Frequently Asked Questions

While it is partially up to a customer's preference, most homeowners find that buying is more advantageous than leasing. Systems can be purchased with $0 down, just like a lease, and usually, the monthly payment on a loan is less than the monthly payment on a lease.

Another advantage to ownership is it’s been shown to improve the resale value, while third-party owned (leased) systems have in many situations complicated home sales without adding to the resale price. Lastly, leased systems do not automatically become the property of the homeowner after the 25-year lease term ends. At the end of the term, the homeowner has the option to remove the panels at no cost or extend the lease on an annual basis.

Remember: whether you buy or lease, solar energy is a smart choice for both the planet and for your wallet.

We do offer both the Tesla Powerwall as well as the LG Chem. These are the two top home batteries. It is still very uncommon however for homeowners to get batteries. Unless you live in Hawaii (where there is so much solar that you get penalized to back feed your excess power into the grid) you do not need batteries. The only purpose of batteries in New York and most other states is to maintain power usage when the grid goes down. The average cost of a home battery system is around $9,500.

If you purchase a battery backup system with your solar it is eligible for the 30 percent tax credit. For a limited time, there is also a rebate in the state of New York for home batteries.

Warranties vary from company to company and there are a few different kinds of warranties. All major panel manufacturers provide a 25-year power guarantee. Limited manufacturers include shipping and labor.

Labor warranties vary between 10-25 years depending on the installer.

Inverters warranties range from 10-25 years, but all Solarific customers get a 25-year warranty.

Not usually. This requires a battery backup system which is very rare due to high costs and accounts for less than five percent of all residential solar installations.

​They sure can. That being said, they don’t need to and most homes get anywhere from 60-100 percent of their power from their solar, depending on how much energy you use and how much usable roof space you have.

Sometimes it makes more financial sense not to produce all of your energy from solar because some utility companies give you a base amount of energy at a low price.

​Very little maintenance is needed with solar. Leases and Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) provide a 25-year parts, labor and workmanship warranty. If you purchase a system, you will have a 10-year labor and workmanship warranty and a 25-year panel warranty. Many systems will not require any maintenance for their entire life except a little cleaning every once in a while.

​All systems sold by Solarific come with remote monitoring. This monitoring allows both you and your installer to observe how much energy your system is producing at any moment in time and over any previous time period such as the week, month, year or lifetime of the system.

Solarific primarily sells top-of-the-line panels such as Solaria, Jinko, Silfab, Trina, Panasonic, REC, HANWA and LG.