With a growing trend toward cleaner and more efficient uses of energy, investing in solar is a great way to increase your property’s value. Solar energy is joining such upgrade trends as kitchen and bath renovations as selling points for homes. Standard grid-tied solar is a smart investment when it comes to saving money now and to securing a higher asking price later. Here are some helpful tips for making a solar investment work for you:

Obtain Pearl Home Solar Certification

Once you decide to go solar, consider obtaining a Pearl Solar Certification. Certification serves as official documentation attesting to a status or level of achievement in home efficiency. Pearl is a national firm that provides third-party certification for high-performing homes. The certification focuses on improvements that make homes healthy, comfortable, resilient, and energy-efficient.

This certification is highly regarded among industry professionals for several reasons:

1. Pearl is the only private certification firm to sponsor the Home Performance program with ENERGY STAR.

2. Other partnerships include the U.S. Department of Energy, the Building Performance Institute, the National Association of Realtors, the Appraisal Institute, and Efficiency First.

Obtaining a Pearl Home Solar Certification is a relatively easy process. Interested homeowners can take a pre-qualification survey that saves both them and Pearl time in evaluating eligibility. The survey typically includes the following types of questions:

• When the home was built
• The type of heating fuel in use
• Whether the home has a solar panel system
• Whether the home was built to a higher standard, like ENERGY STAR or HERS Index Score

Pearl’s primary focus are several key areas of the home, such as:

• The building shell
• Heating and cooling
• Electric baseload
• Home management
• Any current use of solar

Pearl Certification hasn’t reached all 50 states, however, the certification is available in the Mountain View Solar service area of Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Mountain View Solar will include a Pearl certification upon request with new solar installations.

Having official documentation of your home as an energy-efficient place of comfort is attractive to homebuyers. Your Pearl Home Certification includes a letter for an appraiser that explains the tangible value of solar. The letter, along with the certification, gives you an advantage over non-certified homes. With proper marketing, homes with Pearl Certification can add 5 percent or more to a home’s sale price.

Include Solar in Your Home Upgrade Plans

Pearl anticipates certifying 10 percent of the U.S. housing stock by 2030. The need for certified homes points to the growing demand for more energy-efficient homes. Two studies by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that buyers will pay a premium for solar homes.

The studies discovered that homebuyers throughout the country are willing to pay a premium of about $15,000 for a home with an average-sized solar system. The studies also found that homes with solar panels sold faster than those without them.

What exactly is driving the demand? There are several key reasons for the growing interest in solar homeownership:

1. Lower monthly costs‚Once a solar system is in place, harnessing the energy is free. Combining solar with electric (vs gas appliances) is an option and can result in costs savings with monthly electric bills. Overall, saving money is one of the top attractive benefits for purchasing a solar home.

2. Solar energy is clean energy‚Many homebuyers shop for solar homes in order to avoid homes dependent upon fossil fuels. Coal, crude oil, and natural gas are all fossil fuels that have negative impacts on humans and the environment. Fossil fuels emit harmful toxins before and during burning. Solar energy is not only clean, but it is healthier for humans and safe for the environment.

3. A solar system is an investment‚Purchasing the right home is an important decision and an investment in itself. While the average homeowner lives in the same home an average of 13 years, life is unpredictable. A job transfer or other changes may result in a need to relocate. Homebuyers who understand the current trends regarding solar know their purchase will pay off when it comes time to sell.

Roll solar into your mortgage or home equity line of credit

Considering refinancing your home or in the market for a new home? If so, it’s a great time to roll the cost of a new solar installation into the loan, making it cash positive on day 1. If refinancing isn’t in the cards, perhaps a home equity line of credit is. Borrowing against your own home equity to install a solar is a great way to boost the value of your home.

About Mountain View Solar

At Moutain View Solar, we provide superior solar service and installation throughout West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Since 2009, we’ve helped both residential and commercial customers discover the savings and value of solar energy.

Learn more about our zero down financing by speaking with one of our friendly staff members today. There is no pressure and we offer free estimates to help guide your decision. From assistance choosing the right system for your needs to obtaining Pearl Solar Certification, our team can help you throughout the process.

A kitchen or bath remodel is a given when it comes to upgrading your home for the market. Consider adding solar to your list of upgrades in order to increase value and to reach potential buyers. Not only will you attract more buyers, but you will also save money‚and help the environment‚until the right buyer comes along.

Mountain View Solar invites you to complete a free online estimate form. It is the easy first step to learning more about how solar can benefit you. Owning property like a house is a big responsibility. Reducing monthly costs by going solar can leave you with a better budget for other important needs. Additionally, when the time comes to sell your home, you’ll be glad you invested in an energy-efficient system home buyers want.

Whether you are looking to save on your monthly energy bill, help the environment, invest in your property, or all three, contact us. Let us help you discover why solar is an attractive option for a more comfortable and healthier home. You’ll find the Mountain View Solar team helpful and knowledgeable. Explore your options today by reaching out for your free estimate. There’s no pressure or obligation.

