Sacramento Solar News – The golden age of cheap energy in Sacramento County is over. The need for renewable energy and solar panels in particular, has come to the forefront in recent years. This has been driven not by global warming as first predicted, but by the end of cheap energy, not just in California, but in the whole of America.
More people in Sacramento are getting wise to this, and are investing in solar panel technology for their homes. Solar loans has become easier to secure along with solar leases. Solar panels in Sacramento are proven to be the most beneficial of all renewable technologies with useful solar module life manufacturer guaranteed for more than 25 years. Additionally, solar installation rebates and laws have made it easier than ever to reduce Sacramento area homeowners monthly utility expenses putting money back in the household and into the community.
Over the last 20 years or so in Sacramento county, two main forces have been driving the cost of energy. Oil has been spiking since the early 1970’s and the cost of mining and transporting coal continues to rise dramatically. Sacramento SMUD has done a nice job find alternative energy sources like solar, but policy improvements alone will not off set the rising cost of coal or our dependence on freign oil.
With many years experience electrical contracting and Sacramento solar energy industries, our solar experts have cherry picked the best performing and best quality systems which exist today. Solar technology in Northern California has been evolving over the last few years, and we are proud to showcase only the best of the best.
Sacramento Solar buying tips
Unfortunately, the Sacramento area solar industry is fast becoming like the double glazing industry in the 1990s. These hard-sell commissions driven solar sales people are overpriced and are giving our solar industry a bad name.
Avoid such solar companies with this guide:
Beware of Sacramento area solar companies selling door to door with fantastic claims of discounts and approved area BBB business claims. Beware of false solar discounts or solar being offered. Common sense dictates the original price, must have been vastly overpriced.
Rogue Sacramento solar companies usually insist on sending ruthless sales people to sit in your home and pressure you to sign their and then. Never sign anything under these conditions.
Avoid companies who tell you, you will get a quick payback. Most reputable Sacramento area solar companies will try and model a solar system to a 7 to 10 year payback in most circumstances.
Avoid middle men solar websites offering to find you quotes. Buy direct from the company who installs the solar system. They should be licensed by the California Contractors Board with either a C-10 electrical, Class B General Contractor or C46 solar license. Companies with a C-electrical contractors licence in Sacramento will not have to sub out the electrical connections.
Beware of Sacramento solar companies not giving you a general idea of price upfront or answer questions on the phone. They only want to get into your living room and you will be hard pressed to get them to leave.
As Sacramento solar installers of the German manufactured Schuco high efficiency solar panels, which are specially developed for the northern hemisphere climates, Blue Pacific Solar is dedicated to providing the highest level of solar service and solar products. For your safety, solar electricity should only be connected by a licensed C-10 electrician.
Before you purchase Solar in Sacramento, we think it would be wise to understand a little about how solar works.
The solar cell or photovoltaic cells do just what the word implies (photo = light, voltaic = electricity), they convert solar energy into electricity. Solar cells are similer to computer chips in that they are generally made of crystalline silicon which is the most commonly used material. The solar cell is really a multi-layered structure that has a positive layer and a negative layer. (Though solar panels are not manufactured in Sacramento, buying from a long established solar company with close distribution and engineering support would be advisable.)
When solar sunlight, or more specifically, photons, hit these solar cells, some of it is absorbed by the simple silicon material. The absorbed photons knock electrons loose generating a flow of electric current is created. This current is harnessed as DC (Direct Current) from the solar cell through small metal contacts (or conductors).
The solar module or solar panel is composed of several electrically connected solar cells mounted in a support structure or frame. These modules are designed to supply electricity at a certain voltage. The current produced is directly dependent on how much light strikes the module. One of the most abundant resources we have available in Sacramento is sunlight or solar exposure.
A solar array consists of multiple solar modules connected and mounted together. In general, the larger the area of the array, the more electricity it will produce. When installing solar arrays in Sacramento, they can be mounted in fixed positions meaning they don’t move. This is the most common for Sacramento residential rooftops.
The solar inverter’s primary purpose it convert the DC or Direct Current electricity coming from the solar array into AC or Alternating Current electricity which is the type of electricity used in our Sacramento homes and businesses.
The Electrical Panel, PGE or SMUD Utility Meter & Net Metering.
If the Sacramento solar array produces more energy than you use, is passes backwards through your utility meter and into the utility grid. Yes, your meter can actually run backwards. This is known as net-metering.
Optimum Tilt Angle and Orientation to Mount a Solar Array
Since solar arrays generate electricity when they’re exposed to sunlight, the more sunlight they’re exposed to the more electricity they will generate. This means that title angle and orientation of the array is very important.
Optimum Solar Tilt Angle
In the Northern Hemisphere in general and specifically Sacramento the sun moves across the sky at a slight angle. Only at the equator does it move directly over-head. Thus the optimum angle of an array equals the location’s Latitude. For example, the latitude of Sacramento, California is about 37 deg. That also happens to be the optimum tilt angle for the array. Similarly at the equator where the latitude is zero, so is the optimum tilt angle for an array zero, or flat. The reason solar arrays lose performance at non-optimal tilt angles is because at greater angles to the sun, much of the light simply reflects off the glass surface instead of being absorbed by the silicon semiconductor cells.
On flat roofs, it can be cost efficient to mount the panels at the optimum tilt angle. This becomes less cost efficient on residential sloped roofs.
Sacramento Solar Panel Orientation
Orientation is the direction the solar array is facing. This also is based on location but in much simpler terms. Basically in Sacramento the orientation should be as south-facing as possible. That’s not to say a west facing array wouldn’t generate more solar power in Sacramento California during the late afternoon. It would. But it would also generate very little during the morning to mid afternoon. So in general the more south facing the solar array, the better.