Smartr Solar FAQs: Essential Answers for Your Solar Journey

Depending on the complexity of your project, design timelines can vary. To be safe, we always budget 7 days after the site survey to complete your design, though most are completed in just a few days.

To design your system, we'll look at a variety of factors to determine how many panels will be needed to offset all of the electricity use at the property. Some of those factors include how much of your available roof space gets sunlight, the direction your roof faces (i.e. north or south), and ideally the last 12 months of utility bills from the property (which we can request directly from your tenants if your property is occupied.)

During the site survey, a technician will go to your property to take pictures of your roof, utility meters, and main electrical panel. If you have a tile roof, the Surveyor may inspect underneath some tiles to determine the quality of the roof under the tiles. Additionally, some cities or towns require us to gather information about the spacing of your rafters, so in some cases, we may need to access your attic. Technicians are experts at gathering information but are not equipped to make judgement calls regarding the quality of your roof or electrical panel.

If you'd like to purchase additional panels for your system, reach out to our Customer Success team via email at Support@SmartrSolar.com. We will assess the feasibility of installing additional panels, and present you with a quote for the additional cost.

While we prefer to have the last 12 months of utility bills from the property when designing your system, it is not always required. If a tenant has been in your property during any of the past 12 months and had the bills in his or her name, we are happy to request an electronic copy of the utility bills directly from your tenant for you. (It's easy and can be done in less than 60 seconds!)

In most cases, no. If we determine that additional work is required, you will have the opportunity to review and approve the revised price before the installation.

Yes. In order to keep your property connected to the power grid, the utility company charges monthly fees like "minimum supply charges" and "minimum delivery charges." These fees are charged by the utility company regardless of whether or not solar has been installed at the property. Most times, we require this utility bill to be in the landlord's name for tracking and billing purposes. However, this utility company bill is part of the bill charged to your tenant every month, allowing you to be reimbursed in-full for the utility bill (in addition to having your tenants pay you for the electricity generated by your solar power system.)

The Federal Investment Tax Credit (for rental properties) and Federal Income Tax Credit (for homeowners) both offer a tax credit of 30% of the system's cost.
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Whether or not you'll qualify for either of these tax breaks should be determined by your CPA or tax professional, and we encourage you to review your situation with them before purchasing your system.

If you're purchasing your system outright for cash, we require a $2,500 deposit up front at signing. 80% of the remainder due at installation, and the final 20% will be due at final inspection.

If you're purchasing your system outright with cash, you may pay via ACH or virtual checking account. If using a finance option, please check with your finance provider on which payment methods will be accepted for your monthly bill.

Yes, financing is available for purchasing solar power systems installed on rental properties and we are happy to discuss available financing options with you. Financing is also available for homeowners installing a solar power system at their home, including $0 down options that allow homeowners to spend literally $0 out of pocket, and often immediately cut their monthly electricity bills!

In a handful of states in the Northeast, state governments (and local governments in the case of Washington, D.C.) have passed laws that require their local power companies to generate a certain percentage of their power from solar energy. These laws state that if power companies do not generate the amount of power from solar that the state and / or local laws require them to, they’ll be forced to pay a steep penalty, potentially amounting to hundreds of thousands, or millions of dollars.

Many power companies are not able to generate these large amounts of solar power on their own, so they’ve worked out a deal with their state and local governments that allows them to pay state or city residents for producing the solar power instead. These payments are called Solar Renewable Energy Credits, and are often referred to as “SRECs". To be clear, the power companies are not buying the power that residents' systems have produced; They're buying the SREC credits that were earned by the resident for producing solar power per the state's / city's SREC program guidelines.

SRECs can often be sold for hundreds of dollars per year, offering a great way for owners of both rental properties and personal homes to make money from their solar power systems.

There are two primary ways that landlords can make money when they install solarpower systems at their D.C. rental properties; Payments from their tenants, and selling the Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SRECs) that their system produces.

