Beginner-friendly guides on rooftop solar, off-grid kits, panel choices and how to think about payback on a household system.
The roof was 27 years old, mostly north-facing, and shaded by a pair of Douglas firs that the owner had no intention of removing. I was helping a friend price a rooftop…
The panels went up on my friend Rina's roof in Southeast Portland on a Tuesday in June. Her system did not produce a single kilowatt-hour until late August. Ten weeks, and only…
A friend forwarded me a solar quote last month for 34 panels on her 1,600 square foot ranch outside Salem. She had asked one installer for a bid, taken what they proposed…
The first winter with solar can be unsettling. Daily numbers shrink, your monitoring app shows long flat stretches, and it is easy to wonder if something broke. Most of the time, nothing…
A reader emailed me last month asking why one quote listed a $1,200 inverter and another listed a $4,800 one for the same size system. Both installers swore theirs was the right…
Almost every solar quote you read will mention monocrystalline or polycrystalline panels, sometimes both. The names sound like chemistry homework, and the marketing rarely helps. This guide breaks the choice down in…
A solar quote can look like a 20-page wall of acronyms, model numbers, and disclaimers. It does not have to. Every proposal follows roughly the same shape, and once you know what…
A woman at one of my old workshops in Eugene asked me, half embarrassed, how many years until solar "pays itself off." I told her the honest answer is that it depends…
Solar panels are one of the lowest-maintenance pieces of equipment on your house, but lowest does not mean none. A few small habits, repeated at the right cadence, will keep your system…
