South Jersey Solar Guide 2026

AI Pilot w Tom Ritter (00:02)
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Meg (00:41)
All right, welcome back to the Bridgeton Beacon. Can folks save money on their electric bill by switching to solar?

NJ Solar Guide (00:50)
Yeah, absolutely. Why doesn't everyone do this?

Meg (00:53)
Okay, so tell us the process, tell us how it works. Cause most people are gonna say, okay, that's great, but how much is it gonna cost me? And how does this work and how long does it take? And is it really gonna be worth it at the end of the day? So walk us through somebody like me or one of our listeners, if they were interested, what does that process look like?

NJ Solar Guide (01:13)
you can put an inquiry there and then from that point analyze your bill you would just send your bills so that exactly how much energy you're using put together like a quote in a portfolio for you so that you can see exactly what the rates are going right now and how much you're spending annually because we only look at it monthly

Meg (01:30)
How months bills do need to get a proper analysis? Do you need more than one?

NJ Solar Guide (01:34)
Just

one. So on the bill itself on, depending if you have Atlantic City Electric or JCP and L or PSC and J or even any other state, every bill has a monthly chart. So it shows you the whole entire year's chart, but on the bars for each one of them, depending on what utility company it is, it shows you what the monthly usage is for the past 12 months. Yeah. Yeah. So I think you have Atlantic City Electric's.

Meg (01:58)
I just think I have seen that, yeah.

NJ Solar Guide (02:04)
South Jersey. Yeah. So on the back of that, there's a blue and gray chart that shows every single month's usage for the past two years, technically. But yeah, I use that information to be able to analyze and see exactly how much you're utilizing from historical 12 months. And then based off that usage, figure out exactly how many panels you would need with your address, and then do a layout and a design.

Figure out exactly what your exposure rating is and see exactly how many panels you would need to offset your ⁓ usage from the history.

Meg (02:36)
Okay. Now you had mentioned to me that there are certain areas that you within the four states that you operate, New Jersey, PA, Maryland, and Delaware, but there are certain areas that you can work in and certain areas that you can't. So talk to me a little bit about that first.

NJ Solar Guide (02:53)
Yeah. So when it comes to restrictions, because of the actual utility companies, like for example, Atlantic city electric, anyone in South Jersey that has it. There's a lot of regions. Like I showed you the map, it's successful through their website. If you just type in like Atlantic city electric restricted grid map or anything like that, you could type in your address and see if your house is in the blacked out zone or not. And there's three different kind of color codes that they use there.

So in certain regions like Williamstown or parts of like Elmer and stuff like that right now, they have areas that on the map, it literally shows you black lines for the roads. Those are the areas that Atlantic City Electric is restricting any new solar projects from going in. So we can't install there at the time, but it can free up and they can upgrade their grid so that they can actually support the power that's being backfed.

So it all depends on the time. One of the first things to do to be able to see if they can qualify because of the utility company's research.

Meg (03:52)
And how often do they change that list? mean, why do they restrict it and how often can that change?

NJ Solar Guide (03:59)
Yeah. So it's been a really weird variation. Like I'll see one day the customer will be in the red zone, which is meaning that it's filling up the actual amount of people that can get it. And then in the next day we'll switch over to black. That's happened a couple of times and customers are like, all right, you got to come back to me. So I put together a list of anyone that's in the black zone. And that way I check it like every week, every two weeks. Like, so if anyone had that kind of

question like am i okay in this area they can either look it up for the can just ask

Meg (04:32)
And, you know, the one question I always got confused about, or the one question I always had was, how does a homeowner who's already struggling to pay electric bills afford to either purchase or lease, and I'll let you explain how that really works, but to do either of those things, how do they purchase or lease solar panels?

NJ Solar Guide (04:55)
Okay, yeah, so once the design is made and we actually figure out how much equipment you would need, a couple other varying features in there, like any sort of electrical, like if we have to do a trench from one structure to another, because we do like metal buildings, garages, just like offshoots of the house, like different regions of the property, then obviously we have to do trenching and like any sort of conduit and all that stuff. After all, like the additional things, because we also do roofing in house, we have to add stuff like that together. Once we have...

grand total, everything that you need, then I can be able to put together a quote and whether you want to do financing and take a loan or if you want to pay cash or if you want to do a lease or a PPA, there's a lot of variables, but I like to be able to go over all those options instead of telling a customer like, hey, here's your only option. It doesn't make a difference for me. I still can do the same exact thing and ask for it.

