6 things I’ve learned after a decade of using rooftop solar
I first had solar panels installed on my roof almost ten years ago. I have since moved and had them installed in my new house as well. At this point, I now know how to install panels and how to use them. Here’s what I learned along the way.
The angle and direction of your roof matters more than you think
Solar panels want to face south
When we installed solar panels on our new house, we purchased a slightly smaller system that was twice the size of our first, but it ended up producing almost two and a half times as much energy. This difference was not due to our installer secretly installing a larger system or the result of defects. The orientation of solar panels simply matters more than you think.
A south-facing roof with a clear view of the sky is most ideal, but my old house actually faced southwest.
Meanwhile, the back of my new house faces south. Very little shade falls on our roof, so aside from cloud cover, the solar panel bakes all day.
It takes a lot of panels to completely replace your energy consumption
Prepare for a significant initial investment
When I tell people we have solar panels, the first thing they want to know is if we still have an electric bill. So far my answer has always been yes. Modern American homes use a lot of energy, especially because of our centralized air conditioning and electric water heaters. Offsetting all this with solar energy requires a considerable investment.
This is why, for our second home, we installed two separate solar panels. The first was built when our house was being built. Since this was new construction, we did not have any energy usage history to provide to the installer. We assessed our needs, then figured we’d come back when we were ready to expand our system to fill the gap. Our first array consists of 28 solar panels each capable of producing 400 watts, totaling an 11.2 kW system.
We have since purchased 16 additional panels providing an additional 7 kW of power, based on our energy usage during our first year of owning the house. Result: we now have more than 40 panels on our roof. We’re hoping that the two solar panels should offset our entire electric bill, but due to the nature of how net metering works, we won’t know for sure for a year.
Net metering rules make all the difference
Whether your power company will credit you for energy depends on where you live.
We live in a net metering state, so every month the power company measures how much energy we pull from the grid, compares it to how much energy we send to the grid, and then charges us the difference. If we took out 1,400 kWh and sent 1,000 kWh back, then they charge us 400 kWh. If we send more than we take in, then they give that credit to future bills.
Let’s imagine that our home consumes an average of 2,200 kWh of energy each month, for a total of 26,000 kWh each year. As long as our solar panels produce 26,000 kWh of energy each year, we break even and our bill disappears. The company simply charges us the connection fees and taxes.
Here you can see in the Enphase Enlighten app how our house produced 15,000 kWh of energy in 2024 and 2025. Our second panel didn’t come online until the end of 2025, which is why the 2025 figure is slightly higher.
The calculation varies by location, as some power companies are not required to credit you the same amount for energy as long as they charge you for the energy produced. I am fortunate to live in a state (Virginia) and work with a power company (Dominion Power) that has a full 1:1 ratio. Some states and power companies don’t offer a net metering option at all, meaning you now have to rely on batteries if you want to fully offset your electricity cost, significantly increasing your upfront cost.
Solar Energy Is One of the Best Financial Investments You Can Make
Money saved is money earned
Solar panels have an intimidating upfront price tag, but the fact is you’re going to spend that money anyway. You either pay to use energy produced by someone else, or you pay for the infrastructure to produce that energy yourself.
A house our size, with two electric cars, can easily leave us with electricity bills of over $400 per month, totaling over $5,000 per year. We paid about $50,000 for our solar panels (and received about a third of that in tax credits). That’s a big number, but it’s one that pays for itself in less than 10 years, especially when you take into account that we spent a comparable amount on gasoline each month before switching to electric vehicles. And this calculation doesn’t even take into account the fact that energy costs are steadily increasing!
My wife and I are only in our thirties. We will have to hope for several decades to live without the costs of energy and transport weighing on our heads.
Pay for solar panels like you would for a car
Don’t rent, buy them directly
I recommend paying for solar the same way you pay for a car. You either make the entire purchase in cash or get a loan.
During the time you’re paying off a loan to buy panels, you might actually pay more per month than before. This is because your loan repayment may be more than the amount you save on utilities. But unlike a car, solar panels make you money in the long run, and they last for decades. You eventually reach the point where the loan is paid off, and then you find yourself with no loan repayment, no electricity bill and, if combined with electric vehicles, the equivalent of free gas.
Without battery, your panels fall with the network
For most of us who own solar panels, power outages are still commonplace
The panels have to send the electricity somewhere, and any energy that doesn’t reach your home goes to the grid. When there is a power outage, your house always loses power. It would be dangerous to carry electricity along power lines that someone is actively working on.
We haven’t added batteries to our solar array yet because they only pay for themselves if you live in an area where net metering is not an option. For us, batteries are just an added cost, like a home backup generator. For now, we’ve opted for larger, cheaper, portable power stations. This way we always overcome power outages only with battery power and solar energy.
My wife and I have spent the better part of the last decade gradually transitioning to solar power and electric cars, and that investment has paid off. We don’t get stressed in the winter when we use our 5-ton HVAC, nor do we need to factor in the cost of gas to take a spontaneous day trip. At first, taking out these loans was a daunting prospect, but it’s great to be on the other side, where the energy is abundant and free.
