It’s a common enough question: Can solar panels increase house value in a significant way? It’s true, solar panels can raise the value of a home. But are they worth it? We discuss.
By the team at Goodjuju
Society collectively needs to make sure that we are doing our best to save our planet. Earth is our home planet and many innovations are helping us enjoy the comfort of modern life while also staying eco-friendly.
Solar panels provide renewable energy to our homes; this way we get to enjoy powered homes for lower bills while simultaneously being eco-friendly. Homeowners are not the only ones who can find benefits in investing in solar panels. Property managers and property investors will find that solar panels can raise the value of a home. Not only can you sell a home that is powered by sunlight for a higher price, but you can also charge higher rent prices because of it.
However, many homeowners are still not convinced that solar panels are worth investing in. Although it is good for the environment, your health, and your pocket, they can also be expensive to install. Therefore, we should discuss the advantages and disadvantages of installing solar panels.
How do solar panels work?
To put it simply, When the sun shines onto a solar panel, energy from the sunlight is absorbed by the PV cells in the panel. This energy creates electrical charges that move in response to an internal electric field in the cell, causing electricity to flow. – source
However, this does not mean that you need to live on the bright side of the earth to enjoy solar power systems. The amount of sunlight that strikes the earth’s surface in an hour and a half is enough to handle the entire world’s energy consumption for a full year. For example, many solar panel companies produce more solar panels in England than in Spain.
Author: Chixoy
How can solar panels raise the value of a home?
As previously mentioned, solar panels are eco-friendly and great for the environment and therefore your health. Most first-home buyers and renters are in their late 20s or early 30s. Younger generations are the ones that are most likely to be affected by climate change, therefore, it’s no surprise that most of them are actively trying to contribute to ecology.
If we simply rely on studies, we can see that home values are being increased by the addition of solar panels, however, the price increase doesn’t always apply to specific homes and specific areas. You would be mistaken if you simply relied on statistics to set a price for your home. It’s better to look at the reasoning behind solar panels’ power of increasing home value.
Sunshine
It’s important to consider the sunlight levels of your home region before installing solar panels. Although we already mentioned that solar panels function in more cloudy parts of the world as well, it’s worth noting that they don’t work as well as in sunny lands.
The roof needs to be prepared as well. The size of your roof and the angles of solar panels should not be taken lightly. These factors have a huge weight on the powering of your home if you choose to montage solar power systems to your house.
Electricity Bills
If you plan to rent out a property with solar panel systems, you can count on the tenants wishing to save money on electricity bills. You need to take the electricity bills of your area into account.
The more you have to pay electricity bills, the more you can save by using solar power. Tenants would rather pay a bit more on rent than a lot more on bills. Property managers and investors can use this to their advantage. It will be especially useful if you wish to add solar panels to your home.
Pros And Cons Of Installing Solar Panels
Although solar panels can raise the value of your home, the question still stands: Are they worth it? You will realize that solar panels are not cheap to install. However, you can either lease or buy them, this allows you to choose between two options.
Pros
Firstly, you should consider the advantages of installing a solar power system to your property.
The most obvious advantage of installing solar panels is that you can save a lot of money on electricity bills.
If you are an environmentalist, and you definitely should be to save the life and health of yourself and your children, you can take one more step to avoid leaving a carbon footprint. Solar panels are the green option for gaining energy for your home.
You will be able to gain energy independence. Self-sufficiency is a great plus of using solar panels for house energy.
As we can see, there are at least three benefits of solar energy usage. As a human, it’s your duty to reduce your carbon footprint and try to keep the planet green. As an adult homeowner, you will find great advantages financially by using a solar power system for your home.
Cons
Solar panels are not cheap to install. You can only increase the value of your home if you purchase solar panels instead of leasing them. You also need a lot of calculations on bills and costs. Although solar panels are very useful in the long run, you might need to spend a lot of money at once in the beginning.
They are not easy on the eyes. If you wish for your property to have an aesthetically pleasing exterior, solar panels might get in the way.
These cons, however, don’t seem enough to overpower the advantages of using a solar power system for your property. The only great disadvantage that you might face is the price you need to pay for the installation at first.
How much do solar panels increase house value?
We already talked about how solar panels can increase housing prices. You know that although there is a big price to pay, you can gain a lot of benefits by using solar panels for your property, whether you are a homeowner or a property manager. However, you might want to know just how much the profit is for spending so much money on solar panel systems.
House Prices
A Zillow report shows that housing prices can be increased by 4.1% or more if a seller has added solar panels to the property. Around the US, solar panels have increased housing prices by 4.1% or more, that number equals $9,274 for the average housing prices today.
In the US, the lowest price you can pay for a solar panel is 3,500$ in 2023. Therefore, if everything goes to plan, you would be profiting by 5,774$.
Moreover, home sellers in New York sold houses with solar panels at 5.4% higher prices than regular homes. This is $23,989 more than the average home price in New York! As for San Francisco, homes with solar panels are being sold at 4.4% higher prices than regular homes. The difference in Orlando, FL, is 4.6%.
You should also definitely consider the fact that nowadays, housing prices are higher than they have ever been before. Therefore, it’s best for you and your family to sell your house for as much as possible if you plan to do so. The numbers that we are given seem more relevant considering the fact that the average home price in the US is now $428,700. This gives you more of a reason to think about using any influence to increase the value of your property in 2023.
Rental Prices
Rent prices can also be greatly affected by solar panels. Although not as much as house prices, you can still gain some profit. As a property investor, if you invest in solar panels, you won’t have to worry about maintenance much. Secondly, as much as renters can save on electricity bills, you can add a certain percentage of that number to your rent payment.
Moreover, some potential tenants are looking for homes that can help them reduce their carbon footprint. As discussed before, it’s very important to many people to help the environment. Therefore, they might be willing to pay more for a rental that allows them to do so, than a rental with the exact same conditions, but without solar panels.
Final Thoughts
A solar power system is a wonderful addition to any home due to a variety of factors. As we can clearly see, one of the only cons of installing solar panels is the cost of investment. However, the big price to pay can be canceled out by the huge profit you can make if you sell your home or if you use it as a rental property.
The main question that we had at the beginning was if it was worth it. Installing a solar power system on your property can increase the value of your home so greatly that the primary price of installation might not even matter to you. As for the eco-friendly thing, no counter argument can overpower the necessity of keeping our planet green and saving the ecosystem in any way we can!