About Solar Panel Answers

It is arithmetic, not a yes or a no. Three things decide it: what your utility charges per kilowatt-hour, what the system costs after any credit you actually qualify for, and how many years you expect to stay in the house. Change any one of them and the answer changes. A pitch that skips all three is selling rather than calculating.

Because the bill carries the one number the system has to be sized against: the kilowatt-hours you actually used over a year. Array size follows from that, and price follows from array size. A figure quoted before anyone has seen your usage is a guess wearing the clothes of a quote.

Put them on one basis first. System size in kilowatts, then total price before any credit, then price after it - and only then the monthly payment. Cash, loan and lease are three different products, and the monthly figure on a lease is not comparable to the purchase price of a system you would own.

It is a credit against federal income tax, not a cash rebate, so it is worth something to you only to the extent you owe tax. Any quote showing a post-credit price is assuming you qualify for the full amount. Check that assumption against your own return before you treat the lower number as the real one.

That comparison is not mainly about skill, and it is worth making before price enters it. On one side is what you save on labour. On the other is the work on the roof, the electrical connection, and whoever has to sign the installation off where you live. Our DIY page sets the two sides out in full.

Less than most equipment attached to a house, because a panel has no moving parts. That is not the same as none: output is worth watching, since a system quietly producing less than it should is costing you the exact thing you bought it for. Our maintenance page covers what is worth checking and what is not worth paying somebody else to check.