Professional Expert Commercial & Residential Roofing Contractors
At Energy Shield of New Hampshire we have spent the last 40+ years working with homeowners on creating energy efficiency inside and outside of their homes.
The process starts by meeting with an Energy Shield of New Hampshire expert to outline your goals for going solar.
Energy Shield of New Hampshire works with you to design a solar system that fits your needs. We focus on building a system.
The design process involves 3 main components.
Orientation: Which way does your home face
Tilt: Pitch of your roof
Solar access: How much sun hits your roofing system? Are there trees or other obstructions blocking the suns path to your roof.
Is your roofing system solid?
Condition of electrical:
Sun hits the panels on your roofing system. Panels create DC current. Inverter(s) converts DC to AC. AC feeds your home in real time. Surplus of energy is exported to the grid (your utility provider) through the net meter. Usage that solar does not cover you can still pull back from the grid (your utility provider).
You have your customer charge (fixed fee you pay to utility to be their customer)
Total kilowatt hours used, we evaluate off of a 12 month cycle. Add the kilowatt hour rates.
On your utility bill there are 5 categories of charges: Supply (actual generation at the power plant), transmission (regional grid distributing power from the power plant to substation), distribution (sending power from substation to you the homeowner), & system benefit charge (this is where you pay for energy efficiency programs), stranded cost recovery (they are charging you for bad investments that they made)
The good news is that solar can offset all of these costs!
Simple answer….it depends. The deciding factor is based on your needs. We don’t sell systems to homeowners that they do not need. So yes there are upfront costs but our team of solar experts are skilled at designing systems that pay for themselves. This is why we refer to solar as an investment versus a cost.
If you want to find out what this means to you and your home, schedule a meeting to get a free solar consultation with one of our experts today.
There are 4 main options for financing a solar system: Cash, Heloc (home equity line of credit), loan, or lease.
Cash: the best way to invest no cost on your money
Heloc: If you have equity in your home you can pull the equity to fund the solar system build
Loan: There are no money down options designed to take advantage of tax incentives to maximize your monthly cash flow.
Lease: We do not offer leases due to how absolutely horrible this option is. But this is when a 3rd party owns the system on your home that you are paying for through the lease.
Financial return on investment
Environment
Technology
Energy independence
Social status
26% Fed tax credit
State rebates (subject to availability)
Net metering
Renewable energy credits (RECS)
Basically, you will receive credits for surplus solar beyond what you use in your home. When you go solar, your utility will install a bidirectional net meter, which will count the amount of kilowatt-hours (kWh) you send to the grid. The solar energy you produce on your roof system will first go toward powering your home’s needs in real-time. Any surplus will be exported to your utility. If you need additional power beyond what your solar array is producing (i.e. at night), you will be able to use grid power as normal. The value of your credits will offset the cost of your normal grid purchases of electricity.
This policy allows us to size a solar array that meets your electricity needs on an annual basis.
It might surprise you to learn that New Hampshire gets 33% more sunlight than Germany, the world leader in solar adoption. While we have fewer sunny hours overall than the Sunbelt states, we do have the advantage of a more moderate climate. Cool, clear days with full sunlight are when you see optimal production.
Due to advances in panel and inverter technology, it is often possible to offset 100% of your electric bill with solar panels on your roof. Energy Shield utilizes advanced modelling that accounts for 30 years of weather data, the precise location of your home, and the tilt, orientation and shading to determine how much your solar array will be expected to produce over the course of a year.
In short, solar viability is more about your specific situation than the state you live in.
Generally speaking, snow will slide off a solar array similar to a metal roof. We do factor in some expected losses from snow coverage in our system production estimates. Physics works in our favor here: as the sun hits the snow it will start to generate some heat, which will facilitate melting and sliding of snow off the array. Snow is a fact of life here in New Hampshire – we always consider the winter months with any of our installations. That’s why they call us Energy Shield!
We have the competitive pricing and a quality of work that speaks for itself.