Tenants are typically supplied electricity at a 20-30% discount relative to what they would otherwise pay the utility company, and how much a landlord can make with solar depends on how much electricity their tenants use.

In qualifying markets, SRECs can be sold for hundreds of dollars per year (or thousands of dollars in Washington D.C.) When SRECs payments are coupled with the tenant payments mentioned above, many landlords can make thousands of dollars per year from each solar power system they have installed for tenants.

To see how much you could earn installing solar at your rental properties, and to see whether your property qualifies for solar, schedule a FREE consultation call with us today. We'll create a custom proposal for you, complete with an irradiance (sunlight intensity) map of your property's roof, a picture of where the panels will be placed, a pro forma earnings estimate, and more - absolutely FREE!

How much a solar system costs depends primarily on how many panels and batteries are being purchased and installed. Most homes don’t need batteries, leaving just the cost of the panels.

Additionally, the U.S. Government offers some very generous tax breaks to qualifying investors buying solar. The biggest tax break for qualifying real estate investors / landlords is the Federal Investment Tax Credit (FITC), offering them a 30% tax credit on the total cost of the system. The Federal Income Tax Credit (also known as the FITC) also offers the same 30% tax credit to homeowners purchasing solar power systems for their personal homes. Additoinal tax credits are available for investors purchasing solar in low-income communities via the U.S. Government's "Low-Income Community Bonus Adder" Programs.

On average, residential solar power systems for mid-sized single-family homes cost between $20,000 and $40,000, but costs can vary widely based on a variety of factors.

Yes! For landlords interested in purchasing solar power systems for multiple rental properties, ask our Sales Representatives about our Portfolio Deal Program. And for landlords interested in also purchasing a solar power system for their home, ask our Sales Representatives about our Home Solar Deals for Landlords.

If your property is in an HOA community, your HOA will likely require approval before proceeding with the install. Our installer's HOA team will work with your HOA to submit the project for approval during the project review stage.

If your HOA approves your project, please let the installation team know as soon as possible. They will then proceed as normal and let you know about next steps.

Unfortunately, if your HOA states that we cannot install solar to the property then we will likely not be able to proceed.

As soon as we have received the permits and other approvals associated with your solar project, our scheduling team will coordinate with you for the soonest available date for installation. Most installations are completed within 60 days of placing your order.

At Smartr™ Solar, we do not do our own installations in-house. While we specialize in properly designing systems, and using our software to help landlords monetize solar while also remaining compliant with energy laws, we leave our installations to our specialized installation partners.

While we work with a few different installation partners, our primary installer is Freedom Forever, one of the largest and fastest-growing residential installers in the U.S.

There are a number of components installed with a solar power system. In addition to the solar panels, a mounting system, conduit and inverter will also be installed, along with any additional equipment you purchased during the buying process. The inverter will most likely be placed near your property's other electric equipment and meters - a common location is in the garage or basement, or on the exterior of the home near those meters.

A cellular router and modem will also be installed to ensure your system's reporting will not be interrupted by changes or lapses in wifi connectivity at the property. This router and modem is most often placed near the inverter.

Whether or not you need to be at the property during installation depends on the complexity of the project. Our scheduling team will review this with you when scheduling your installation.

After the solar system is installed, we will schedule an inspection with your local city or town to approve the installation and to get permission to operate from the local utility provider. Once the installation is approved and the system is connected to the utility provider, your system will be activated and can start producing electricity for your property!

While most inspections are completed within 30 days of installation being completed, inspection timelines can vary depending on a number of factors. With residential properties, occasionally things come up on the day of installation that require additional permits, which could delay inspection.

If the initial inspection is failed for any reason, our team would have to schedule another inspection, which could cause further delays. We will of course do our best to avoid this situation altogether, however we feel it's important to set proper expectations for our customers and make them aware of delays that can happen.

Generally speaking, there is nothing required of you in order for the inspection to take place. Our installation team will review the steps required for inspection with you once installation is scheduled.

