Solar & battery
Solar Payback Period Calculator
How long a solar system takes to pay for itself, with the electricity price rise stated openly.
Result
Incentives change, expire and differ by state, utility and tax position. Nothing here is tax advice: whether you can use a credit at all depends on your own liability, and a credit is not a rebate. Confirm what applies to you with a tax professional before it affects a purchase decision. The escalation rate does most of the work in this calculation and nobody knows it. Run it at 1% as well as at your optimistic figure; if the answer only works at 5%, it is a bet on energy prices rather than an investment in equipment.
Get a Free Business AuditQuestions
About this calculator
Why does the export rate matter so much?
Because power you use yourself is worth the full retail rate, and power you export is often worth a third of that. As net metering rules tighten, self-consumption becomes the main driver of the return.
Is payback the right measure?
It is the easiest to understand and the least complete. It ignores the time value of money, the inverter replacement around year 12 to 15, and what the same capital would have earned elsewhere.
Does solar add to the house value?
Owned systems generally do; leased ones often complicate a sale because the lease has to be transferred. That difference is not in this calculation and can be larger than several years of savings.
The formula
each year: production x blended rate, escalated; payback is the year cumulative saving passes net cost
Put this calculator on your site
Free to embed. Paste this where you want it to appear. It stays up to date automatically because it loads from BDEVY.
Please keep the attribution line. It is the only thing we ask in return.
Keep going
Related calculators
Solar Energy Savings Calculator
What solar takes off a power bill each month, allowing for the part of the bill solar cannot touch..
Open calculatorSolar Lease vs Buy Calculator
Compare buying solar outright, financing it, and taking a lease or power purchase agreement..
Open calculatorSolar Tax Credit Calculator
What a percentage tax credit is worth against a system cost, and what carries over if you cannot use it all..
Open calculatorEstimating is the easy part
The jobs you never hear about cost more than the ones you mis-measure. BDEVY builds the marketing, systems and automation that bring them in.