Review solar site constraints, document array assumptions, compare written cash and contract terms, verify current incentives and plan commissioning records.
Collect a year of electricity records, ownership or landlord permission, roof condition information and any planned roof work. Ask the installer to assess shading, usable area, structure, electrical service and local approval requirements. Record future loads separately from today’s meter total.
Enter candidate module DC wattage, whole panel count, a sourced peak-sun-hours assumption and documented total losses. Record the source location and time coverage. Compare the simple annual arithmetic with the installer’s site-specific production estimate and ask what accounts for any difference.
Request itemized equipment, labor, roof and service work, permit and interconnection fees, monitoring, warranties and exclusions. Ask how self-consumption, export compensation and fixed charges affect the estimated bill. For loans, leases or PPAs, record payment timing, escalation, ownership, transfer and end-of-term conditions.
Use the complete written cash price, only verified upfront incentives, a tariff-aware year-one bill-savings estimate and sourced recurring costs. Test the selected ownership horizon and a conservative savings case. Keep financing and delayed tax benefits in a separate cash-flow record.
Before operation, collect the required inspections and utility permission to operate. Obtain as-built equipment details, monitoring access, shutdown instructions, warranties and service contacts. Record the initial meter and production dates, then compare actual production and bills with the documented proposal assumptions.
Keep the site questions, baseline usage and installer answers in a dated planning note. · Create a proposal comparison with dated prices, exclusions and unanswered contract questions. · Save the commissioning checklist, document locations and follow-up production observations.
Inspect nameplate power and annual energy arithmetic using entered resource and loss assumptions; this is not system design.
Test whether entered cumulative net operating benefits recover net upfront cash cost within the chosen horizon.
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Roof condition, shading, ownership and utility arrangements affect a residential solar decision. Review the written installer and financing terms, and establish who owns and maintains each component.
Check the current IRS residential clean energy credit page for the actual installation and expenditure dates. Do not reuse the former through-2032 credit schedule as a current quote assumption.
The array record is panel watts × count × entered solar-resource hours × entered loss adjustment. The cash model accumulates entered bill savings less recurring costs. Neither model supplies roof engineering, tax eligibility, loan costs or a utility tariff.
Production valued entirely at the retail electricity rate may overstate bill savings when exports receive a different payment.
A dated starting record makes later monitoring and warranty questions easier to investigate.