Sunny Energy LLC

Hi Roy. The answer is no, you do not need a battery. In fact, almost all of the hundreds of thousands of solar systems installed so far do not have batteries. However, a battery can give you and your family security, peace of mind against grid outages, and it can help you save even more money on your electric utility bill. Maximizing the use of your own solar energy is more economical than exporting to the grid. Solar systems with batteries also help the utility grid. About 50% of the solar energy from your system gets exported to the grid because you can't use it immediately. When the sun goes down and everybody is home, there is huge demand on the grid. This is difficult for utility and grid operators to manage. We should expect, in the near future, that utility companies will change the rules for consumers with solar. So, if you have a battery to store your excess solar energy during the day and use it at night, you will be immune to at least most of those rule changes.

Hi Elijah, I wish we had more than two, and more than one brand to offer, but we just don't want to sell something that we feel is not adequate for consumer satisfaction. As I responded to your other question, we sell REC Solar panels.

Yes, we have a variety of loans offered through third-party financial institutions. They have a wide range of no money down loans, from 5 to 30 year terms, and interest as low as .49%. We discuss which loans might be best for you during your consultation.

Hi George. When solar is done correctly, there really is no downside. It will produce energy for your home. It will allow you save money that would normally pay to your utility company. It will work for many years. But, like anything, if it's not done correctly, you may not see the savings that you're expecting. Solar does not work well for every home, and sometimes it won't do a good job of saving you money. When we see that is the case during the consultation process, we'll let you know.

That's a great question! Solar systems have no moving parts and require very little maintenance. We provide an online monitoring system that allows you to see how well it's working all the time. You may want to wash the panels with just the spray from a hose, but a little rain once in a while does the same thing to help maximize energy production. If a component goes bad, you will know it quickly from the monitoring data, and we may see it before you do! While the panels and the inverter components have 10 to 25 year warranties, the balance of the system are durable building electrical or mechanical components that are built to last 50 years or more.

Solar panels are an investment in your home that pays off quickly. They can save you money on electricity bills, and sometimes even earn their own keep through ongoing incentive payments! The average time it takes for solar panel owners to see a return varies depending on where they live--but 5-15 years is not uncommon here at all.

Yes, you do have a choice of solar plus battery storage, or just solar, while you remain connected to the grid.

Hi Raymond, The number of inverters needed depends on the type of inverter and how large the system is. Our average residential solar system usually has one inverter. Some companies like to use "micro" inverters, with one for every solar panel. We feel that's a lot of points of failure. If you want to learn more, please contact us and a Sunny Energy consultant can answer all of your questions.

Hi Erik, Solar components are very durable, and mostly made to last 30 years or more, similar to a lot of construction materials. The solar inverter is most likely to need replacement at least once in the first 30 years. It's an electric power conversion device, with sophisticated computing power built in. The firmware and software can be updated, but eventually the equipment will fail, but replacement inverters are very easy to install, and not a huge part of your overall system cost. Besides, you may want the advanced functions of this piece of equipment 15 years from now!

Hi Charles, Solar power from the panels is converted using a solar inverter into very clean AC power, similar to what you get from the power grid. A big difference is that the power from the utility grid has a long way to travel before it gets to your home, so it's often not as clean as the power from your solar inverter. When using the word "clean" here, it refers to technical aspects of the power, such as frequency stability, voltage variances and power spikes or dips. In other words, solar power, from a well-designed solar system, using high quality equipment, such as the equipment used by Sunny Energy, is almost always better for your appliances than utility grid power is.

That's a good question! Your inverter is designed to be used outdoors in most weather conditions. But it does not handle very high or low, temperatures. Keeping it out of direct sunlight is best. Using a qualified, experienced solar installer, like Sunny Energy is the best way to protect your solar inverter. They use industry best practices and manufacturer's recommendations, in addition to what they learned by doing thousands of installations, to design and install your system with product (including inverter) reliability and longevity in mind. Little things, that many "qualified" technicians do not think about can shorten the life of an inverter by 50% to 90%. Something as simple as tightening the conductor terminations to manufacturer's torque specification can result in no problems for the life of the inverter. But, arcing, unusable terminations, or worst case, fire, within the first year are possible when they are tightened more than, or less than, torque specifications.

Hi Eric. 1kW is 1 kilowatt, or 1,000 Watts. That is the total nameplate rating of the solar panels. The solar panels we sell have a nameplate rating of 400 Watts each. So, two of them is 800 Watts or .8kW, three of them is 1.2kW. Each of these panels is about 20 square feet (5.98' x 3.33'), so two of them would be about 40 square feet and three of them would be about 60 square feet.

Yes. But I think they got lightning rod or something that will catch the lightning and transfer it to the ground

Energy production depends on your location, solar system design and available roof space, shading and other factors. We take all of these into account when designing each individual system. Considering average conditions in the Phoenix area, a 8.6 kW solar system should produce about 14,400 kWh per year, enough to offset all of your energy usage.

We put together a complete guide for going solar for homeowners. You can download it online at sunnyenergysolar.com! Hope this helps!

It depends on the homeowner's house and energy usage. You can get a quick quote using our online quoting system www.quote.sunnyenergysolar.com. Or, if you prefer a complete analysis on your home, please call us at 480-536-8700, or send us your contact information at Contact Us on www.sunnyenergysolar.com

Hi Mercedes, the answer is not so simple that we can answer it, without more information. The price and the number of panels depends on how much energy you use in a year, your utility company, the orientation of the usable space on your roof, how much shade there is on those sections of roof, and a few more factors. The size could also be limited by the usable roof space. It would also be good to understand why you want to cover your monthly or annual electric bill. While we can do that, if there is enough space for the panels it takes to do that, I think you would find that your return on investment is much better with a smaller solar system. In other words, having a utility bill of $30 to $50 with solar is often better than paying a hi premium for a larger system with a $0 utility bill. You can use our online quoting tool to get a rough idea of size and cost at quote.sunnyenergysolar.com. You can also call our office at 480-462-5947 and ask for one of our consultants.

Melanie Love helped me. She was great, knew her job, and was aware of customer needs.