Question 1

What are the benefits of going solar?

Accepted Answer

Financial 
Installing solar provides homeowners with several financial benefits. The first is a lower monthly utility bill because your solar output decreases the amount of energy you need to draw from PG&E to run your home. With solar, you also qualify for a rate schedule that is slightly lower than a commonly held Time-of-Use rate. Depending on the size and complexity of your system, it could take as little as six or seven years for your system to pay itself off. Installing solar also increases the value of your home, if you are looking to sell in the future or want to pass it down to future generations. When you install a solar electric, solar hot water or battery backup system, you also receive a federal tax credit for 30% of the total system cost. This credit is applied to the year in which the system was paid for and installed.

Environmental
Once solar equipment is installed, instead of using energy from PG&E which is primarily derived by burning fossil fuels and hydroelectric sources which have a great impact on our climate and natural resources, solar provides renewable energy. Production of solar power is not an extractive process, unlike so many other sources of the power we use, and is therefore much more sustainable.
Personal
There are a number of personal reasons for choosing solar generation over 100% energy from the grid. Many of our customers are tired of paying so much money to the utilities each month and rates just continue to increase. Our customers prefer to spend more money up front to a small local business than to continue supporting big utilities who make billions in profits each year. People who are environmentally conscious have turned to solar for many years now, recognizing it as one of the most sustainable methods of power production. Solar energy can also provide people with a sense of security that the grid cannot. In Humboldt County, where we install the majority of our systems, we see multiple power outages each year. With a battery backup system, people are able to run their heaters, refrigerators and medical devices during a power outage.

Question 2

What services do you offer?

Accepted Answer

We primarily install residential and small business solar electric systems but we do offer a variety of other services. In the last couple of years, we have been installing more battery backup systems alongside the solar electric systems. We also install solar hot water systems and residential EV charging stations. We offer diagnostic services on both solar electric and solar hot water systems. If we can fix it, we will!  We also offer panel cleaning services. Usually, rainfall is enough, but in areas prone to lichen and moss, cleaning panels can help increase energy production. For maintenance services not covered by warranty, we charge on a time and materials basis.

Question 3

How do you recommend moving away from fossil fuel reliance?

Accepted Answer

California has the highest gas prices in the country, Humbolt being one of the most expensive counties. We know that gas prices play a large role in the big picture of our customers' energy expenses. To reduce the amount you pay for gas, we recommend heating your home with an air source heat pump. We do not install air source heat pumps but can recommend some local installers and we can provide the solar system to create the power needed to run it. We also recommend looking into getting an electric vehicle. California is making big changes in order to meet the goal of ending the sale of new gas powered vehicles by 2035. Infrastructure and battery capacity are both rapidly improving and EVs are becoming more and more affordable. With added solar on your roof and a car charging station, you can be running your vehicle off of sunshine instead of purchasing gasoline.

Question 4

Should I get battery backup?​​

Accepted Answer

Batteries provide customers with both backup power in the case of a power outage and control over when and if you buy power from the utilities. PG&E sells power at different rates throughout the day on their Time-of-Use plans. In conjunction with the inverters we use, we can program your system to use the energy stored in your batteries when it is most expensive to buy power from PG&E. This is called peak shaving. We can also program the system to send power back to the grid when their buy rates are the highest. A battery backup system is significantly more expensive than a system without batteries. However, they can result in significantly higher savings over the lifetime of your system. We can create multiple solar summaries for you to compare your options.

Question 5

What are NEM2 and NEM3? How are they different?

Accepted Answer

NEM stands for Net Energy Metering. NEM2 and NEM3 are PG&E’s programs for compensating customers for excess solar power they produce and send back into the grid. The NEM2 program was replaced by NEM3 or NBT (Net Billing Tariff) in April 2023. On NEM2, PG&E essentially acted as a battery for our customers. People were credited per kilowatt-hour they produced based on market value. This way people could put the same amount into the grid as they took out and not have to pay for energy. Now, PG&E has changed this so that people have less of an incentive to buy solar and continue to rely on utility companies. Under NEM3, customers are credited 20-25% of market value on average throughout the year. This means you can put 100kilowatt-hours of energy back on the grid and only get 25kilowatt-hours back free of charge. The remaining 75kwh will be billed to you at market value. While the change from NEM2 to NEM3 has changed the solar industry in California immensely, solar can still be a financial benefit. As PG&E rates continue to increase dramatically, the payback time for installing solar gets to be less and less. Battery storage is one of the ways to avoid taking power from PG&E at all. If you have an appropriately sized battery and solar system, you can run your home off of solar during the day and it will simultaneously charge your batteries. Then, at night, you will be able to use the power stored in your batteries to run your home. The next day, the cycle repeats.

Question 6

Is there a way to monitor my system once it has been installed?

Accepted Answer

Yes, all of the grid tied solar electric systems we install include monitoring. You will have a user account that you will be able to access on your smartphone, tablet or desktop. It will show you how much solar you are producing in real time and over the months and years of the system lifetime. You will be alerted if there are issues with your system.

Question 7

What solar incentives are available?

Accepted Answer

The federal government offers a 30% Residential Energy Credit for solar installation costs, which means you will get 30% back on your entire system cost! When doing your taxes for the year, you will need to fill out an additional form and then will receive the nonrefundable credit on that year's taxes. You can also choose to take a partial credit and carry forward the rest to the next year. In California, solar is also property tax exempt. This means that despite adding value to your home, solar will not increase your property tax assessment. Businesses may also be eligible for a 30% Investment Tax Credit and can enjoy accelerated depreciation, reducing taxable income. For more tax information, please reach out to your qualified tax professional.

Question 8

Do you offer financing?

Accepted Answer

Our business does not offer financing directly. While interest payments will eat away at your total return we know that sometimes financing is the only option. In this case we recommend either a home equity line of credit or a low interest loan at your financial institution.

Question 9

What warranties do you offer?

Accepted Answer

We offer a 1-year workmanship warranty as well as warranties on equipment we install. Our panels and microinverters each offer 25-year warranties. String inverters include a 10 year warranty. We currently use SimpliPHI (6.65kWh) and AmpliPHI  (3.8kWh) Briggs and Stratton batteries. The AmpliPHI batteries come with a 15-year warranty and the SimpliPHI batteries have a 10-year warranty. As a company, we try to find and use the best equipment we can find and rarely have to work with warranty claims as a result.

Question 10

How long is the process for getting a solar system?

Accepted Answer

This is dependent on the complexity of your system, how many projects we have in line before yours and weather constraints. Our contracts promise that your project will be completed within six to eight months of getting a permit. However, on average it takes about 3-4 months, start to finish, including permitting, installation, NEM application and paperwork. Installation itself should only take 2-10 days on site. The bulk of the time is spent on paperwork and approvals from the permitting agencies and utilities.

Question 11

How far away does Solar Projects Unlimited install solar?

Accepted Answer

We are located in Arcata, CA. We do the majority of our work in Humboldt County but install systems as far south as Mendocino, as far east as Redding and as far north as the Oregon border. Please give us a call and let us know where you are located and what you are looking for and we will try to help!

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