Inspections usually only take about 30 minutes. However, inspection timelines can vary for different cities and towns, and a technician may have to wait at your property for a few hours for the inspector to arrive.

As soon as your inspection is passed, a solar technician will work to activate your solar system. This process will vary depending on your utility provider. Please contact our Customer Success team via email at Support@SmartrSolar.com for more details.

Unfortunately not. Utility providers move at their own speed, but our installation partners will continue to follow up with them on your behalf until the process is complete.

Most of our customers will receive SolarEdge inverters, but other inverter companies may be used depending on your local market and local installation team.

A power optimizer allows every panel in your solar system to operate independently, so if one panel stops working, the rest of the solar system will remain fully functional.

If you're interested in re-roofing your property prior to the installation of your solar power system, our installation partners can assist in connecting you with reputable local roofing contractors and getting you a competitive quote.

Smartr™ Solar is proud to offer industry-leading battery storage options to our customers, like the Tesla Powerwall and a variety of models from SolarEdge, Enphase and more.

If you ever have an issue with your solar system, please contact our Customer Success team via email at Support@SmartrSolar.com.

Once your system is installed, you will receive an email from us titled "Smartr Solar | Create Your Account". If you follow the instructions included in this email, you'll be guided in how to log into your account for the first time.

If you forget your password, please click the 'Forgot Password' link on the Log In screen. You can access the Log In sreen via the navigation bar at the top of our website.

Yes! You can have multiple properties linked to your profile. Every new system you purchase will show up automatically in the 'My Properties' section of the portal once installation and inspection are completed.

When a tenant moves out, it is your responsibility to report this information to us via the 'My Properties' section of the portal. Proper reporting is important for federal and state compliance, allowing us to accurately pro-rate any net metering credits that have been accumulated and ensure your existing tenant, and your future tenants are billed properly for their solar usage.

When a new tenant moves in, it is also your responsibility to report this information to us in the 'My Properties' section of the portal. It is also your responsibility to have you and your tenant sign a new Solar Lease Addendum, which we will send to your and your new tenant via DocuSign once your new tenant is reported to us in the portal per the instructions above. A signed copy of the Solar Lease Addendum will be stored in the 'Documents' section of the portal. At this time, will also send your tenant a link to create their Smartr™ Tenant account so that they can log in and view / pay their bills.

Each time you place a new tenant in your property, you'll have the ability to agree on a percentage discount you'd like to offer your tenant (i.e. 30%.)

Every month, we measure your tenants total electricity usage using data supplied to us directly from the utility company along with data from your solar inverters. We then split that usage up to figure out (1) how much of your tenant's electricity usage came from the solar power system, and (2) how much was purchased from the utility company.

Any power purchased from the utility company is billed to the tenant at full-price, and any non-usage-based utility company fees like "minimum delivery charges" are also billed to the tenant at full price. Any power that came from the solar power system is billed to the tenant at the agreed-upon discount (i.e. 30%) relative to the rate that the tenant would have paid the utility company to purchase the power from them.

These two bills - (1) the discounted solar power bill and (2) the full-priced utility company bill - are then added together to create the tenant's total monthly bill.

A production guarantee guarantees that your system will produce as much power as we say it will produce over a certain time horizon. Smartr™ Solar is proud to offer an industry-leading 25-year production guarantee, so you can rest assured that your system will produce as expected. During this 25-year period, if your system ever produces less than we guaranteed you, our installation partner will cut you a check for the difference.

Yes, all of our installation partners offer a roof warranty of some kind. For details on the roof warranty that would be offered to you, please check directly with the installation partner that we connect you with.

For customers who have their system installed by our installer partner, Freedom Forever, the roof warranty offered is for 10 years.

Yes! All of our installation partners offer panel and inverter warranties of some kind. For details on the warranties that would be offered to you, please check directly with the installation partner that we connect you with.

For customers who have their system installed by our installer partner, Freedom Forever, the panel warranty offered is for 25 years, and the inverter warranty offered is for 12 years.