Meg (05:46)
Okay. And I should have said this in the beginning, but it's my understanding that you work with both residential as well as commercial. Okay. And is there a minimum roof age that you need?

NJ Solar Guide (05:54)
Yeah, that's true.

Yeah. So when it comes to roofing, we actually do an evaluation after we're, after we sign everything, we would like to make sure that if we're going to be warranting anything, because even if we don't install the roof and you have an old roof, you get a roof penetration leak ⁓ warranty as well on top. So if the roof say like 15 years old, we're at that basis. It's like, you know, most shingles last like 30 years. So you're going to put a system on there. That's going to last for more than 25 years.

We don't want to put you in a situation where it's going to cost you more money to remove them, put the new roof on and then put them back on because that just doesn't make the best ROI for you. So we'd rather do the roof even if you're, you know, you got 10 years left on your roof or something like that. It's usually financially better to be able to actually just get the roof.

Meg (06:47)
And that's such a nice benefit because I've heard of people that have reached out to other solar companies and we're told we're basically sent away and said you need to get a new roof first. So that's full service at its best.

NJ Solar Guide (07:00)
And one of the best things about that, packaging it together, not only is it not having a lot of overhead or any sort of like extra costs compared to other companies that make, you know, their margins on that, but we do it as a package just to make sure that the panels can go up there safely, but also we give you better warranties and we can roll it into the cost of the monthly solar payment.

Meg (07:22)
Okay. Yeah, I mean, you said a couple of minutes ago, the thing I always get hung up on is the idea of the cost, right? Involved, whether again, you purchase or lease or a pay upfront or finance, are you able to provide basically, you know, the long-term savings, even with that cost based on their usage, the long-term savings? And I know everybody is different, but is there,

NJ Solar Guide (07:43)
Yeah.

Meg (07:50)
Is there kind of an over under in your analysis where you say, this is really worth it for you to do and explain why? Can you get, maybe give us just some general examples?

NJ Solar Guide (08:01)
Yeah. So, ⁓ whenever it comes to like a long-term analysis, I'm a very financial, kind of like analytical guy. So I always like to go over, you know, here's day one, this is what happens after solar, and this is what your projections are going to be for year one ending. And then, you know, I do an every single year analysis so that you can see up to 25 years, which is the whole term of the warranties, but panels last like 30 or 40 years that they, you know, hold up. But yeah, actually.

take someone's bill, tell them exactly how much they're going to spend, you know, do an inflation calculation. And a lot of people like that because most people are just talking about, you know, what they're doing now, but they want to know about the future.

Meg (08:41)
Yeah, for sure. And what about ongoing maintenance of the panel? What type of maintenance is involved?

NJ Solar Guide (08:47)
So when it comes to panels, the rain here in New Jersey does wonders. I mean, if they get overly dusty, which we're not in a super dry climate, it's not like we're in the desert or like getting dust and stuff kicked up often or anything. It's like pollen, but pollen wipes off, you know, your car and whatever with just rain. As far as like actual maintenance goes, there's nothing that really has to be maintained. The only thing that I've seen historically that I'd say every like 10, 15 years, maybe if

after installation and break-in period, it doesn't already have something. There's a rare case of maybe a couple percentage of houses that need like an inverter or something, or maybe one dead cell from the factory, but I've never seen a dead cell yet. I've just heard about it. I've helped out hundreds of houses and people. So it's really rare to actually hear about that kind of thing. The inverters are usually what you hear about.

Meg (09:41)
What is the, what's the timeframe from when you, let's say somebody calls you and you go through that analysis and they say, okay, let's do this from when you start to when the panels are up and running.

