Solar by property type
Solar for your kind of home
Four property types with different constraints, the three questions that decide what is possible, and where renters and condo owners should look.
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Written by HyreSolar Research Desk Primary-source research and fact checking
The short answer
Three questions decide what is possible on your property, and they come before any question about panels: who owns the roof, who can veto the work, and whether there is usable space that is not the roof. After those, the economics work the same way on every home.
Which three questions come first?
Answer these before any question about panels. Your governing documents and your land answer them, not a salesperson.
In a detached home, you do. In a condominium the roof can be a common element owned collectively, which makes the association the decision-maker however good the roof is. Townhomes fall either way, depending on the declaration.
An association, a landlord, a historic district or a lender. Some states have solar access laws that limit what an association may prohibit on property you own, but they grant no rights over property you do not own.
On a rural property with open land, a ground mount avoids roof limits and lets you choose the tilt. On a new build, conduit inside the walls and a service panel sized for storage cost little now and more later.
Which kind of home is yours?
Four situations with different constraints, not four versions of one page.
What if your situation is not listed?
Four common situations already have a page that answers them properly.
What a tenant can and cannot do, and where community solar fits. See solar for renters.
Replace it before the array goes on. See re-roofing before solar.
The association owns the roof, and the decision. See condos and shared roofs.
Ownership, loans and leases to settle before closing. See buying a house with solar.
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Free, with no obligation: a person reads it and gets back to you. Matching is not live yet, so this is not a quote.
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Questions
Does the type of property change whether solar is worth it?
Can I install solar if I do not own the roof?
Why does a small system cost more per watt?
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HyreSolar Research
Primary-source research, data analysis and fact checking
We are a research desk, not a sales floor. We read the statute, the tariff, the code section, the federal filing or the manufacturer data sheet ourselves, and we publish the figure with the document it came from and the date we retrieved it.
Where a number cannot be traced to a primary source, we publish the shorter page and say what we could not verify. That rule has cost us whole sections, and it is why the rest can be checked.
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