All About Solar
Purpose & Targets
Purpose
The key to being a successful member of our team, is to be knowledgeable in our product! Today we will be going over the basics of Solar!
Targets
When you complete this Subject, you will be able to:
- Describe what solar energy is
- Explain how a residential solar system works
- Provide information on how production monitoring works
- Understand different solar financing options
What is Solar Energy
In this section, you will learn about what solar energy is!
What is Solar Energy
Solar Energy is a renewable resource that doesn't produce greenhouse gases. This makes it an excellent choice for everyone looking to reduce their carbon footprint. Another great impact of solar energy is that it is very reliable. Solar panels can generate electricity even in cloudy or overcast conditions, so you'll never have to worry about your home or business not producing electricity. With that said, even if you are using more energy than you are creating, you will have access to the grid whenever you need it with net metering.
Roof Mounted Solar
As the name suggests, roof-mounted solar panels are attached directly to the roof! We can install these panels to the home itself or the top of a building such as a shed. The panels will require penetrating the material of the roof for installation.
Solar panels require a well-maintained and durable roof.
Ground Mounted Solar
We can install panels anywhere on a property and orient them as needed. These ground-mounted systems require a reinforced foundation & building a ground-based solar system is not always a quick process. It requires experts to build a solid foundation, ensure the correct orientation, and wire them to the home. This process is involved and takes more time than most solar roofs.
Residential Solar Systems
Purpose
After reviewing the following information, you should now be able to:
- •Thoroughly describe how our systems are built
- •Assist homeowners in understanding what they are seeing in their monitoring site
Residential Solar Systems
Bright Home Energy cannot guarantee production nor the cost of electricity after going solar, what we can guarantee is that we have installed the solar system per HO's contract.
The reason why we are unable to guarantee that the homeowner will no longer need to pay their utility company, is because we are unable to guarantee that their energy consumption will remain the same as when the system was built and sold.
If a HO increases their consumption after their system has been turned on, their solar production may not offset their annual usage as much as anticipated at the point of sale.
Our systems are built and sold on a yearly offset, this means that over the course of a full year, the system should reach an estimated annual production. Our homeowners are often concerned about whether or not their system is producing properly when they receive a higher than normal bill from their utility provider, it is our responsibility to ensure they are aware that there will be some months where they are using more than they are producing, and vice versa.
Production Monitoring
At the end of every project, we provide our customers access to their Production Monitoring site.
We ensure to make homeowners aware that it is their responsibility to monitor their own production, as Bright Home Energy does not. For questions about monitoring or system performance, customers can reference our contact information resource.
SolarEdge monitoring can go up to 2 days without showing production without worry. Things we ensure are that there are no errors on the account, and that the "Last Updated" date is accurate to what is shown on the graph!
What Customers See:
- Real-time Production: Current power generation and daily/monthly totals
- System Status: Active status and last updated timestamp
- Environmental Impact: CO₂ emissions saved and equivalent trees planted
- Weather Integration: Local weather conditions affecting production
- Historical Data: Production charts and performance trends
BHE's Finance Options
Bright Home Energy provides multiple options on how to pay for solar, the next slides will explain each option in detail!
Cash
The first option we offer is paying for the solar system in cash! With increasing interest rates and dealer fees, many customers like to pay in cash when they can!
With our cash customers, our in house accounting team sends invoices and tracks payments made.
Our cash customers are provided different options on how to make payments:
- Real Cash - not a check, often times this option comes at a discounted rate and is discussed prior with the owners!
- Check - homeowners are able to mail in their payment or come on down and drop it off!
- Bank Draft - we send a secure link to HO's email where they can provide their account information and have the funds pulled from their account electronically, this is a great way to avoid processing fee's!
- Credit/Debit Card - CC payment option is sent only when homeowners request, and we are always sure to inform them of the 3.1% credit card processing fee when offering this option
Loans
Bright Home Energy partners with many different finance companies to provide a plethora of loan options!
Each Finance Partner has different approval requirements, interest rates, and dealer fees. Our sales team works with the customers to get them signed up with the best option for them!
There is not a lot of information BHE is able to provide to HO's when it comes to payment information when a deal is financed, which is why we always have our FP's customer service phone numbers handy. Providing contact information to a finance partner for our customers is often times the most we can do when they ask us about payment!
Lease
A newer finance option that BH offers is leases!
Our lease customers are a bit different than anyone else, because the leasing company is the actual owner of the system.
Our sales team does a great job determining if a customers best option for solar is a leased system, and when they do we work with the leasing company to ensure our installation is up to their standards, as well as the HO's.
Lease information is provided the same way as loan information, by providing contact information for the FP!