Solar starts with your roof and your rate, not with panels.
Solar can lower what you pay for power for decades, but only on the right roof, with the right exposure, under the right rate. It is worth understanding your own home before a salesperson understands it for you.
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Why it matters
Solar is a twenty-year commitment. Starting from your roof, your utility and what your state actually pays for exported power keeps the decision in your hands.
Panels are warranted for decades. The asphalt roof they get bolted to is given about 20 years. Mounting them on a roof near the end of its life means paying to take them off and put them back.
National Association of Home Builders, Study of Life Expectancy of Home Components, 2007
The standard policy form excludes “mechanical breakdown, latent defect, inherent vice”. If the equipment itself fails, you are relying on the installer's warranty, which is worth exactly as much as the installer still being in business.
ISO Homeowners 3 Special Form HO 00 03 10 00 (2000), Section I Exclusions 2.c.(6)(b)
Residential power runs from about 13 cents a kilowatt-hour to about 53, depending on the state. What solar is worth follows that number, and it is the number most sales conversations skip.
US EIA, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.A, June 2026
Orientation, pitch, shade and the remaining life of the roof underneath decide whether any of this applies to your house. All four are measured on site, by the installer, not from here.
What to understand
A few things worth knowing before you decide.
Roof fit
Orientation, pitch and shade decide how much a system can really produce. Two identical roofs on the same street can differ by a third.
What your power costs
Savings depend on what you pay now and on what your utility credits you for the power you send back.
Owning versus leasing
How you pay for a system changes the long-term value more than the choice of panel does.
Start with your property.
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