The Solar Quote Check
The GreenLifeDiary workbook for checking a rooftop solar quote: seven checks, a real payback year, and the questions to ask before you sign
The Solar Payback Calculator on this site gives a quick first look: net cost divided by first-year savings. It assumes the panels never fade, that every kilowatt-hour is worth your full retail rate, and that you paid cash. A quote on your kitchen table deserves more. The Solar Quote Check takes the figures printed on a quote and checks each one: the real net cost and price per watt, the production claim against an independent estimate, what your utility pays for exported power, panel fade, the price-rise assumption behind the savings chart, and the total paid on a loan. Then it walks the years to the one where savings really pass what you paid. On the worked 7 kW quote, the simple payback of 13.8 years becomes 14.3 with fade, 12 with a 3% price rise, 25 if most power is exported at $0.05, and never within 25 years on a 20-year 7% loan. Not financial, tax or legal advice, and it recommends no installer, loan or lease. Includes a three-quote comparison, eight questions to ask in writing, a payback grid and a cut-the-load page. With your purchase comes a personalised sheet walking your own quote under different assumptions.
Look inside
Two full pages from the workbook, exactly as printed. Click either to read it at full size before you decide.
What is in it
- The real net cost and price per watt
- The production claim, checked
- What each kWh is really worth: retail vs export
- Panel fade
- The price-rise assumption
- The cost of a loan
- The real payback year, walked year by year
- Three quotes side by side, and eight questions to ask
- A payback grid and a cut-the-load page
- A personalised sheet: your quote under different assumptions
- ✓ 25 printable pages
- ✓ 10 sections, worksheets and templates
- ✓ A second PDF worked out from the numbers you enter
- ✓ No account needed, just an email address
- ✓ Instant download; link valid 7 days
Price includes any taxes. Sold by GrabURL, who handle checkout and support. The charge appears on your statement as GrabURL.
The workbook complements the free Solar Payback Calculator. It gives a first look; the workbook checks a real quote line by line and finds the year it really pays back.