8 Solar Energy Pros and Cons: Is Solar Right for You? (2024)
By Josh Hurst /
Here’s what we’ll cover in this guide:
Note: In July 2024, SunPower notified dealers it would be halting all new shipments and project installations. The company also noted it would “no longer be supporting new Leases and PPA sales nor new project installations of these financing options.”
Before getting into watt vs. kilowatt, let’s start with the basics.
A watt (W) is a unit of power equivalent to one joule per second. In this context, power refers to the rate at which work is performed or energy is transferred. You can think of power as “the ability to do work,” whether that work is generating electricity or consuming it.
The most common places where you might see watts used as a descriptor would be basic appliances such as lightbulbs, dishwashers, TVs or dryers. This measurement refers to the power of a specific device. You can find the power ratings of your appliances in the technical specifications, user manuals or on the labels.
For example, you might see a 100-watt lightbulb or a 1,500 W dishwasher. This means that the lightbulb only has the ability to transfer (in this case consume) 100 W in a given moment. The dishwasher can consume 1,500 W at a time.
An easy way to conceptualize this is by thinking of a faucet or hose. Power, or wattage, would reflect the pressure of the hose rather than how much water actually comes out of it. Our 100 W lightbulb would have very low water pressure.
You rarely encounter units of energy smaller than watts in your daily life. From there, you can scale up to the following:
Just like watts, a kilowatt (kW) measures the power of an electrical device or appliance. A kilowatt is equal to 1,000 W. Watts are relatively small units of power, so it’s common to see larger-scale measurements using kW and beyond.
For example, when talking about the power needed for one lightbulb, you would use watts. If you’re talking about the power of an array of 40 solar panels, kW serves as a much more practical measurement that avoids too many zeros getting in the way. You’ve likely seen solar systems measured in kW since it’s much easier to describe a system as 10 kW than 10,000 watts.
For example, 40 solar panels (at 350 W each) would make an array totalling 14,000 W (40 x 350 W = 14,000 W). Isn’t it easier to call it 14 kW?
Even further, if you are discussing the power of a solar farm, commercial solar project or large power plant, megawatts might be the best measurement to do so. For context, the largest solar farms in the world clock in around 2 gigawatts (GW).1
Pros
Cons
SunPower designs and installs industry-leading residential solar and storage solutions across all 50 states. With a storied history of innovation dating back to 1985, no other company on this list can match SunPower’s experience and expertise.
SunPower earns its position as the top national installer on our list for a handful of reasons: It installs the most efficient solar technology on the residential market, offers the most expansive service area and backs its installations with a warranty well above the industry standard. All the while, SunPower pioneers sustainability efforts within the industry.
If that weren’t enough, SunPower systems come packaged with products all manufactured in-house by its sister company, Maxeon. This means that your panels, solar cells, inverters, battery and EV chargers are designed to work together and are all covered under the same warranty.
SunPower’s biggest downside? Its high-efficiency panels are considerably more expensive than most of its competitors’ products. However, its powerful panels are workhorses that make up for the initial cost with more backend production (think about this like spending more money for a car that gets more miles per gallon).
EcoWatch Rating |
---|
Better Business Bureau (BBB) Rating |
Year Founded |
Average Cost ($-$$$$$) |
Solar Services |
Brands of Solar Equipment Offered |
Warranty Coverage |
4.5 |
A+ |
2014 |
$$ |
Solar Panels, System Monitoring |
Trina Solar, Canadian Solar, SolarEdge, Silfab, SunPower |
25-year manufacturer warranty; 10-year workmanship warranty, 2-year production guarantee |
Pros
Cons
We like Blue Raven Solar because it understands that, for most homeowners, the cost of solar presents the biggest barrier to entry.
For that reason, Blue Raven Solar developed an innovative solar financing plan that offers in-house, flexible, zero-money-down options. The results speak for themselves, as Blue Raven Solar is now one of the fastest-growing solar companies in the nation and was recently acquired by SunPower. Its BluePower Plus+ plan (exclusive to Blue Raven) mimics the flexible structure of a lease while still providing the greatest benefits of owning your system.
Eligible homeowners enjoy 18 months of solar power before having to pay their first bill. When coupled with the federal solar investment tax credit (ITC), the initial energy savings can offset more than a third of the overall cost of a system before requiring a dollar down.
