FAQs

A solar system is comprised of a few main components: solar panels, inverters, racking system, electrical tie in, and a monitoring system. The racking system, panels, and inverters are all located on your roof. A 1-inch conduit from your system is tied directly to your electrical service.

The solar panels and inverters on the roof turn sunlight into usable electricity for your home. The electricity is fed directly into your home, and any electrical appliances will use solar power. Because our systems are grid tied, if the solar system is not producing enough electricity to meet your home's needs, you can draw electricity from the grid. If your solar system is producing more electricity than your home needs, you can send that electricity back to the grid for a credit.

Your home will draw from solar electricity first, then your utility company as needed. Thankfully, this is all done automatically. There is nothing that you as the homeowner need to do to facilitate this.

While the majority of our installations are in the District, we also install in Maryland.

Solar Renewable Energy Certificates, or SRECs, are a “green credit” that DC utilities need in order to hit their annual mandated renewable portfolio. 1,000 kWh (or 1 MWh) of electricity produced by a solar system equates to one SREC.

For a more in-depth explanation on SRECs, check out our SREC 101 article on the blog.

To begin trading your SRECs, the easiest way to do it is through a brokerage. SREC brokers will monitor your systems output and trade your SRECs on your behalf, while taking a small fee. A few of the brokers that DC residents can reach out to include SAMS, SRECTrade, and Sol Systems. The Solar Solution team can offer application assistance to help you get started. 

For more information on SRECs, visit our SREC 101 article on the blog.

If you are selling your home, please fill out our homeowner transfer request form . We will do our best to make this process as smooth as possible.

Warranties stay with the system rather than the purchaser; we extend our workmanship warranties to new homeowners when applicable. All we need to do is update our records internally once we receive the new homeowner’s information. And all manufacturer warranties are also tied to the property and not the homeowner and are registered automatically at the time of commissioning the system, no further action is required.

Solar systems produce electricity on the roof of the property and the power is delivered to the home's breaker panel to distribute that power throughout the home. Any power produced that is not used in your home will leave your meter to go back onto the grid. This is called net-metering. Your utility company will provide you with a credit for that power being sent onto the grid, which you can use when your solar isn’t producing enough, or at night. If there is any excess power left at the end of the month, it will be applied to your account as a credit.

The panels on your roof produce electricity that is tied directly to your main breaker panel, Any electrical appliance in your house will pull from solar first, then your utility provider as needed. If you are producing more than you need – those extra kilowatt hours (kWhs) go out to the grid (see net-metering above)

On the second page of your utility bill, you will see “details of your electric charges.” You’ll see these two lines – the top says “use” and the bottom is “excess gen.” Your bill ONLY shows what is touching their meter. The “use” line shows kWhs you have pulled from the utility provider during that billing cycle (at night, or when the system isn’t producing enough to cover your current need). The excess gen(eration) line shows kWhs you put on to the grid that you didn’t need right away. Meaning, you produced more kWhs than required to power your home and appliances at that given time. Those kWhs are applied to your bill immediately as a credit. At the end of the month, your use vs generation is tallied, and you are billed for the net.

Your bill will not show total production. You will see your net usage (whether positive or negative). Your monitoring system will show total production on a daily, monthly, and yearly basis. Always feel free to reach out to your sales representative or the office to assist with reading your bill if you have further questions.