NJ Solar Guide (09:55)
Yeah. So as soon as you sign up and you contact the utility company to let them know that we're going to be doing this. And then we also have to contact the permitting office at the township, but wherever they are. And those are the things that actually hold us up the most. If you've ever pulled a permit or done any sort of construction or dealt with any of your utility companies, you know how long it takes them to actually get back to a customer. And we're taking them customers from them because they're not going to be getting paid for us, but

It usually from start to finish is like a two to three month process. We usually kind of give them about 30 days each one of the utility and the permitting office. But everything else, I mean, as far as the installation, that only takes like a day or two, depending on what electrical needs are there at the house. We pretty much can take care of everything as soon as we actually get it in our hands.

Meg (10:47)
That's great to hear. You know, I guess one thing that I don't understand, and maybe you can explain it very high level to our listeners, is how does it work? How does the visit that the solar panels are, is that coming off of the supply side of the bill? Or explain how this works to me.

NJ Solar Guide (11:04)
Okay. Yeah. when you right now, if you're paying for electric, the electric comes in through either underground electrical to your house, to your meter, and then it goes into your main service panel. Or maybe you see, you know, telephone poles that have the power coming in through, you know, the conduit up that way. But when you switch to solar, you're going to be producing electric from the panels. And then there will go into an inverter, which, which takes it from DC energy to direct current.

to alternating current, which is what we use in the house. So it's a safe actual energy to process through the house. Then it goes into the meter so that it can be read how much energy the panels are making, and then also how much energy your house is using. And it doesn't actually go straight into the house. It actually goes to the utility company's transfer. So then they use that as a credit basically, and that credit alleviates your bill and whatever usage. So they're monitoring both the incoming and outgoing.

and that's why they have the blacked out zones because when you have too many houses that are on that same grid area there's too much power getting backfitted to their grid.

Meg (12:09)
Right. And so, you know, it may not be a common misconception at this point, but just to be clear, if someone has solar panels, you're basically assisting in everyone's bill that is using solar, right? It doesn't go right to your house is what I'm getting at.

NJ Solar Guide (12:25)
You have the last

Yeah, no. So it's not like your energy that's from the solar panels goes to the grid and then anyone can have it. mean, essentially, like, technically, I guess you could say that in a way, but because the utility company doesn't have to generate or pull energy from other states and pay that extra connection to where they have to transfer it over to us. Like, for example, like Ohio wind farms or like Pennsylvania, if they have solar arrays and ground mounts.

We buy all their energy, so that's why our distribution costs and our supply costs are so expensive. So if we're producing our own energy residentially, it's going to be a lot cheaper for everyone else because we don't have to buy it somewhere else and it's a little bit better.

Meg (13:16)
Okay, that makes sense. The financing, I'm imagining that you refer them out to outside creditors for that.

NJ Solar Guide (13:23)
Yeah. So we work with a couple different banks. There's probably like five or six different ones. Most of the time what I've been seeing currently because of the differences of what happened federally for the state. I see most people doing leasing and PPAs or on the offshoot of a, maybe a cash deal, but that's because the federal tax incentive went away this year.

Meg (13:44)
So let's dig into that a little bit. When you say leasing or PPA, how does that work? What do mean by PPA and how does a lease work?

NJ Solar Guide (13:53)
So a power purchase agreement and a lease are almost the same exact thing. It's a little bit different as far as like the contractual way that it works. But as far as what the customer has to do, if they're paying say $300 for their electric bill, that's their average bill or whatever. And then say they're in a good spot and they chop their bill in half and it's $150 for the solar payment through the financier. Then all they have to do every single month is pay that $150. Then while

the other company, the utility company's rates are going up. It's not $300 anymore. So they're see, they're getting that savings gap when it actually comes to what the customer has to do for either of those occurrences though, is they just pay the monthly bill. They don't have to keep up with any of the warranties or anything. All the liability is actually on the financer and the installation company. So all the warranties, really backs you up.

Meg (14:48)
So is that probably the best benefit for someone that may not be able to afford either the cash deal or purchasing and financing?

NJ Solar Guide (14:55)
Yes. no. So that's one of the best benefits of it. So you don't have to put any money out. There's no down payment. For 30 days after it's installed and it's been operating, that's when you'll get your first bill. And the bill is less than your old bill. So I don't know how you wouldn't be able to afford it. You know, easier. It's a lot easier.

