For the great majority of homeowners, the average price should be sufficient. If your home is a lot larger or smaller than “average”, (three bedrooms and two bathrooms) use the following steps estimate how much the cost for your home would be:

1) Get your power bill, and determine how many kilowatt hours you used in the last month.

2) Use the following formula for a rough estimate of what size solar system you would need, in kilowatts, to estimate your home’s appropriate-sized solar system:

KW solar system size required = (Total # of kWh used)/30/7

In the below example:

KW solar system size required = 773 kWh / 30 days in a month / 7 hours per day of equivalent sunlight = 3.68 KW system required.

3) Multiply the number of Kilowatts by both the before and after-incentive cost in your area:

Approximate average cost of solar for your home:

After incentive solar cost – the actual cost of the solar system to the homeowner, after government and utility incentives and rebates are factored in:

After incentive cost per kilowatt x number of kilowatts required.

Before incentive cost – the cost of solar before any incentives and rebates are applied – this number is NOT your true cost – as the incentives and rebates reduce your costs significantly:

Before incentive cost per kilowatt x number of kilowatts required.

Example:

If the price/kilowatt in your area was: $2,900 after incentives (so your true cost) and $4,500 before incentives.

How much you would pay as a homeowner (after incentives and rebates):

$2,900 per kilowatt x 3.68 kW = Total cost of solar to the homeowner: $10,672

How much solar panels would be before incentive savings:

$4,500 per kilowatt x 3.68 kW = Total cost of solar to the homeowner (before incentives and rebates): $16,560