Building a new home? Please ask your architect and/or builder to review this section of the website in preparation for integraing solar on your new home. To learn more about how solar works visit How Solar Works.

Many cutting-edge builders in Colorado are incorporating solar into their construction process. From making a house “solar ready” to installing solar PV systems as a standard feature, each approach offers homebuyers an opportunity to integrate solar more beautifully into their new home. It is also an opportunity for builders to become educated about solar and enhance their marketability to new homebuyers. Solar PV makes sense not only environmentally and socially, but financially as well. Rebates and tax credits combine to reduce total system cost by more than 50 percent.

The investment you will make in a solar PV system will allow your buyers to save on rising electricity costs for years to come. This will give you a powerful marketing advantage over conventional homes, which are more susceptible to rising energy costs.

Colorado homebuyers today are much savvier about energy issues than they used to be. More and more buyers are asking about solar options, and the builders that offer them have a distinct advantage over those that aren’t meeting this demand. Including solar in the mortgage is the best way to finance a system, especially at today’s interest rates.

Why Work with Namaste Solar

Customer Service

We work with you and your architects to integrate solar into the design of the house, so that it looks like a natural aspect of the structure.

We educate your sales people and realtors so that they feel comfortable highlighting the benefits of the unique solar array on each home.

We conduct Solar Orientations with all new homebuyers so they understand their solar PV system and have an opportunity to ask any questions.

Complete Scope of Work

We educate the AHJs about new technologies and procedures and complete all the necessary permitting and paperwork for our systems so that adding solar PV systems to your homes is a worry-free process.

Long-term Commitment

We have a dedicated service team that’s on call to ensure that your system is operating properly. Our 10-year workmanship warranty and lifetime support speak to our commitment that the systems we install will perform according to expectations long into the future.

Solar Partner Package

Namasté Solar approaches our work with builders as a partnership. We want to make sure that we help highlight your commitment to solar, and we hope that you will highlight our work as well. The Solar Partner Package we offer includes:

• Marketing support materials for your sales office
• Training for your site supervisors and sales people
• Listing on our website as a “Solar Builder” with a link to your website

Ready to get started? Go here for Next Steps

Solar PV systems are beautifully simple in operation.

Noiseless, with no moving parts, solar PV systems require minimal long-term maintenance. Your homebuyers will enjoy lower utility bills thanks to their solar PV systems without any changes to the wiring of the home or their lifestyles.

Solar PV cells convert sunlight into electricity via the “photovoltaic effect.” They are made of semi-conducting materials, the most common being silicon, which is the second most abundant element on the planet. Solar PV technology has been commercially used since the 1950s in applications ranging from calculators to satellites.

Solar PV systems function optimally when facing south and in full sun from at least 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., every day, throughout the year. Oftentimes, it is possible to design around shading caused by chimneys, dormers, or trees.

In addition to your solar PV modules, we will install an inverter which converts the direct current (DC) electricity created by your modules to the alternating current (AC) electricity usable by your home. The system is connected to your existing electrical service, and Xcel Energy will install a digital net meter. Grid-tied solar photovoltaic systems interface seamlessly with the utility grid, powering the home from the sun during the day and from the utility at night. Utilities offer a process called “net metering,” which allows the electric meter to move forward when electricity flows from the grid into the home and backward when power flows from the solar system back into the utility grid.

Namasté Solar uses solar PV components from the highest quality manufacturers in the business. We will work with you to choose the components that meet the needs of your homebuyers at the best value possible.

Most of the systems Namasté Solar installs are known as grid-tied systems, with no battery backup. In most urban areas, where power quality and reliability are very high, this is the most efficient, cost-effective option. Batteries make the systems more complicated and expensive to install and also reduce the efficiency of the power production by 20 percent or more. With grid tied systems, in lieu of having batteries onsite to store extra electricity, homeowners use the grid as an infinite storage mechanism. An important thing to note about this configuration is that when the utility grid has a power outage, the solar PV system also shuts down. This is a safety feature built into the inverters to prevent an accidental back feeding of electricity to otherwise dead wires. Unless there is a definite need for uninterrupted power, we believe that grid tied systems are the best approach for the average homeowner.

Lastly, we offer a full suite of system monitoring tools. Whether you need a wireless display to view the system performance from inside the home or internet-based monitoring to track solar production from anywhere in the world, Namasté Solar has a solution for your homeowners.

Nearly 75% of homeowners say that energy-efficient features would be the greatest influence on their decision to purchase a home.

51% said they would pay $5,000 to $11,000 more upfront for a new house if they could save on their utility bills. 16% said they would pay more than $11,000.

Many cutting-edge builders are incorporating solar into their construction process. From making a house “solar ready” to installing solar PV systems as a standard feature, each approach offers home buyers an opportunity to integrate solar more beautifully into their new homes. It is also an opportunity for builders to become educated about solar and enhance their marketability to new home buyers. The result is a solar building industry that will allow homeowners to minimize their utility bills and reduce their impact on the environment.

Solar PV makes sense - environmentally, socially, and financially.  

Rebates and tax credits combine to reduce total system cost by more than 50 percent. The investment you will make in a solar PV system will allow your buyers to hedge against rising electricity prices years into the future, offering a better return than treasury bonds or CDs and less volatility than the stock market. You will also have a powerful marketing advantage over other conventional houses, which are more exposed to the risk of rising electricity prices.

