Solar questions homeowners ask

Panels turn sunlight into direct current, and an inverter converts it to the alternating current your house uses. Your home uses what it can at that moment; the surplus charges a battery or flows to the grid for a credit. How solar works covers each step.

Yes, at reduced output. Panels respond to light rather than heat, so an overcast day produces a fraction of a clear day’s output rather than nothing. Annual production estimates already account for typical cloud cover where you live.

A standard grid-tied system shuts down when the grid goes down. That is a safety requirement: it stops your array energizing lines utility crews may be working on. Riding through an outage needs a battery, an inverter configured for backup, and the circuits you care about on a backup subpanel.

Panels carry long performance warranties that guarantee output stays above a stated percentage of the original rating for a set period; that is not an end date. Inverter warranties can be shorter, so an inverter replacement during the system’s life is a normal, budgetable event.

It charges a battery if you have one, and otherwise goes to the grid. What that is worth depends on your utility: full retail under net metering, less under net billing or an avoided-cost buyback rate. That rate goes a long way to deciding whether solar pays.

Under full retail net metering, electricity you export is credited at the rate you pay to import, so the meter in effect runs backward. Some states and utilities have moved to net billing or buyback, which credit exports below retail. The three compared.

Our cost pages give sourced ranges built from at least 12 dated data points, but a range is not your quote. Your price comes from system size, equipment, roof, electrical work, local labor, permits and financing. Solar costs explains each one.

It depends on four numbers: your annual consumption, your usable roof, your retail electricity rate and what your utility pays for exports. High rates and good export terms favor solar; cheap power and low export pay make it marginal. Anyone answering without seeing your bill is guessing.

Work it out from your annual kilowatt-hours, then check it against usable roof. Households of the same size can need very different systems, so a number from a national article will not fit your house. The panel count calculator uses your own figures.

Total system price divided by system size in watts, so quotes for different sized systems can be compared. It means something only when every quote is computed the same way: gross of incentives, on DC watts, with any battery priced separately. Cost per watt explained.

There is a reason, and it is worth finding: a string inverter instead of module-level electronics, a shorter workmanship warranty, subcontracted labor, or exclusions that come back as change orders. Ask what is different before assuming it is a better deal.

No, and a specific guarantee is a warning sign. Savings depend on future utility rates, your consumption, the weather and your tariff. A company promising a payback year is selling certainty it does not have.

Not for homeowners buying their own system. Section 25D, the residential clean energy credit, was terminated for expenditures made after December 31, 2025, with no phase-down. A proposal netting 30% off an owner’s price is working from rules that no longer apply. What changed.

Because it is a different credit, claimed by a different taxpayer. Under a lease or power purchase agreement, the third-party owner holds the equipment and claims Section 48E. Whether any of that value reaches you depends on the terms you sign.

Check four layers, each with the body that runs it: federal, state, utility and local. We publish no program table because we could not keep it current. The incentive finder filters by location, and a tax professional can say what you qualify for.

Not necessarily. A tax credit is claimed on your return after the fact, so you pay the full price first. Some utility rebates are assigned to the installer and appear as a discount. Ask which kind each figure in your proposal is, because the cash-flow effect differs.

Not necessarily. A battery makes financial sense where export pay is low or time-of-use rates swing through the day, and practical sense where outages are frequent or long. Where exports earn close to retail and the power rarely fails, a battery can be the weakest part of a proposal.

Only if it was designed and paid for to do that. A battery powers a defined set of circuits on a backup subpanel, chosen at installation. Capacity decides how long it runs; the power rating decides what it can run at once, including whether your air conditioner starts.

You can, but check the roof’s remaining life first. A roof that needs replacing while the array is on it means paying to remove and reinstall the panels. A roofer can tell you how many years it has left. Re-roofing before solar.

A string inverter is one unit for the whole array, which costs less but lets a shaded panel drag down its string. Microinverters and optimizers sit under each module, so panels work and report on their own. On a shaded or multi-plane roof, that difference can be worth paying for.

Not necessarily. Rain can keep a pitched array clean. Cleaning can earn its cost in long dry seasons, near farm or road dust, under heavy pollen, where birds roost, and on near-flat arrays. Check your production data first, and leave any roof work to a professional.

Verify the license in the name on the contract, get proof of insurance, find out who does the work, and read all three warranties separately. Then compare written proposals on the same size and production basis. How to choose an installer.

Search your state licensing board’s register for the exact legal entity on the contract and confirm the license is current. Some states license solar as a specialty, some under electrical, some not at all, so an empty search can mean you searched the wrong register.

Panel and inverter product warranties come from the manufacturers, so they can outlast the installer, though you may have to arrange and pay the labor to fit a replacement part. The workmanship warranty may be worth little unless a third party backs it. Where that leaves you.

Same-day-only pricing, door-to-door contracting, guaranteed savings, a net price with no gross figure, refusal to name panel and inverter models, and a large deposit with no progress schedule. None proves bad work; each one stops you comparing.

No. We publish no ranking, score or badge, because we have no documented method that would support one. We tell you what to check, and you decide. Verification is not endorsement: how we vet.

Start with whether you want to own the system. Ownership decides who claims any incentive, who carries maintenance and how easily the house sells. Cash avoids interest and fees; a lease or PPA moves the upfront cost and maintenance to someone else. The four compared.

A fee paid to a lender so a below-market interest rate can be offered, recovered by raising the price and financed with everything else. It may not appear as its own line. Ask for the cash price and the financed price separately: the gap is the fee.

It can, for an owned system. Leased systems and PPAs are more complicated, because the agreement has to be assumed by the buyer or settled at closing, and that is a negotiation rather than a formality. Solar and home value covers the research.

Yes, and the financing decides how easily. An owned system transfers with the house. A loan with a UCC-1 filing, a lease or a PPA each has to be paid off, subordinated or assumed before closing. Find out which you have months before you list.

Start with the cheapest explanation. Monitoring that shows zero can be a communications fault, such as a replaced home router; check whether your meter shows export. Never go on the roof or open an enclosure: a live DC array is dangerous in daylight whatever the breaker says. Call a licensed professional.

No. We do not install, finance, maintain or service solar systems, we have no crews or equipment, and we never visit your property. We publish information and, when a homeowner asks, can pass their request to a solar professional serving their area.

The intended model is that solar professionals pay to receive homeowner requests; the terms are not settled yet. Read everything here knowing that. The money does not buy placement in a guide, a favorable comparison, the removal of a warning or a mention in our research.

A person checks the request is complete and whether a solar professional covers your area and the work described. If one does, your details go to them and they contact you. If none does, we tell you so. Nothing is sent until you consent on the final step.

No. Your details are used to respond to your request and, with your consent, to pass it to a solar professional serving your area. They are not sold to data brokers or advertising networks. The privacy policy sets out retention and your rights.

Primary sources: federal agency data, state agency rules, utility filings and manufacturer documentation. Our state-level analysis is computed from Form EIA-861, the annual report every US electric utility must file, and our own arithmetic is labeled as such. Methodology.