Over the last few years there has been an increase of renewable and clean energies usage in North America. Along with this tendency, installation of photovoltaic cells arrays - also called solar panels- on consumers homes roofs has been increasing exponentially.

This section describes the installation process of such solar panels, with the purpose of illustrating the process to anyone interested on going solar. We strongly recommend that you do not try to do this yourself unless you an expert knowledge on electricity installation and engineering. For the great majority a professional installation is normally the cheaper, cleaner and safer solution.
In some US states it is really convenient to hire a specialized company as they are offering programs that can help saving thousands of dollars on installation costs. Anyway, we recommend you check the following guide to get a good idea of the process. In this section we will cover roof Grid-tied systems installation

STEP 1. Analizing the possible efficiency of your installation.
This can be done for free using an online free calculator. You can check a list of the best ones on our How much solar power could you produce? section. This will give you a good idea on how efficient your installation could be.

STEP 2. Make a more in-depth analysis of the actual conditions of sunlight exposure of your roof.
Most professionals use a tool like Solar Pathfinder PV Positioners. This is a professional device that includes a software for data analysis, and has the NREL solar insulation data built in. It auto-computes the percentage of sunlight, azimuth, solar radiation and KWhr and it can even be adjust for the removal of trees and other shadow-casting barriers. For the Do-It-Yourself kind of person these can be rented for around 25 dollars a week, however, if you are hiring a contractor for the whole instalation process, must probabily they will have to perform tests of their own.

STEP 3. Considering how to install.
note: It is important to consider that installing solar panels is really convenient during a re-roofing process.
At this point you should already have an approximate idea of how efficient & useful your installation could be. So now it is time to consider how to proceed.
First we recommend you check what kind of incentives and credit facilities are available on your city. A good place to start is the Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency, the name is pretty self-explainatory: a complete list of incentives by state and city can be found. This could save you loads of money since tax credits or rebates go up to 50% of the system cost. You can read more about this here
You can also consider a Power Purchase Agreement, which is a contract with a company that takes care of all installation costs and in turn owns the solar installation and then sells you electricity at guaranteed rate under a long-term contract. You can read more about this Enviromental Protection Agency page.

STEP 4. Buying / Installing
note: please remember we are only covering grid-tied systems installations on this section.
At this point there is a manifold of possibilities depending on the contractor you have chosen. As for solar panels, chances are DIY will not be possible as they must be compliant with the building/electrical code or insurance companies regulations, and only standard manufacturers panels fulfill these requirments.
Whether you must / can buy solar panels yourself or not, depends on the chosen contractor. If you are going to buy them on your own we recommend you browse Affordable Solar, as they are really specialized on this field and have very low prices. The installation process also varies widely depending on your roof type. Below we include some videos from installer companies that serve very well to get an idea of the actual installation process.