Solar Panel Buying Guide: Don’t Purchase Solar Panels From Sketchy Retailers

Solar panels are affordable, but they aren’t affordable and safe enough to purchase from leading ecommerce sites. High-quality solar panel manufacturers sell and have specialized delivery methods to ensure their products arrive in top shape and qualify homeowners to their warranties. Depending on third-party manufacturers for deliveries spells many warranty and product performance issues upon arrival.

Sketchy retailers from leading e-commerce websites, such as Wish and Amazon, will offer discounted solar panels that are about 50-70% cheaper than available in the current market. For example, a 212 kWh system for a property can cost about $10,000 – $20,000. From Wish or Amazon sellers, you can get an entire system for $3,000.

While it seems affordable at first, you aren’t getting any long-term savings. You’ll find that these unverified and untested products can last about 50-70% faster than well-made and manufacturer-delivered solar panels. In addition, these products have no warranties from both the e-commerce website and selling business.

However, you can still get losses even if you DO buy from reliable solar panel manufacturers, that is if you don’t plan your solar acquisition costs effectively. Solar Reviews has an excellent guide that can help you avoid buying solar panels at the wrong time.

Your roof isn’t suitable for solar panels

When solar panels are installed on homes, they are nearly always on the roof. This is because the roof has the two necessary ingredients to host solar panels: surface space (to place the panels on), and sun exposure (to power the solar panels).  

But what if you don’t have a roof to call your own, or you have a roof but it just isn’t up to the job?

Here are all the roof-related factors that could either prevent a successful solar installation or make it uneconomic:

• You don’t own a house: It could be that you live in an apartment, you’re renting, or you’re living with family. Whichever it is, it means that you don’t have your own roof to install panels on.
• Your roof is too old: A solar installation can be performed on pretty much any roof type, but it’s not recommended on a roof that is weak or damaged; that would just make things worse. Furthermore, if a roof is due to be replaced, you’re much better off waiting till that’s done; if not, you’ll have to take off the solar panels first and reinstall them when the new roof is up. 
• Your roof is too small: Solar panels need sunlight to generate electricity. The more sunlight they absorb, the more power they generate. If you have a small roof, you may find that solar panels simply won’t generate enough kilowatt-hours to make a real impact on your bills.
• There’s too much shade on your roof: Shade cast on your roof by neighboring buildings or surrounding trees can significantly impact your roof’s solar generation potential. 
• The roof’s layout is unfavorable: If your roof doesn’t face the right direction (i.e. it points away from the sun, not towards it) or isn’t at an optimal angle (relative to your latitude), then solar panels will make less electricity than they ideally could. (Continue)

If you need excellent solar panel installations in Golden, CO and GAF-certified Timberline solar shingle roofing installations, you can always count on us at Roper Roofing & Solar. Contact us today to learn more.