Spanish Fork covers a lot of ground, and a good share of it is acreage rather than subdivision. On a rural or semi-rural property the electric bill often reflects far more than a house. A well pump, an irrigation pump, a heated shop, a welder, an air compressor, freezers in an outbuilding, and stock tank heaters can all sit behind one meter, and several of them run in seasonal bursts that make a single month look nothing like the year. That is why twelve months of actual usage is the starting point here rather than a guess based on the size of the home.
It also helps to know how your property is metered. Some parcels have one service feeding everything, while others have separate services for the house and for the shop or agricultural side, and that distinction changes what a solar system can offset and how the interconnection is arranged. Pumps also draw hard when they start, which is worth mentioning to whoever designs the system. None of this is unusual out here, but it does mean the site visit needs to cover more than the roof of the house. Point out every building and every pump.
When a property has a house, a barn, a shop, and a couple of sheds, the best roof is not always the obvious one. Shop and barn roofs are often large, simple, and unbroken, which suits a clean layout, while the house may be cut up with dormers and gables that leave only fragments. On the other hand, older outbuildings can have framing, sheathing, or a covering that is not suited to carrying an array for decades, and a metal roof is attached differently than shingles. Each structure gets evaluated on its own merits before anything is decided.
Roof condition rules the conversation the same way it does in town. If a shop roof has years of hard weather left in it, that is fine. If it is near the end of its life, replacing it first is normally the sensible order, because pulling an array off and putting it back on costs money. Wherever panels do go, penetrations have to be flashed properly for the material involved. And a permit plus a utility interconnection application are part of every project, on a rural parcel just as much as on a city lot.
When no roof on the property faces a useful direction, or the good roofs are too small or too shaded, a ground mount becomes a genuine option. That is one real advantage acreage gives you. Panels on a ground rack can be aimed and tilted for the sun instead of accepting whatever direction a builder chose, which matters when the house sits at an awkward angle to south or when a line of trees along a ditch shades the south side of the roof for a good part of the day.
Ground mounts bring their own considerations: the array needs open, unshaded space that will stay open, a foundation suited to your soil, a trench back to the point of connection, and setbacks and permitting that apply to a structure in your yard. Snow and the low winter sun affect a ground array as well, and the tilt you choose changes how it sheds. Incentives and utility rules exist and change over time, so confirm them with a tax professional and with your utility directly. We do not give tax advice. Call 801-644-9000 to get started.
Whichever combination gives the most unshaded, well-oriented area on a roof with enough remaining life to carry an array for the long haul, with a workable path back to the point of connection. Often that is a shop or barn rather than the house. Sometimes it is a mix of both. It gets decided by walking the property and measuring each structure, not by looking at your address from above.
It can be, when roof area is limited, orientation is poor, or shading is heavy, because a ground rack can be aimed and tilted deliberately. The tradeoffs are the land it occupies, the racking foundation, the trench back to the point of connection, and local permitting for a structure in your yard. Raise it during the site visit and ask for both approaches to be compared for your property.
It changes the sizing conversation, because pumps can add substantial seasonal load and they draw heavily at startup. Whoever designs the system should know the pump exists, know which meter it sits behind, and see the twelve months of usage that reflect it. Irrigation seasons vary from year to year as well, so mention anything unusual about the last twelve months so nothing is built on an odd year.
A few details about your home is enough to start. Or call 801-644-9000 and skip the form.