We serve clients in Texas, Arizona, Florida, Nevada, California, and 25 other states.

When you have a solar system connected to the grid, you will get a bill from your electric company for being able to send surplus electricity to them and receive electricity from them; yet the amount you pay the electric company for this ability is a tiny fraction of what you would pay an electric company if you did not have a solar system. 

If your system produces the same amount of electricity your home uses in a year that is known as 100% offset. When a solar system is designed with 100% offset, it produce more electricity that your home can use during the day, so this surplus of electricity is either sent to the grid, a battery system or both; and then at night the home receives electricity from the grid, a battery system, or both.

For the majority of homes, the total monthly cost for:

• the fixed monthly payment for financing the solar system.
• PLUS the ever-increasing fee charged by an electric company for the homeowner being able to send electricity to them and receive electricity from an electric company.
• PLUS the ever-increasing rates and fees charged by an electric company for the home receiving some of the electricity used by the home from an electric company.

IS LESS THAN the total monthly cost for Doing Nothing, which includes: 

1. the ever-increasing fee charged by an electric company for the homeowner being able to receive electricity from an electric company.
2. PLUS the ever-increasing rates and fees charged by an electric company for the home receiving 100% of the electricity used by the home from an electric company.

Solar helps you reduce your financial exposure to an electric company (landlord) that continues to raise rates year after year after year.

Unfortunately, about half of all solar systems installed in the U.S. are orphaned; in other words, the company that installed the solar system is no longer in business to service the system. 

Solar Heroes only works with installation companies in business for at least 10 years who have the financial strength and local staff to serve the homeowner for decades. The solar system is monitored remotely 24/7/365 for production and performance.

Solar Heroes performs a Solar Performance Review on a video call with our clients every 90 days for the first year and then annually every year thereafter.

For safety reasons, your solar system will not provide power to your home when the grid goes down unless you have a battery-backed solar system. It’s because of how a grid-tied solar system works. The sun shining on the panels generates electricity, which passes through the inverter and is used by your home. When your panels produce more electricity than you’re using, the extra electricity is sent to the electric grid.

If the electric grid is down and your solar system sends that extra electricity onto the grid, that’s a big problem. To protect the utility workers working on the grid and the grid itself, all grid-tied solar systems must shut down automatically when the grid goes down and the power goes off.

An option is to have a natural gas or propane powered generator in case there is a power outage, we recommend the brand, Generac, for that option.

Another option is batteries, see FAQ about batteries.

Contact your homeowner's insurance agent to add replacement cost coverage for the solar system. Some markets require more than replacement cost coverage, so ask your agent.

Depending on the state and insurance policy, some clients pay by about $150 per year for the additional homeowner's insurance coverage.

For various reasons, most of the time, it is NOT in the homeowner's best financial interest to have a solar system with batteries for storing excess power produced during the day and for providing the home with power at night and/or during a power outage.

For some homeowners, it is in their best financial interest to send the surplus electricity produced by solar during the day to a battery and then at night send that electricity from the battery to the home; instead of sending that surplus electricity to an electric company that pays a very low buy-back rate for electricity sent to the electric company by the homeowner.

For many homeowners the cost of batteries and the relatively short battery life make batteries cost prohibitive at this time. This should change in the coming years as battery technology improves and battery cost is reduced.

The installation companies we use install Tesla Powerwall, LG and Solar Edge batteries.

Usually, the answer is NO, you will not be off the grid; however, there are some exceptions.