That's an understandable concern, but Silicon Valley Power has your best interest at stake. Solar panels are not cheap, and in order to get the most bang for you buck, you'll want to have a highly energy-efficient house. To do that, you'll want an energy audit for your San Jose home to help identify the areas in your home that needed an energy efficiency retrofit.

Generally, bringing your home up to speed in terms of insulation, air sealing, ENERGY STAR appliances, etc. is going to reduce your overall energy consumption, and the measures to get there are going to be much more affordable than an unnecessarily large solar panel system. If you're using less energy overall, then you're not going to need as big of a system, which will save you a lot money upfront. If you're really energy efficient, you may even be able to create excess energy, which you may be able to sell to your electricity provider.

To get a general idea of how efficient your home is and some of the measures you might take to make it better before investing in solar, use our quick and easy online energy audit tool. Generally speaking, an energy audit in the San Jose area costs around $600, but the average household can recoup that through the savings they gain on their energy bills in less than a year.