MAD…Making a difference, one house at a time!
What does it take to earn a MAD Certification?
You need a few things to profitably and reliably use solar panels in the suburbs…they need to be aimed directly at the sun, they need to be easy to install, they need to be out of public view and you need suitable roof square footage.
Mounting solar panels flat to the roof is the cheapest way to do it but flat mounting solar panels on most homes won’t aim them at the sun. You can build panel mounts that will but they’re heavy, expensive, take up space and aren’t nice to look at!
Therefore, we’re looking for homes with roof surfaces that offer flat mount, direct aim (FMDA) solar potentials because that’s the most efficient way to use solar technologies.
But we also have to work around Homeowner Associations and while they typically can’t take your right to use solar technology, they can tell you how and where you’re going to use it. More and more HOAs are implementing flat mount, rear of home solar panel requirements in order to maintain neighborhood aesthetics and this could ultimately limit solar energy production in the suburbs!
But reaching energy independence is impossible if you don’t have enough suitable roof square footage. For the average home to be energy independent, a solar array needs to be at least 25% as big as the home’s living square footage. This kind of space can be hard to find as many homes have complicated roof lines or are shaded by trees or other stuctures.