Frequently Asked Questions

There are a number of factors that affect the cost of a solar electric system for your home. When you have us install solar panels at your house, we are building a power plant which will energize your life for decades to come. So, instead of paying tens of thousands of dollars in utility bills, you’ll be paying yourself!

We do our best to provide our clients a system with a monthly payment that’s close to their current monthly power bill payment. Once you pay off your loan, you can enjoy decades of free power.

The cost of your solar system will depend on several factors including: your current energy usage, your available unshaded roof space, your utility’s net metering policy and other factors.

We recommend getting a free site consultation; we’ll create a proposal with all of the costs and incentives included.

Yes. There are several incentives available, and we can help you find the best price for solar. It’s important to ask for incentives when going solar. True South Solar is the only company serving Southern Oregon that will cut through the red tape and get your solar incentives for you.

Incentives vary, based on your utility company. If you want to learn more, we have information here on our website, and we are happy to speak with you by phone. You can also request a free consultation with one of our solar advisors and we can tell you exactly how much you can save!

No, solar is not free. If something seems too good to be true, it usually is. If you have been led to believe that putting solar on your home or business is free, that is a false and misleading claim. We’re sorry to see these ads misrepresent the solar industry.

On the other hand, we do our best to make solar affordable for all members of our community. We are an Energy Trust of Oregon Trade Ally. Our team will help you procure funding for solar through them as well as any other incentive out there.

We also offer solar loans to help you pay for your solar electric system. We review the long-term return on investment so you understand what’s best for you and your family when you go solar.

True South Solar has been in business installing solar panels since 2010. Our Solar Experts have a combination of decades of experience installing solar for homes and businesses in Southern Oregon. We have installed more than 1,200 solar panel systems in Southern Oregon. Most of our clients give us a 5-star rating. You can take a look at our map showing the location of all of the jobs we have installed.

Stop renting your power from the power company today. When you go solar, you will own your own power plant. With a fixed monthly payment, you lock in your savings, rather than paying increasing costs to the power company over time.

Your energy use and the size of your solar energy system will determine your actual savings amount. With little or no startup costs, systems start paying for themselves immediately and increase each year as the cost of electricity rises. A typical return on investment is usually about 15-20%.

Solar photovoltaic (PV) panels convert sunlight to electricity. Most of the solar panels we install convert the power right at the panel into AC current usable in your home. The panels are usually connected into the electric grid and directly power your home, which allows you to pull less, or during certain times, no electricity from the utility.

See below for information about Net Metering and how this enables you to have solar power year-round and at night.

Our systems are guaranteed for 25 years, though they are engineered to produce power for more than 40 years. Other solar panels vary and performance can degrade faster over time, so it’s important to demand better solar!

In general, adding solar to a home will add about 4% to its value. There is not very much recent data supporting the exact increase in value as conditions change continually in the solar and residential markets. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• A solar PV system significantly decreases the home’s monthly power bill;
• Owning a solar power plant means that the homeowner is producing their own energy;
• The warming planet is becoming a more prevalent issue each year as wildfires become more widespread and hurricanes become more fierce and more homeowners each year want to part of the solution to this problem; and
• If the home also has energy storage like a Tesla Powerwall, the home is much more resilient when power companies shut off power to reduce the potential for wildfires on windy days.

The solar panels we install on your home are connected to your public utility power grid. Any surplus power you generate on site is transferred onto the grid and credited to you. This allows you to offset the cost of power you draw from the utility at night and over the winter. Essentially, you are charged for power you use and credited for power you produce, which will be the total amount you owe; that accounting process is called “net-metering.”

Solar panels need sun to generate electricity, but even in areas with bad weather your system will still produce. Solar systems continue to produce even when it’s cloudy, your panels just produce less of what they normally would. If you live in a cloudy area, or an area with seasonal snow, your expected weather conditions will be factored into our estimates for your energy production.

Home solar systems generally require very little maintenance and are maintained by our natural weather cycle.

Not without a battery backup system. In the event of a blackout, your inverter will automatically shut down for safety reasons (especially power company workers out repairing downed power lines), thus you will not have electricity until power is restored to the grid.

If you’re concerned about the potential loss of power at your home or business, contact us today and we’ll be happy to tell you all about Tesla Powerwall and how you can achieve peace of mind.

Batteries for energy storage are not required, but they can provide peace of mind for you and your family.

As the price of batteries has come down and their benefits are better understood, battery systems like the Tesla Powerwall have become affordable and mainstream. So you can go solar now, and add batteries later, or do both! We engineer our systems from the ground up to work for you.

If you live in an area with frequent blackouts, or having power is critical, you should speak with us about battery backup systems. Battery backup systems do add costs to the overall project, but many incentives apply to the complete cost of the system.