In contrast, other installers can only offer similar financing through solar leases, PPAs or third-party providers (such as Mosaic or Sunlight). Third-party loan providers can complicate the process, while opting for a loan or PPA will disqualify you from some of solar’s biggest benefits (additional property value, federal solar tax credit and local solar incentives).
EcoWatch Rating |
---|
Better Business Bureau (BBB) Rating |
Year Founded |
Average Cost ($-$$$$$) |
Solar Services |
Brands of Solar Equipment Offered |
Warranty Coverage |
4.5 |
A+ |
2014 |
$$ |
Solar Panels, System Monitoring |
Trina Solar, Canadian Solar, SolarEdge, Silfab, SunPower |
25-year manufacturer warranty; 10-year workmanship warranty, 2-year production guarantee |
Luckily, the conversion between watts, kW, MW and GW is fairly simple. You can quickly convert the number of watts (W) to kilowatts (kW) by dividing your wattage by 1,000.
Watts | Kilowatts |
1,000 W | 1 kW |
10,000 W | 10 kW |
100,000 W | 100 kW |
You can quickly convert kilowatts (kW) to megawatts (MW) by dividing the kilowatts by 1,000.
Kilowatts | Megawatts |
1,000 kW | 1 MW |
10,000 kW | 10 MW |
100,000 kW | 100 MW |
You guessed it — you can then convert megawatts (MW) to gigawatts (GW) by dividing the megawatts by 1,000. 1,000 MW = 1 GW.
Megawatts | Gigawatts |
1,000 MW | 1 GW |
10,000 MW | 10 GW |
100,000 MW | 100 GW |
While watts (W) and kilowatts (kW) are measurements of power, kilowatt-hours (kWh) are units of electrical energy.
The most important distinction between kW and kWh is that a kilowatt-hour of energy reflects the total amount of electricity used over a period of time. Kilowatts, as we’ve mentioned, refer instead to the rate at which a device can generate or consume electrical power.
To continue with our hose analogy — kW refers to the potential water pressure of a hose. Kilowatt-hours would measure the amount of water used by a hose over time. The greater the power (or kW), the more water it will use over an hour.
More specifically, a kilowatt-hour measures the energy consumed by a 1,000-watt (W) or 1 kilowatt (kW) electrical appliance operating for one hour. The higher the wattage, the more kWh the appliance has to consume to stay powered over time.
Here’s a simple example. If you were to keep a 100 W TV turned on for a full hour, it will have consumed 100 watt-hours (Wh), or 0.1 kWh. Let’s look at a few other common appliances and how many kWh of energy they consume over an hour.
Here’s the equation: (W / 1,000 kW) x 1 hour.
What about 10 hours? The equation would be (W / 1,000 kW) x 10 hours
Starting to make sense?
Kilowatt-hours (kWh) follow the same conversion patterns as watts and kilowatts. These include:
Check out this helpful video from Enphase Energy to learn more about kWh and their role in your home energy use.
Let’s get down to the dollars and cents — why does it matter? Well, your electricity bill will reflect how many kWh of electricity your home consumed over the month. Your utility company or electricity provider will have a rate that it charges per kWh.
The average home’s power consumption lands around 881 kWh of electricity per month, depending on the season. If your electricity rate is 17 cents per kWh (about standard), then the average energy bill will land around $139.06 (that’s 889 kWh x $0.17).
If you’re looking to conserve energy, it can be helpful to understand which of your appliances consumes the largest amount of energy. That can help you prioritize which appliances to conserve the use of or to upgrade to energy-efficient models.
For example, did you know dryers can use up to 5,000 W? Let’s do the math on how much that energy usage would cost you per month if you run your dryer for an hour per day.
5,000 W dryer = 5 kWh in an hour
5 kWh x 30 days = 150 kWh
150 kWh x $0.17 = $25.50 per month
$25.50 x 12 months = $306 per year
Does $306 a year in energy costs make a big difference in your budget? Then consider investing in a drying rack or energy-efficient dryer.
Understanding the role of W, kW and kWh is what empowers homeowners to make decisions like these that can reduce their total electricity usage.
The cost information presented in this article is derived from a comprehensive analysis, incorporating data from multiple industry sources. The average cost per watt per state was calculated based on figures from Consumer Affairs, Energy Sage, and Berkeley Lab’s Electricity Markets & Policy Department. Additionally, monthly energy consumption and the average monthly cost of electricity were sourced from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, ensuring a well-rounded and accurate representation of the information presented.
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