Explaining the Process of Switching to Solar
We sat down with New Brunswick's first and only Solar Consultant, Rudi Fowler about the entire process of converting your home to solar, because we wanted to know: how does it all work? Here’s what he had to say in his own words about the entire steps of getting solar, start to finish!
So Rudi, how does it all work?
“First thing you’ll do is decide you want to do it. Then you want to have a good location for it, a good roof, slanted towards the south, and no neighbour’s house shading yours for half the day so that you end up investing in solar panels and they don’t work."
So not everyone is suited for solar?
"That’s why we do an estimate so we can take a look at your situation and identify things right off the bat. We ask for your address so we can see what type of spot your house is in, see if you’d get lots of sun on your roof, maybe you have a dormer and it takes up half your roof, so you don’t have any space for panels and then that second story on your house actually shades it for half the day, etc. so we can see and consider all that."
But anyone can get solar if they want to right?
"Anyone can get solar for sure, even if their house is oriented east/west or they’re in a forest, but they just won’t get their money back as fast, or they won’t at all or if they are 70 years old and it takes more years to pay off than they have left in their lives.
So if it's great, it’s south facing, middle of a field and for a young couple etc. the first thing I recommend is to ask a few questions, like if you’re going to be in that house for 10 years, do you think you have a roof that will work? Great, give your information and we’ll give you an estimate and show you what it will look like on your house and what that estimated production will be, and the cost of the project to you. You might see it’s going to be $20,000 but you’re going to be able to borrow most of it. So they get the proposal and they say ok, I want to go forward with this. East Coast Sun sees that they have accepted the proposal, then we might send out an email or we might want to talk about it."
What’s the next step?
"To get the money together to pay for the installation, most people want to use the grants because it’s free money, which means they have to get an aud
it done in order to get the grants. So the first thing we do, we will have a home energy auditor call them to book an appointment for a home audit. You cannot use the NB power homes grant and you can’t use the Greener Homes grant before you have a home audit done first.
So Homesol will call the customer and book an appointment within a week and they go and put a blower meter on the door and they pressurize the house and see how leaky it is, and they give them a generic report that says ok you’ve got good windows, your insulation is great, all these factors, your heating system could be better, you could use solar, etc. so there’s all these recommendations that come in this report. That unlocks a bunch of federal and provincial funding so they might get rebates on certain things and that’s essentially what solar is. NB Power total home program gives $200 per kW, up to 15 kilowatts, and the federal side gives up to $5000 and is $1000 per kw up to 5 kW which are grants."
Which is all just lent to you?
"No, it's grants. That’s not even the loan yet. Everything hinges on you getting the audit done. And the audit is them making sure that your house exists, you’re the homeowner, you don’t already have a roof full of panels, and when the upgrades are done they come back and say yup, these have been done; it’s like the government hiring a third party to make sure that this house is eligible, and the work was done and the receipts are there so we’ll give you the money. That’s why they have the audits. So, step two would be to get your audit done."
And that can be done right after you accept the proposal?
"Yup and you don’t have to call. We send the person to call you. As soon as we see the acceptance, we get Homesol to call to set up the audit appointment. Homesol does charge; they’re gonna charge depending on what grants you want to go for - if you want to go for the whole shebang, its $150 for the initial, or $200 all across the board. There’s sample audits on the Homesol website to see what you’ll get."
And there’s no chance of them not getting accepted for the grants?
"Not if they used to have it. So you used to need to have at least R60 in your roof in order to get solar, solar is like your stage 3 but they don’t do that anymore, so if you want to put solar panels on an old crumbly house, go ahead! Because you’re still going to have to pay some of it to NB power. They used to be like $150 unless you had all other upgrades done and now its just $200 across the board."
Why would somebody not go for all the grants?
"If they already did a heat pump or something like that, and they’ve already used the grant, because it is possible that they already used it, but most people don’t even know about this. So step 3 would be the solar installation company coming out and doing the work.
There might be a micro step in there where I might want to go and have a look at the house and measure the roof, we’re really close on tolerances but we can figure that out the day of. So if you asked us to come do the work, there’s a bunch of stuff we have to do, like apply for the net metering permit, order the gear for you, but that’s all on us.
So step 3 was to have us do it. So we’re gonna try to get some type of financial commitment from them; they’re either going to finance through bridge financing which means we basically lend them the money until the whole project is done, until they get their money back from the government."
And that’s something that Hayward is doing?
"Yup, so as far as the customer is concerned, we’re just condensing step 3, get the work done.
Step 4 would be the work is done, and the inspector comes. We call for the inspection, so the electrician shows up and says yup, the work looks great, he closes the permit, and then NB power is summoned and then they switch the meter. So NB power comes and they pull out the meter, put it on, turn the whole system on and then you start producing energy from the sun.
So when the project’s done, the customer will get a bill from us, and invoice, and then they get their audit done again, the post audit, Homesol comes back and says ok so that’s been done. So you pay $100, say here’s the receipt f
or the solar. If everything is not perfect, we have to come back and fix it at our expense."
So the same auditor comes twice?
"Yes. So then the customer gets the bill from us, they show Homesol, Homesol submits all that stuff to the government, and as soon as the meter is on, they start making their money back, but Homesol sends the receipts in, and then they can get their loan."
Homesol sends their receipts in? They don’t?
"I think Homesol does on behalf of the customer to
help the process go quicker. So after that your power bill is a lot less because the sun generated most of it."
But you’re getting two bills?
"Well you got a loan that you have to pay back. That should be automatically coming out of your bank account. So your power bill is coming from the same account, same as before, just a lot less."
So if you generate 70% of the power you used from the sun that month, then you’re going to be paying 30% of the cost of the bill?
"Yup, so that money stays in your account. So if it’s a really su
nny month, then you should have more money in your account, cuz NB Power took less out. So the loan pays itself down for 10 years, and at the end of 10 years, you don’t have the loan anymore, but you just have a whole bunch of extra money in your bank account because you're not paying your loan anymore and your bill’s still going to be small as long as there’s solar panels on your roof."
And sometimes it might be zero?
"In theory yes but you still have your connection fee, and you still pay tax on the energy that you did use from the grid. So if you can make it through the whole month without using any electricity from the grid, which is impossible unless you don’t use power at night, because you’re going to use power at night and they’re going to tax you on that power and then the next day you’re going to put the power back essentially, but they’re not going to give you the tax back."
And you’re talking about the type of system that doesn’t use battery storage?
"Yup, that’s the only one I want to recommend right now, why? Because they don’t have to buy batteries. It’s a lot cheaper. Both of the other systems have batteries."
So this is the cheapest system?
"It’s the fastest return on their investment. You put batteries in there, it's going to be like 40% more cost, and then they’re going to wear out in 10 years."
So you’re not considered an ‘
off-gridder’ through this system that they’re going to get?
"No, they’d be grid-tied solar."
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