Solar power is becoming more popular in recent years—and for good reason. Installing solar panels for your home can mean lower energy bills and a lot of money saved. Before you hire a contractor, you’ll want to get a sense of what actually happens during an installation. Even though the solar panel installation process can differ based on your home and contractor, there are some basic things you should expect and that you should know before you get started.

Things To Expect During Solar Panel Installation

First off, you must know that the entire process can take up to three months. That’s because your

Assessment

Any contractor will need to assess your roof to understand what you’re looking for. This means considering your goals, budget, and design, which is why this might take as long as a month. In addition, this is when you might need to manage anything that may get in the way of an installation, like pruning your trees or making some roof repairs.

Permits and Preparation

There’s paperwork involved in any big project like solar panel installation. It will take some time for your contractor to get the correct permits,  and time for you to figure out any potential tax credits or benefits for your installation.

The Actual Installation

Once every part of the process is approved, you’re at the installation part of the process. At this point, your contractor will order your solar panels, check your roof to make sure that it can hold up the panels, and go over any other details with you about installing. This might take as long as one or two months before your crew comes.

They’ll start by prepping by laying out the panels according to the engineered drawings and checking your roof before beginning with the electrical wiring and installing the rack to support your panels. Finally, the panels will go in. Ultimately, the actual installation should only take three days maximum.

Inspection

Ultimately, a government representative must inspect the system and provide approval, essentially double-checking your installer’s work. Once this is complete, you can get everything turned on and connected.

What to Know Before Installing Solar Panels

If you’re thinking about installing solar panels, there are just a few things to keep in mind before you get started. 

If you have an extremely old roof, you will need to ensure that it’s in a good enough condition to support panels.

Conclusion

There’s a lot that goes into the process of installing solar panels. You need to make sure that you are dealing with a State Certified local contractor so that not only will you get a quality installation, but if needed, someone closeby will be there if service is required.  Once you get started, you should be sporting some new panels atop your home in one to three months.