Do Solar panels bring up the value of a property?

any opinions on this?

I think it would depend on a few things.

First, if the energy bills of this house are extremely high before the installation, then yes it would increase the value. The panels would help save costs in the long run.

If the house is already efficient, then no.

If any structural changes had to be made to install the panels, then the value would decrease due to structural instability.

If the panels are more of an eyesore than anything else, then no.

There is no doubt that having solar panels in any circumstance will add value to your house.
No matter what the energy bills are like, solar energy will save you money. The return on investment will happen quicker if energy prices are high, however panels are guaranteed for 20-25 years, and many manufacturers will tell you to expect to get more like 30-40 years of service from them with no more than a 10% efficiency loss, therefore, even with low energy costs, it is still worth the investment. There are panels in use today from the sixties that are running at about 80% efficiency and the technology has gotten nothing but better and continues to do so.
As far as aesthetic concerns go, often panels don’t look much different than a skylight, furthermore in any case they look less obnoxious than power lines!
Structural changes are rarely needed and even if they were they would be minimal and would not affect the structural integrity of the house, also they would not be installed as structurally vulnerable themselves.
Even on an already efficient house, they would add to the efficiency.

thanks guys… I agree as well, I wonder if the efficiency of the solar panels keeps going up what’s the potential to power the entire house…

The potential is great, depending on a few things.
First, how much energy you use and when you use it. Also, for example, using an inefficient appliance means you have to create more energy than you would otherwise need if you had an efficient appliance. All energy usage should be considered and scrutinized.
Second, the design of the building: it is cheaper to not have to use energy than to have to create it and save it. Big south-facing windows (for the northern hemisphere) provide a passive way for the building to heat itself and give lots of light. Also the layout of the land around the building can have a significant effect on energy needs.
Third, storage for when the sun isn’t shining or on a cloudy day.
Fourth, where you might live: in southern Ontario the peak sun in the winter gives no more than around 2 hours a day so energy would likely need to be supplemented by wind, geothermal, biodiesel, etc. A tracking system for solar panels would increase the length of time they are exposed to the sun and therefore increase their efficiency significantly (~20%+ give or take) however supplemental energy would still be needed unless efficiency of PV panels increased significantly. Solar energy in the summer in southern Ontario should provide 100% of your power requirements even with modern PV efficiency, again as long as it can be stored.
All of these considerations depend on other variables as well: the size of your system, the amount of insolation, unobstructed panels, and others. With solar photovoltaic efficiency hovering around 15% these days, the need for supplementation in most cases is great. However, the goal for solar photovoltaic is for their efficiency to get to where solar thermal is at – around 80% (at best). To date, the highest efficiency that has been reached by solar PV is around 25% in lab conditions. It is increasing every year and prices have been steadily decreasing.
Even with efficiency where it is, solar PV systems can still power an entire building even today. There are examples all over the world, Google some and you’ll see.

I would definitely agree that solar panels would increase the value. They may not increase it very much depending on how efficient they are, how old they are, or how interested the people buying it are. (if they think they are an eyesore and want to remove them when they buy the house I dont think they’d be willing to put up as big of a price for them but these days thats not as likely as it used to be.) But I cant think of any situation where they would decrease the value of a home unless they were somehow nonfunctional.

I would definitely agree that solar panels would increase the value. They may not increase it very much depending on how efficient they are, how old they are, or how interested the people buying it are. (if they think they are an eyesore and want to remove them when they buy the house I dont think they’d be willing to put up as big of a price for them but these days thats not as likely as it used to be.) But I cant think of any situation where they would decrease the value of a home unless they were somehow nonfunctional.

I would think that for most people the idea is great as long as they’re installed properly to suit the house… I think a lot of people are into the whole idea of green energy but just can’t take the first step…

Yeah I think the way its done would have a big affect on the value of the home, if someone were about to buy a home that had just had new solar shingles put on the entire house and this house had great roof exposure to the sun, I could see the value of that property going up quite a bit.

Any installation of solar panels would be carefully considered for maximum solar exposure, so the idea of “installed properly to suit the house” is a non-issue with regards to maximum efficiency. With respect to “suit the house” aesthetically, I refer to my previous posting where I said that I found power lines more obnoxious. Solar panels are significantly less obtrusive than power lines. Furthermore, as they are resting on top of houses and buildings, they aren’t likely to be that visible. We should be more like the Japanese who consider it a status symbol to have solar panels on their houses.
Anyone who wishes to remove a solar system from a house they’d like to buy is shooting themselves in the foot. Many experts predict that energy will be a serious problem in the not-so-distant future and anyone that has their own energy production system will not have to deal with these concerns, or at least as much depending on the size of the system. Also, solar systems are easily expandable and will soon rival any other energy production system in price. The future will bring more localized power distribution and that will include solar panels on houses. Spain and Holland have already created laws forcing all new construction to included solar panels. I think it’s a good idea, roofs are ging to waste.

That’s great davbid, I didn’t hear anything in the news about Spain & Holland…

In today’s mortgage market every $1000 that you borrow will cost you about $6 per month. So if you look at energy-saving improvements in terms of what they save you, on average, per month, you can easily translate that into loan value.

For example, replacing an old washing machine with a new one that has an Energy Star rating, can save you $100 per year. That’s about $8 per month, which translates to about $1333 in added value. This kind of calcualtion assumes that your improvement will last as long as your mortgage, which is frequently not the case. But you can keep the calculation accurate by including the fraction of years that the improvement is expected to last. If you expect your washing machine to last 10 years and you have a 30-year morgage, just take a third of the value, or $444.

So if you want to translate solar panel energy savings into home value, just devide monthly costs by $6 and multiply by $1000. Then factor in the number of years you expect the improvement to last, and you should also figure in maintenance expenses that you anticipate.

This calculation is working years into the future, when energy prices can change and if you have an adjustable rate morgage, the cost of borrowing can go up, which will all change the balance. If energy prices go up, the value of your improvement goes up. If morgage rates go up, the value of your improvement decreases (because the cost of borrowing increases, so you need to provide more of a benefit to justify the same value).

I should also mention that this is just a calculated value, so while it’s useful information, it isn’t cash in your pocket. The market determines the value of a house, so if you want to sell a house with these kinds of improvements and you want to get that increased value out of your sale, you need to do some work. You’ll need to put some effort into selling the various energy improvements of your house, and how you do that is really up to you. I might be inclined to print up a sheet explaining the various energy savings your house provides and making buyers aware of the issue of utilities costs. Most people, when buying a house, assume that all houses will be the same when it comes to the costs of heat/water/electricity. So you need to get them thinking about that as they look at your house, and hopefully take that information away with them as they look at other houses.

I like that method of thinking. A lot of people dont realize that cutting tiny costs here and there and factoring it into the big picture really adds up. Sometimes just thinking about things in a different way can make you realize an investment is worthwhile.

I definitely think solar will increase the value of the home. I feel like sometimes people are concerned with the “look” of the solar panels. As more and more people convert over this will become less of an issue. I hope more communities follow the trend of the San Diego neighborhood, Del Sur, who is mandating that 20% of homes have solar energy systems.

The American Association of Realtors say that home values increase by at least the cost of the solar installation. This makes them a better home improvement investment than kitchen or bath remodels. They improve the cash flow of the homeowner and are gaining acceptance.