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Sun on South East West Slopes

April 11, 2021

We hear this all the time. A potential customer walks up to our booth at a show or visits our crew at an install and says those dreaded words, "I don't have a south facing roof so I can't do solar."

 

STOP RIGHT THERE.

 

Yes you can!

 

Here is an example of a solar installation with very little south facing roof coverage. The cool part of this solar install is that it makes much more than the household uses each day. We filled up what we could on the south slope then made up the difference on the other East and West slopes.

Would this customer need this many panels if they could do all south facing panels? Of course not however we still achieved our goal with a projected 110% coverage of the customers electrical bill by adding East and West facing panels.

 

What is the difference in power production of panels on an east and west slope vs a southern sloped roof you wonder? It's not as drastic a difference as you may think.

 

Here is the output on the first row of south facing panels on this install at 1:16 CST in a full sunlight day with not a cloud in the sky.

And here is the east facing panels output at that same time.

So don't let a non south facing roof deter you from at least looking into your options to go green with solar. Even an East or West facing roof can still produce decent power output. It's never going to be the same amount of power as a south roof slope but the power produced is still green and not as low output as you may think.

Before and After Electrical Bill

By Randy Golla • September 4, 2021
So here is the first electrical bill from a customer that we did a grid tied solar installation on. It's a smaller system 5.89kW on a basic rambler home in Minnetonka MN. They have 19, 310 watt solar panels with APSystems QS1 micro inverters. This client did receive the federal tax credit on this installation and also has the Excel Solar Rewards Production Based Incentive applied. With the Solar Rewards incentive from Xcel they are receiving a .07 cent per kWh credit on their Xcel Energy bill for every kWh their system is producing. Take a look at the monthly usage in KWH on their electrical bill. They had Xcel install their meters allowing us to go live on the 6th of August so they had a week of Xcel grid use in August then the rest of the month they have been running with their solar array in full operation. As you can see there was a major drop in the amount of electricity used from Xcel. We are fully expecting to see this customer see the annual energy production of their PV array to be at least equal to their usage for the year probably a little bit more. What does that mean to the bottom dollar? July bill was $132 August was $23 The proof is in the production!

What Does It Cost?

April 11, 2021
How much? That is what it comes down to with most things right? What is the overall cost and what do I save when I install a solar energy system. Well that is something we can tell you!

Solar Amid Covid-19

April 11, 2021
A note to Renewable Solar customers. These are unprecedented times, but your safety and the safety of our Renewable Solar team is our foremost concern. With that said, we feel that the safety of your home and business is more important than ever, and our team is ready to fill your solar needs as always.
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