Case study: Brentwood homeowner shares her solar story

When Allie & her husband built their home in Brentwood, Tennessee, two years ago, they had their children in mind, and in more ways than number of bedrooms and yard space. They wanted to live in an energy efficient and energy producing home, to safeguard their electric bills and to contribute to a healthier world.

“We’re young enough that we’ll have to explain to our kids what we did to address environmental problems,” Allie says. “I think if you have the budget to do solar, then it makes so much sense,” she says.

After incorporating spray foam insulation, casement windows, and a geothermal HVAC system into the home’s construction, their family decided to go solar. This past January, LightWave Solar installed a 10-kilowatt rooftop solar system. With a total of 34 solar panels, the system will reduce the home’s annual electric costs by about 50%. The home currently charges a Tesla car, and Allie plans to drive an all-electric vehicle in the near future.

“As our consumption goes up, we want to add more solar and a battery system,” Allie says. “For now, we’re glad we got into this year’s TVA program since it’s going away next year,” she explains.

This year is the last opportunity for homeowners and business owners to apply for TVA’s Green Power Providers program to sell 100% of solar generation back to TVA. TVA has not announced their plans for a small scale solar program next year.

2019 is also the last year to claim the full 30% federal tax credit, as it steps down to 26% for projects installed in 2020.

“We’ve always wanted to have solar, so it was good timing with our new home to put it in before the incentives change again,” Allie says.

Like most solar system owners these days, the household can monitor their solar production via an app on their cell phone, and they see TVA’s solar credit on each monthly bill from their local utility, MTEMC.

“The system is working great, and LightWave did a fabulous job making the process comfortable and easy,” Allie says.

If you would like to learn more about this Brentwood solar project, and explore your options to go solar with us, complete our contact request form, and one of our project consultants will contact you.