Featured guide
The Kilowatt Ledger
- Rate Plans & Net Billing Residential Demand Charges: What Solar Cannot Reduce Georgia Power charges $12.44 for the highest 60-minute kW in any month, on-peak or not. Find that clause in your own tariff before you trust a payback figure.
- Solar Equipment Solar Panel Tilt and Azimuth: What Shade Costs in kWh A roof modeled at 225 degrees instead of 180 loses 657 kWh a year on paper alone. PVWatts numbers for azimuth, tilt, and shade, run on one roof, math shown.
- Payback Math Solar Loan vs Lease vs PPA: Total Cost Against Cash One $24,000 roof, four contracts, 25 years. The year a 2.9% lease escalator overtakes your bill savings, and the numbers to copy from your own paperwork.
- Rate Plans & Net Billing Solar Interconnection Application: Fees, Limits, Timelines PG&E's Rule 21 runs 290 sheets and prices the same paperwork at $145 or $800 depending on one row. Find your utility's version and the clauses that bind it.
- Payback Math Solar Loan Dealer Fees: Why the Cash Price Is Lower One system, $28,700 in cash or $38,818 financed. How a solar loan dealer fee hides outside the APR, and the payoff month where it stops costing you.
- Solar Equipment Solar Panel Removal and Reinstall Cost: The Roof Age Math Contracts say 'competitive price' and cost guides disagree by 2x. Price a future removal and reinstall into payback, and find when to reroof first.
- Heat Pumps Cold Climate Heat Pump COP: What Backup Heat Costs The 5 degree test point moved behind a paywall, the label HSPF2 was rated for a milder climate, and one thermostat setting multiplied backup kWh by six.
- Reading Proposals Solar Production Guarantee: What a Shortfall Actually Pays A filed 20-year contract pays $39.93 for a system running a fifth below its own estimate. Work out the deadband, the agreed price, and who reads the meter.
- Batteries & Backup Home Battery Installation Requirements: kWh Limits by Room The room you picked has a kilowatt-hour ceiling written into the building code, and your quote never checked it. Read the section before you pay a deposit.
- Rate Plans & Net Billing California NEM 3.0: How Export Credits Are Priced PG&E pays $0.00001 for a kilowatt-hour exported at 3 p.m. on a May weekend and $1.19289 at 7 p.m. on an August one. Same roof, same meter, one price sheet.
- Solar Equipment Microinverter vs String Inverter: What Your Roof Decides The 25-35% in microinverter pitches is a share of your shade loss, not extra output. NREL's testbed report, NEC 690.12, and the kWh math for one roof.