Are Solar Panels a Good Idea for Your New Roof? Google Knows

Just about everyone has gotten onto Google Maps and searched their address to catch a glimpse of the satellite picture of their home. Perhaps you’ve done it too, and found it a little bit surreal to see that Google had an accurate picture of your house online. However, now it seems that Google is putting that data to good use in a way that might just save you money on your energy bills this winter.

The tool is called Project Sunroof and it’s unique in that Google can tell you all kinds of information about how your home might or might not benefit from adding solar panels. Currently, the tool is available in Boston, Fresno, and the San Francisco Bay area. Project Sunroof gathers data from your home’s image on Google Maps and it calculates how much sunlight is available on your roof during the course of a year. It considers shade from nearby buildings and trees in these calculations, so you can be certain it’s fairly accurate.

Once Google has an estimate for you, you can input how much you currently pay for your energy bills each month to find out if it’s worth thinking about adding solar panels as a way to save money on those bills.

According to Engineer Lead, Carl Elkin, people are often put off about solar energy because they assume it’s too expensive. Many of them also think their rooftops don’t get enough sunlight to make it worthwhile to add solar panels to their roofs. Project Sunlight offers you an easy and affordable way to find out for sure, so you don’t have to worry about wasting money on something that won’t work for your home.

Try it out for yourself! All you need to do is enter your address on the Project Sunroof website. You might just be the perfect candidate for new solar panels to go along with your brand new roof.