green company required a large amount of money to make all this happen?A. $650 million.Q. When does the homeowner pay the security deposit for the solar rental?A. They do not pay the security deposit until after the solar engineer comes to their house and designs the system. They will show you exactly what the system will look like and only after the customer agrees to the design does the customer pay the deposit. The deposit is 100% refundable at the end of the rental term. Q. How long of a contract does the homeowner have to sign?A. 1, 5, or 25 years. Over 80% of the residential solar energy customers sign the 25 year contract because that locks in the electricity rate for the entire term of the agreement. If the customer signs a shorter contract, the rate is recalculated according to current power rates at the end of the term.Q.

What happens if the homeowner signs a 25 year agreement and they want to sell their house in ten years?A. The homeowner has three options. First, they can ask the company to move the system to their new house. The company will do this one time for free. Second, the homeowner can transfer the contract to the new owner. This can potentially add value to the existing house because if power rates keep going up and they are 40% higher in 10 years, then the buyer would get a 40% decrease on their energy bill because of the existing solar rental agreement. The final option is that the customer can contact the company, tell them that they want to end the contract. The company will remove the solar equipment. With this third option, the customer do lose their security deposit.Q. So is the customer’s security deposit the most they have at risk? Is that the only risk?A. Obviously if the customer does not pay their rental fees there will be late fees or if one of our franchisees comes out to their house to remove the unit and they refuse to allow them access, the company will have to take an alternate path to get back their residential solar energy sytem.Q. Okay. A customer wants a residential solar energy system on their house. How does it work? What is the process?A. The homeowner reserves their system online and one of the Associates will help them each step of the way. There are some simple questions to answer about the amount of shade, the direction of the roof line, the power consumption, etc. After the customer signs the contract, a solar engineer will come to the site to design the residential solar energy system. This last step will not happen until the company has the solar equipment ready to install.Q. What if the homeowner does not like the solar system design? Are they still obligated to the agreement?A. No.

They can back out of the solar rental service with no financial impact. As mentioned, the customer doesn’t pay the deposit until after you approve the residential solar energy system design.To learn more visit http://www.Solargies.com/Residential_Solar_Energy.htm.Q. Okay. The customer likes the design. They want the solar energy system. What's next?A. The installation usually takes about a day. The permit process can take as much as 90 days depending on how cooperative the local utility is, but they company handles the entire installation and the customer doesn’t pay anything until the residential solar energy unit is producing renewable, clean solar energy for their home.Q. What exactly does the homeowner pay? How is solar rental fee calculated?A. The customer pays a rental for the amount of solar generated electricity that their solar system produces. The customer is generating their own power from the sun. The solar technician will go through the resident’s past power bills. If the consumer is interested, the solar technician will walk through the house and show how to save power.

Taking all this into consideration, solar technician will calculate how much energy the homeowner’s personal residential solar energy system will need to produce in order to supply energy for all of the homeowner’s needs. They will then design the residential solar energy unit to supply that power. The consumer simply pays the rate per kilowatt hour that is on the solar rental agreement for all the clean, renewable solar power that the residential solar energy equipment produces.Q. Does the company have any hidden expenses or up-keep expenses?A. Nothing is added. The company has no grid-tied fees or any of those "hidden" charges that other companies like to add on. The government is not trying to charge for the sun’s energy - yet.Q. So, will the homeowner have two invoices; one from the solar rental company and one from the regular energy company?A. Yes. The consumer will pay the company a rental fee for the solar panels that will produce the energy and the homeowner will pay the electricity company the same connection fees that they pay now, plus the customer will pay the utility company for any excess energy the customer uses that exceeds the rental agreement.Q.

