Your roof will be protected by solar panels and it will be much stronger structurally. Powur warranty covers 30 years of your roof against roof leaks where the solar panels are installed.

If you decide to sell the house you have 2 options. The first option is to transfer the solar payment to the next buyer of your house. The second option is to list the house with a solar system included and add extra dollars to the listed price to cover your solar loan.  A house with no electric bill sells faster and for a premium price compared to a house with an expensive electric bill that keeps going up.

A 2015 study from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory shows that owning a solar system can add tens of thousands of dollars in value. Win-Win? Win-Win

Let’s look at the facts. The main competitor for solar is the utility company. The utility company increases on average 4% per year. If solar competes with the utility company and is just 2% cheaper to get the business, that means it will increase in price as time goes on. The solar technology has reached pretty much maximum efficiency and it will be harder to get a lot more efficient in the coming years. On average the efficiency of the solar panels improves with just one percent per year. So if you wait 5 years, it would have improved only 5%… But note that the cost of the solar is not just the panels. The cost of the solar panels are just 30-40% of the solar system. There is installation costs, salaries of the workers. If the solar installers form Unions the price of the solar installations will dramatically increase… There is permitting costs, marketing costs, sales costs, etc.. The more you wait the Federal and State Tax incentives will disappear. In 2019 the Federal tax incetives will drop from 30% to 26% and the following year will totally disappear!  As my friend Joe says, “The best time to go Solar is yesterday!”

There are various zero down programs that mean no money out of pocket and instantly lowering your electric bill payment. Lock a low price that is predictable and it will not increase for the next 20 years. We all know that the price of gasoline goes up over time. If I have given you a chance to lock down the price of gasoline to 99 cents for the next 20 years – would you have taken it? The same logic is with a solar – low monthly payment that does not increase over time. On average utility companies increase the electric price roughly between 4 to 7 % per year. In 12 years that double what you are currently paying for electricity. If you are paying $300 electric bill today in 12 years it will be $600. If you have gone solar and your monthly payment is at $150 per month that is a big difference – which one do you like better $150 payment or $600? It is a smart investment for the future!

Every house is different and every household consumes energy differently. In order to determine the price of your solar system we will need your current electric bill. We will look at the annual energy consumption and design a solar system that will meet your current and future needs. We will look at your house and create a FREE Solar System Design and FREE Solar Savings report. If you would like to get those please contact us and see how much the Sun will save you.

Most of the time solar can be cash positive from the moment you install it. In some cases, the payment may be the same as your utility bill in the beginning, but over time your payment will remain the same as the utility continues to raise prices (around 4% per year) and you will start seeing significant savings. Everybody else’s bills will continue to go up and yours will stay with a low monthly payment even for 10- 20 years. You will also have a payout date when you will fully own the panels and you will not need to make solar loan payments. On that date, your solar payments will become $0 and you will have energy independence. Who can say that that pays the utility company for expensive dirty electricity? By that time their electric bill to the utility company would have doubled and tripled and yours will be $0 and you have increased the value of your home with many thousands of $$$.

Solar Panels generally do not require much maintenance. There are no moving parts and occasional rain is usually enough to take care of the dust that can gather on the solar panels. All solar panels and inverter are covered by 30 years Powur Care warranty and in case you need a replacement of a malfunctioning unit – you will just call a number and it will be replaced promptly.

You can get solar in various ways with different programs – loans, leases, Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) or cash payment. The program you choose varies depending on your tax situation. If you pay a lot of taxes you can get a loan and deduct a 30% federal tax credit. If you don’t owe much taxes to the government you can choose a lease or Power Purchase agreement from the solar company which installs the panels and they own it (they take the federal state credits and pass it onto you as cheaper electricity). Of course, if you have cash and if you don’t want to pay interest on your solar system you can pay cash and get your system pay for itself in as little as 3-7 years depending in which state you live.

Typical warranty on solar panels varies between 20-25 years, but they continue to last for many more years. There are solar panels that still produce after 60 years. There are no moving parts in the solar panels, so chances that something can go wrong are almost slim to none. When you get a car they give you only 3-5 years warranty but you can drive that car 15-20 years, and that is with so many moving parts that can break! So I would say between 30-50 years would be a good bet for the solar panels to last.

The actual installation of the solar panels takes between 1 and 2 days in most cases. The design, inspection, permitting takes longer. Usually, the whole process of going solar can be done between 1-2 months time frame.

The first step is to schedule a solar consultation where you can explore if your house qualifies to go solar. We will look at your roof for shading from nearby trees, how much space you have on your roof, what kind of roof it is. We will need your most recent electric bill with 12-month history, so we can see what your energy consumption is, so we can accurately design with state of the art software a solar system for your roof. Please fill in your zip code, your name, email and best phone number with best times to contact you and we will be able to help you explore going solar! We have helped many homeowners be energy independent and make one of the best investments in their future!

Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SRECs)

Illinois’ renewable portfolio standard (RPS) means that the state is committed to producing 25% of its electricity from renewable resources by 2025. That’s a great goal, and to make it happen, the state has a program that rewards homeowners for helping Illinois reach that target. For each megawatt hour (MWh) of electricity your solar system produces, you will be granted one Solar Renewable Energy Credit (SREC) that you can then sell in the market, creating a nice income stream for the life of the system.

Illinois net metering

Thanks to Illinois’ net metering policy, your utility will buy back any excess electricity your solar system produces. Net metering ensures that you benefit from the full value of your solar panels and is a great way to balance out your electricity production and consumption, which do not always happen at the same time. For example, during the day you produce more but use less.

Illinois solar tax breaks

These two tax incentives offered in Illinois can make going solar even more affordable:

Property tax break

Worried about your property tax bills going up because of the value your solar system will add to your home? Don’t be. The Special Assessment for Solar Energy Systems means that you will be taxed as if the panels were not even there.

The Investment Tax Credit: another great Illinois incentive

Not only does the state of Illinois want to help you go solar –the federal government does, too. In addition to the policies mentioned above, you can reduce the cost of your solar energy system by 30 percent with the federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC). Keep in mind that the ITC applies only to those who buy their system with a cash purchase or solar loan and that you must have enough income for the tax credit to be relevant (though of course the credit can be split over multiple years).

Here is an example for a Solar system that costs roughly $60,000 in IL – the federal tax credits is around 18,000 and the IL State incentives are around $15,000 – so that is more than $33,000 free money. If you sell the property you can sell it with $60,000 more because that is what the solar system costs. By going solar you increased the value of your property and if you sell it tomorrow you could have made $32,000 instant profit. If you wait, you will lose the $32,000 profit…, because the incentives will disappear. It is on a first come, first serve basis for the SRECs. For instance, if you go solar in California you get only Federal tax credit, the CA state incentives have been used up by the first people that went solar… Tip: Usually the first ones to find out are the ones that benefit the most. Get a free solar consultation today to find out if your home qualifies to go solar.

Net metering is a billing mechanism that gives you credit for the electricity your solar energy system is adding to the grid. During the daylight hours, your system will generally produce more energy than your home is using. As a result, the excess energy is transferred to the grid causing your electricity meter to run backwards. This acts as a credit against the electricity consumed at night or when your home’s use exceeds the system’s output.