In addition to your local utility’s program, homeowners will also be eligible for a tax credits on the cost of the solar PV system. Builders are usually not eligible to take the tax credit themselves due to IRS rules – if you sell the asset (in this case, the solar PV system) in less than three years, the IRS would consider that subject to “recapture rules,” and would require repayment of a prorated portion of the tax credit (of course, you should always consult a tax professional). Passing the tax credit to the buyer can be a powerful marketing advantage for a solar home: “Move into this house and get a tax credit from the federal government!”

Namasté Solar will take care of all aspects of the rebate process. We will need information from you along the way, but we work hard to ensure that builder costs are minimal.

Homebuyers today are much savvier about energy issues than they used to be. More and more buyers are asking about solar options, and the builders that offer them have a distinct advantage over those that aren’t meeting this demand. Additionally, including solar in the mortgage is the best way to finance a system, especially at today’s interest rates.

 Solar As An Architectural Feature

If you would like to highlight the solar panels or make them a piece of “functional art,” there are several approaches to consider.

• Solar panels can be used as awnings, providing passive solar benefits on the southern wall of the house
• They can be installed as shade structures on rooftop decks, to make that space usable for more of the year
• Or if you want to incorporate “invisible solar” into the home, new products are becoming available that actually integrate solar into the roof or windows of the home. This is known as “Building Integrated Photovoltaics,” or BIPV

This approach usually requires a custom structure to be built to host the solar panels. This can be straightforward or intricate, as you see fit. Generally, our expertise is in designing and installing the solar panels themselves, and we work with other experts to design and build these custom structures in the most cost-effective fashion.

• If not enough sunny roof or awning space is available but land is abundant, a ground-mounted system might be the best application.

Intelligent Design Tips

If you plan to invest in a solar PV system, there are a few other items to consider to make the investment worthwhile.

• Think about your landscaping plan. Don’t plant a tree that’s going to shade the array in a few short years – that will render the panels ineffective.
• Plan to have extra space for backfed solar PV breakers in your main distribution panel.
• Generally speaking, it’s best to mount the panels as high on the building as possible, to minimize the possibility of future shading by a neighboring structure or tree.
• Most importantly: it is critical to communicate to the other trades that vents/pipes must not come up under the panel location. Vents must be routed either above the panels or on roof surfaces that face east, west, or north. It might be worth spray painting a reminder on the underside of the roof decking that says “No Vents” to make sure the message makes it all the way to the person installing their products. Nothing is more frustrating than to have to redo work.

A Namasté Solar consultant will provide you with an honest and thorough assessment of the viability of your site and how to design your solar PV system to meet your priorities.

If you are interested in keeping the costs of your solar PV systems low and integrating the systems neatly into the design of the house (without calling a lot of attention to this feature), there are a few steps you can take to minimize cost.

• Provide a single, rectangular, south-facing roof for the solar array. This allows us to minimize installation time (keeping labor costs down), while creating the sense that the solar PV panels are supposed to be there. Placing panels on many surfaces and in irregular shapes is likely to be more costly and less attractive.
• East or west-facing roofs can also be used, though it’s worth noting that when we install panels in a non-optimal orientation, the annual production will be lower and often so will the rebate from the utility.
• Make sure that the roof is pitched towards the south. Solar PV is a very flexible technology and can be mounted on a roof that is anywhere from a 3:12 to 12:12 pitch while still providing excellent annual production. We can also install solar panels on flat roofs, but the panels themselves need to be tilted towards the south in order to perform well throughout the year (and also to obtain the full utility rebate). Tilting the panels often requires additional reinforcement to the roof (blocking) for the roof anchor points (thus adding labor costs), and puts an additional strain on the roof members for the life of the installation.
• Consider the location of the inverter and disconnects. Leaving adequate wall space for this equipment near the mains panel will minimize conduit runs and electrical work.

Let’s get the process started…

When you are ready to find out more information about solar PV and how it will work on your homes, please call us for an initial consultation. Ideally, the best time to call is before the house plans are finalized – often, we can come up with creative ways to integrate the panels into the roof to help keep costs at a minimum. Since solar is a relatively new trade to most jobsites, it is also beneficial to include us in any contractor meetings you might have at the beginning of the construction process. We look forward to providing you with the highest standard of solar PV education, installation, and service!

First Steps

1. Bring or send plans to Namasté Solar for evaluation (during design phase if possible)

2. Meet with design specialist to review proposal

3. Choose the best system option for your project

Integrating Solar into Your Construction Schedule

1. Meet with your project manager to schedule the installation

2. Conduct the solar PV rough-in.  We prefer to complete the solar PV rough-in immediately following the main electrical rough-in to not disrupt the planned electrical layout. The solar PV electrical rough-in usually takes one day.

3. Install and connect your solar PV system. The panels will be installed after all work that takes place above them (i.e., stuccoing) is completed and the main electrical panel is installed.

4. Net meter is installed by the utility

5. Turn your system on!

All jurisdictions have requested that solar PV companies pull a separate permit for their work. Namasté Solar handles all the paperwork associated with this permit (and the education of the jurisdictions that comes with installing a new technology). We can coordinate the final inspection call with your onsite supervisor to make the best use of your and the inspectors’ time.