Sacramento Solar Benefits

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Benefits of Sacramento Solar

As energy costs go up and environmental concerns continue to rise, many people are exploring home Sacramento solar power systems. These devices can and do work very well, but there are some pros and cons that can come along with them.

Reduce your energy bill
Increase the resale value of your home
Reduce reliance on power company
Protect your home against brownouts and blackouts

Sacramento Roofing and Solar

Yancey Home Improvements offers Sacramento Solar across the PG&E Sacramento County service area. We can design the system according to your power needs and design to your budget and expected return on your investment.

Home solar power systems can vary rather greatly in size and capacity. They all operate using the same basic components, however. These include such things as solar panels to collect the sun’s energy, inverters to transform it into usable power and batteries to store harvested power for future use. The efficiency and ability to power systems withina home will depend on the actual components used in a design.

It is definitely possible to design a system that not only generates all the power your family needs but also store it in backup battery systems for use during extended outages and/or stormy days when solar is less efficient.

The Pros Of Home Solar Power Systems

Home systems both large and small can bring with them a number of advantages. In most cases, systems do eventually pay for themselves thanks to cost savings on electricity bills. The pros for this type of solar system include:

Offset of electrical use – Home solar power systems even in small designs do offset the amount of non-sustainable energy that a particular residence uses. This can help conserve fossil fuels and make a home more self-sufficient.
Cost savings – For every kilowatt hour home solar power systems save, homeowners realize a real cost benefit. How much this will equate to will depend on the actual offset and the prices currently charged by an electric or gas company.
Environmental impact – Home solar power systems are designed to operate using sustainable energy. The sun’s power is not something humans can deplete. In addition to this very green perk, solar power is also cleaner to harvest and use than fossil fuel-based energy.

The Cons Of A Sacramento Solar System

Although home solar power systems can be very beneficial for people to consider, there are some potential cons that go along with the prospect. They include:

Initial costs – Depending on how large a system a homeowner is looking at, the costs involved can be rather high. This can make it very difficult for some homeowners to afford the initial investment.
Efficiency – Home solar power systems do sometimes have issues with efficiency. This can hinge a lot on the design of the system, the amount of sunlight available and the positioning of the solar panels to take advantage of available daytime hours.
Space requirements If a system is desired to completely replace electric, the amount of space required for a solar array might be prohibitive.

Other Ways to Make Your Sacramento Roofing More Efficient

In addition to utilizing solar on your roof, there are other ways you can improve your home’s energy efficiency with your Sacramento roofing.

Lighter Color Shingles

The color of your roof is very important to energy efficiency. Lighter colors reflect light and will not heat up or absorb heat from the sun like dark colors do. Dark slate colored roofs look nice but they could really be costing you a fortune! That nearly black dark gray absorbs a lot of energy from the sun. It gets hotter than heck and that heat radiates into the attic. When that surface is hot, the attic is hot and the hot air has no place to go. Light colored shingles and other roofing surfaces reflect light and heat. A cooler surface will not radiate as much heat into the attic.

Radiant Barrier

Radiant barriers come is several different varieties. The most common in roofing is incorporated into the deck surface. The deck or decking is the material below your roofing paper and is usually OSB (oriented strand board) or plywood. Decking with a radiant barrier will have a sheet of reflective aluminum on the underside (facing into the attic) and what it does is reflect any of the energy absorbed by the shingles back outward in order to further reduce heat gain.

Ventilation

Any roof that has attic space under it will benefit from ventilation. What you really want is for your attic to breathe. The best way to accomplish this is through a combination of soffit venting and ridge venting. Because heat rises, the built up heat will rise to the rafters and build up a lot of energy. It’s not uncommon for attics to reach temperatures of almost 200 degrees! Installing ridge vents will allow the heated air to escape. In order to make ridge venting efficient you need to provide a fresh air feed. This is provided by the soffit vents and the rising and escaping hot air in your attic will create a vacuum that sucks cooler air into the soffits to replace the escaping hot air. This can reduce attic temperatures quite dramatically.

Insulation

Your air conditioner is working constantly on hot days to try to reduce the interior temperature. If that cooled air is being warmed by radiant energy from your ceiling, your AC will have to work that much harder and your energy bill will skyrocket. Adding insulation in the attic will further reduce the effects of radiant energy coming from the attic.

Improve Your Roof’s Efficiency with Yancey Home Improvements

Again, everything has it advantages and disadvantages but, with a properly designed and installed solar energy system from Yancey Home Improvements, a local GAF Master Elite Roofing Contractor, you can beat the high initial cost by taking advantage of Government incentives, low cost financing and…time. The power you make over the lifetime of the system can pay for the entire program. In addition, you may even be able to sell energy back to the power companies. Connect with our Sacramento roofing company today!