What does that mean; exceeds the rental agreement?A. At the end of the year, the customer used more energy than what was contracted for and the residential solar energy system produced for them, then the customer would need to pay the electricity company for the excess power that was used and not generated by the solar system.Q. And what rate would the customer pay for that power?A. The consumer would pay the electricity company’s current rates. Sorry, this green company cannot do anything about the utility company’s rates. But look at it this way, the consumer will be using a lot less of that environmentally damaging power and the solar system the customer rents will always self-produce the homeowner’s power at the same guaranteed low rate. No worries. If a consumer reads about rising power prices, they can smile knowing that their solar energy costs are guaranteed for the length of your rental agreement.To learn more visit http://www.Solargies.com/Residential_Solar_Energy.htm.Q. In the first year, the homeowner is just paying the same rate that they were paying before, right?A. Often rate is actually less. The company bases the rental fee on the yearly average for the rate charged by their energy provider. So, the company bases their rental fees on the prior year averaged charged by the utility. Since power rates tend to go up each year, many consumer will save money on their first bill. This will only increase as the years pass. The company provides a calculator on their website that will tell specifically what they will save with their particular utility and their monthly usage. Many customers save over $10,000 just by switching to solar. See http://www.Solargies.com/Solar_Savings.htm for more details. The company’s idea is to help people switch to solar power and stop being a producer of CO2.Q. What would a customer’s monthly bill look like?A. Let's say the consumer contracted for the company installing a system to self-produce 12,000 kilowatt hours of energy for the year. The customer’s contract rate is 10 cents a kilowatt hour. The total bill for the year would be $1,200 for the rental of the solar system. With most electricity companies, the homeowner has some months that are higher and some lower. It is hard to understand your expenses. This green company has a system called "Even Pay" where the customer simply pays a given dollar amount each a month every month.Q.

What happens if the customer contracts for a certain amount of kilowatt hours and then their kids go off to school?A. The residential solar energy system is remotely monitored automatically every day. If the solar engineer notices a consumption drop, they will contact the customer to see if this is a permanent situation or just a short-term fluctuation. If this will be a permanent decrease in energy usage, the solar installer will come out and remove the proper number of panels and readjust the contract.Q. And how much will maintenance cost me?A. Nothing. This green company makes solar hassle free.Q. What happens if something breaks?A. The company has a complete system support guarantee. If the residential solar energy unit ever stops working, it will be fixed for free. The customer has no additional costs until the solar power system is working again.

This makes the company motivated to get it up and running fast. Q. What if my neighbor drops a tree on one of the solar panels?A. It is just like renting a jet sky. The customer is responsible for returning the residential solar energy system in working order. The company recommends that customers contact their insurance company to make sure that the solar system is covered under their policy.To learn more visit http://www.Solargies.com/Residential_Solar_Energy.htm.Q. Would the customer save money in the long run if they just bought a residential solar energy unit?A. It’s doubtful. Renting solar equipment can save a significant amount of money, and it protects the homeowner from the large investment risk. If the customer buys solar panels and invest $40,000, they are tied into that technology for a long time. If something new and better comes along, the homeowner can't switch because their $40,000 would be wasted.If the customer breaks their rental agreement with the solar rental company, they will give up their security deposit, usually $500. The customer can simply contact the company and tell then that they want to cancel the rental agreement. The customer would lose the security deposit. But that is a lot better than losing $40,000. Q. Is the residential solar energy manufacturing plant completed yet?A. No. The first solar units will be ready to install in the middle of 2008.Q. So why would a person reserve a solar unit now?A. First – the customer lock in the even pay rate as soon as they sign up. With the way power rates are increasing, this could save the homeowner a significant amount of money.

Second – the customer reserves their installation position. This means they can get their residential solar energy system sooner once the plant is producing. Third - it also helps the company show the government how many customers will upgrade to solar if an offer that makes sense on every level is presented.Q. What happens if the customers accepts the agreement and the manufacturing plant is never completed?A. The contract would be void and canceled. This green company understands that this is a new concept. The utility companies have been saying for a long time that solar power has no market. They have a vested interest in making that statement. This company is proving them wrong. They have a solar vision. The risks are too big if we don’t change our course.The only way that change is going to happen is if we create a better vision. For that vision to be sustainable, it needs to make monetary sense for all consumers involved. Energy production is the biggest source of pollution in America. This green company is not asking anyone to sacrifice anything. In fact, customers can save a boat loads of money by switching their homes to solar power. When was the last time a citizen could save money and do the right thing?*****

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT RESIDENTIAL SOLAR ENERGY ****You can visit http://www.Solargies.com/Residential_Solar_Energy.htm.
Article Source: http://www.articlesinsight.com
Daniel Stouffer is Independent Ecopreneur and advocate of green energy. At Solargies (Solar Energies), Daniel’s objective is to spread the use of renewable solar energy as simply and as rapidly as possible. He is an Ecopreneur investing time and energies educating Global citizens about renewable energy, most specifically, solar generated (PV) electricity. Learn more about Daniel at www.Solargies.com.