Going solar is possible, affordable, and a smart investment. Increase your property value by contacting Mountain View Solar today.

Tesla was not the first manufacturer of electric cars, but the Elon Musk owned company has certainly instigated a revolution in the industry. Tesla created innovation and interest that has driven the electric vehicle market to new heights. Now, Elon and crew have their sights set on bringing battery power to another market, your home.

Like their popular cars, the Tesla PowerWall is not the first residential-use home battery but it is certainly a major entrant into the field and will no doubt do for solar power what the Model S did for electric cars. In this post, we’ll take a detailed look at the Tesla PowerWall. We’ll look at what it is, what it does, and most importantly, why you should care.

What is the Tesla PowerWall?

The Tesla PowerWall is basically a lithium-ion battery for your home. It allows you to store power that can then be used in the case of a power outage or, for solar owners, to store excess power produced by the panels. Although not specifically tied to solar as a technology, one can easily see how the PowerWall works very nicely with a solar installation. Moving the world away from fossil fuels is clearly a large motivating factor for Elon in the creation of the technology. When it was announced he said, “Our goal is to fundamentally change the way the world uses energy. It sounds crazy, but we want to change the entire energy infrastructure of the world to zero carbon.”

How does it Work?

One of the biggest problems facing electric cars was the lack of a battery powerful enough to provide a meaningful range to the vehicle. A car that has to be charged at every stop isn’t very practical. Tesla’s engineers, in the course of creating one of the most popular and performance brands of electric vehicles, became very good at creating highly efficient lithium-ion batteries.

The Tesla PowerWall builds on the expertise and technology of Tesla’s engineers to produce a lithium-ion battery that is small enough to reside neatly out of the way in your home, but powerful enough to provide meaningful electricity when you need it. Usually paired with a solar panel installation, the battery stores up excess power while your panels are getting lots of sunlight and allows you to use that power at night when they are getting none, especially during a power outage.

What Benefits does PowerWall provide?

Many people operate solar installations without a battery. Batteries are not a necessary component of a grid-tied solar installation. So what benefits does it provide that will make your solar installation an even better deal?

Nullifies Power Outages

With net metering, you can “sell” excess electricity from your solar panels back to the power company. This means that even when they are not producing power, they are saving you money. However, using the power company as a sort of virtual battery does you no good when the power goes out. A PowerWall will allow you to save up your own power. Not only does this mean that you’ll be sitting pretty with the lights on while everyone else is in the dark, but it also allows you to further reduce your dependency on the electric company.

Protects Against Loss of Net Metering

We just touched on this already, but it bears repeating as its own benefit. Currently, many state governments require power companies to participate in net metering programs. Like many politically motivated things, we don’t know what the future may hold. Although chances of net metering disappearing any time soon are very low, having a PowerWall to store your excess electricity instead of relying on the power company to do so for you is a surefire way to maximize self consumption of solar energy, even if tides turn and net metering goes away.

Increases Property Value

Residential batteries are a property improvement and like any improvement, they will improve the value of your property. Solar panels, and the batteries that can make them useful during power outages, are especially beneficial improvements to make to your home because they directly add actual monetary value to the property. Many improvements are attractive and will make people want to pay more. Very few actually bring cost savings to the owners the way that a complete solar installation that can store its own power does.

More Environmentally Friendly

As we learn more about the effects of global warming, many people feel compelled to do their part to help reduce the impact we humans have on the environment. We mentioned Elon’s quote about wanting to rid the world of carbon-based power earlier. If you share Elon’s goal, then a PowerWall is a great step that you can take as an individual to reduce your carbon footprint even further than solar power alone can. While net metering is great, at night your property is still operating from fossil fuels. But with a PowerWall and self consumption, your use of fossil fuels is greatly diminished or even eliminated.

Does it qualify for the Federal income tax credit?

If installed alongside a solar array, then yes the battery also qualifies for the Federal tax credit. Currently sitting at 30% for 2019 and dropping to 26% in 2020, the investment tax credit is a major incentive to go solar with battery storage. In addition, the state of Maryland has a battery storage tax credit, which directly lowers your state taxes for the battery itself. You can claim both of these in Maryland.

About Mountain View Solar

Like Elon, we are believers in the green energy revolution. We believe that solar power is not only a way to help do our part to save the planet, but also a truly great alternative to being completely dependent on the power grid. It is for that reason that we became solar installers. Our experts are on hand to help you deploy the best solar installation for your particular needs. It is how we do our part to help reduce the world’s consumption of carbon fuels and its dependence on third-party energy providers. If you would like a free, zero pressure consultation for solar and/or battery installation, please contact us today and one of our professional consultants will be glad to answer any questions you may have. mtvSolar’s inventory is stocked with PowerWalls ready for installation today!