You can use solar panels for a couple of things in your home. Usually the cheapest is a solar hot water system. You have water cells on the roof that send heated water to your water tank. I saw one on line that cost $2000 for the whole system. You can also use solar to heat your home or power your electrical system. My friend has a solar heating system with a natural gas furnace as a backup. We're in Oregon so there isn't always enough solar energy to heat their whole house. I lived in CA for 7 years, and the local electrical utility had a program where they would pay to install solar panels on your house. In the summer, the panels usually generated enough energy to power 6 homes. The extra power went back into the electrical grid. My coworker had this program, and her meter runs backwards in the summer. I think if you're building a house, it's a great thing to do. You can incorporate the solar system into your building plan & budget so much more easily. When I lived in New Mexico, a lot of homes were built with passive solar, with large south facing windows and skylights. hth Cec