Meg (14:57)
Are there any upfront costs if you go that

I mean, are people concerned about the fact that they don't own the solar panels on their roof? Or do people not really care as long as their bill is going down?

NJ Solar Guide (15:24)
It depends on the person, honestly, but a lot of people ask that question because they used to have the old misconception that, you know, ownership was the best way to go about it. You take a loan out or you pay cash for it. That's where you get the best ROI. Things have drastically changed, especially throughout every state in America since the federal tax credit. It used to be 30 % of the overall system costs would be coming back to you as a tax credit, but that got alleviated the last bill that got passed.

Meg (15:53)
So, mean, somebody is going to stay in their house long term, know, I guess the only question you would have at that point would be what happens at the end of the term.

NJ Solar Guide (16:04)
Right. Yeah. So if you have a 25 year warranty and system and agreement, everything like that, you're going to have to, you know, just make the monthly payments and reap the benefits the whole entire time, but you don't have the liability when you do a lease here, PPA. So all the warranties are on them. You don't have to even insure them or anything like that. But when you own the system and you take a loan out or you pay cash for it, lot of that liability is on you. So.

Now if you're not getting the best ROI from ownership of the system and then also if you don't have to do anything warranty wise it just makes way more sense this way.

Meg (16:41)
Well, it's the quickest way to get short-term savings. Right. I mean, the only thing you'd have to keep in mind is at the end of the term, you're going to have to make a decision about, you know, what to do and who knows what would happen at that point in time.

NJ Solar Guide (16:45)
Yeah, definitely.

Yeah. I mean, if you have a lease or a PPA at the end of 25 years, they, I've seen some companies, some of the financing companies give you the alternative to say, Hey, if you want another 10 years of warranty protection, you could pay, you know, X amount. It's a lot less than what you used to pay, but they already, they already got their bread and butter out of the system at 25 years. And they'll either just say, Hey, you want to buy this out for X amount, or I don't think they're going to take it. It's not like they're going to repo a 25 year old car that's had its payments done already.

Meg (17:26)
Right, or just replace them and do it all over again.

NJ Solar Guide (17:29)
Yeah, and that's usually what people would do because at that time the roofs already going to need to replace them anyway, so.

Meg (17:36)
I mean, guess the only question somebody would have is like, what happens if I decide to sell my house? Well, what happens if I want to buy a house where the homeowner is, you know, 10 years into a 25 year lease term?

NJ Solar Guide (17:47)
Those are great questions and I get them all the time. So if you're buying a system with the house, like say you're moving in somewhere and it's already been 10 years on their agreement, they just pick up where they left off on the same agreement. So if it's, you know, escalator one, then they just pay 2.99 % a year.

every single year for their monthly payment going up or it might be a 0 % fixed, which is usually something I suggest to people when it's a fixed payment for the rest of the term. if you start at year 10 and you know for the next 15 years, because most agreements are 25 years, and you just pay the same thing. So it's a lot cheaper. What was the other part of that question?

Meg (18:28)
Well, it was really, you know, what's going to happen at the end of the or what's going to happen if somebody either is buying or selling a home that has that's in the middle of a lease.

NJ Solar Guide (18:39)
Yeah. So transferable utilities, a customer in leisure town over near like Tabernacle and they bought their house a couple of years before they wanted to save money on it because they had like a lot of, ⁓ electric heat and stuff like that. So they had super high bills, got them a really good system, really good deal. And not even like 10 or 11 months later, they call me and they're like, Hey, my realtor's here. Can you help us? I'm like, yeah, sure. What's going on? They're like,

We're going to move to Florida. You haven't even reaped the benefits that long. Like, what are you doing? But I no problem. The reorder had to connect with to be able to make the transfer. So they were able to transfer their house and sell it to the next person. They just picked up where they left off and got a really good system.

Starting to ramp up. It all worked into the payment. So as far as like every system size, usually the bigger the system, the better the payout, but I usually give a discount because it just makes it more easily aligned with how the savings goes. So working with all the different states, they all have different programs and everything. So the pricing is different for everywhere.