When homeowners want to lower their energy bills, they often jump straight to solar panels. While solar can certainly play a key role, it’s more important to focus on making your home more energy efficient—otherwise, you’re simply producing energy for a home that’s still wasting it. The best return on your investment comes from reducing energy loss. Start by upgrading to energy-efficient windows and doors, adding or improving insulation, and considering heat-reflective exterior coatings. These improvements help your home stay cooler in the summer, reduce heat transfer and make it easier to maintain comfortable indoor temperatures, which gives you greater control over rising utility costs.

Stop Energy Loss Before Adding Solar

Discover how to lower your energy bills by improving your home's efficiency. Start with windows, insulation, and coatings for better savings.

Energy Efficiency Tips for Homeowners

By Scott Gabaree CEO/President of Quality First Home Improvement, Inc. Diamond Certified Expert Contributor

3 Things to Check for During a Roof Inspection

Attributes of a Quality Solar Contractor

Video: 3 Signs Your Roof Needs to be Replaced


It may be easy to ignore your roof, but doing so can lead to costly consequences. To learn more, we're in Sacramento with Scott Gabourey of Quality First Home Improvement, speaking on behalf of our Diamond Certified expert contributor, Gary Gluck. How do you know when it's time to replace your roof? First of all, the best way to know is to do a visual inspection of your roof.

There are three common things that cause a roof to fail. Number one is improper ventilation. If the roof area in your attic space can't breathe, it can break down the shingles and allow them to depreciate in time. Number two would be visual dry rot. You can see if there's dry rot being caused around your roof area or if water is penetrated underneath. And number three would be shingle granule loss. You can see over time that you've lost shingle granules. Well, then your roof may be time to be replaced.

Your home is your biggest asset. In most cases, and your roof protects your home. Doing nothing can cost you an exorbitant amount of money in the long term. You want to make sure that your roof is ready to be replaced for the right reasons at the right time and find the right contractor.

To learn more from local top-rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified expert reports at experts.diamondcertified.org.


Video: How to Find the Right Solar Contractor


my name is Scott and uh I'm going to
give you a few tips on how to find the
right solar contractor number one you
want to look at how long a company's
been in business make sure that they're
properly insured that they have all the
right credentials and that they're
experienced you want to look at what
modules that you're going to use and
inverters and find out if those are
detailed enough for you that it was what
you contract for is what you're going to
get number three I would say that you
need to make sure that you understand
how it's going to be attached to your
roof and understand the condition of
your roof when you make an investment
like this solar should last 40 to 50
years if it's done correctly and so you
want to find a contractor that number
one has the experience knows how to do
the installation uses the best materials
and products available in the industry
and that you will be able to enjoy your
system without having worries or have
any hassle by picking the wrong
contractor who may be taking shortcuts
and not giving you all the information
about what you're actually purchasing
and what's actually going on your roof
in your home one of the difficulties
that solar has in the industry is
contractors will sell wattage and then
they'll use any product available to
fulfill that contract that doesn't mean
you're getting the best performance of
the module it doesn't mean you're
getting the module with the best
warranty or the product that's been
around the longest that you can count on
being there for the next 25 to 50 years
so you want to make certain that it's a
reputable company and it comes in from a
good manufacturer that you can look into
before you put that product on your roof
oh


Video: The Value of Investing in Solar


hi my name is Scott let me tell you why
solar is one of the best investments you
could possibly make in America solar
done correctly should last 40 to 50
years it doesn't have any moving parts
and all it does is collect energy from
the Sun in doing so picking the right
company with the right panels you could
have a 25 year warranty on the product
for the module you could have a 25 year
warranty on the inverter if you go with
the right inverter these warranties are
long lasting they're very sustainable
and also solar produces energy for all
that period without very losing very
little of energy these energy rates that
we see Rising daily weekly monthly and
will continue to cause an impact on
everyone's budget so if you have the
ability to lock those rates in to pay
for yourself buy the solar from yourself
you will no longer have to be subject to
Rising utility costs and rating cases
solar also is one of the greatest tax
credits that I've ever seen it's 30
percent of a federal Tech tax credit
this is a huge compensation for people
in an investment like that that is going
to produce energy for long term and give
you some peace of mind that you're not
going to be subject to rate increases
for the rest of your years
thank you

Scott Gabaree: Quality Comes First

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