Where our solar facts come from, and what happens when one's wrong
Pages here make claims about money, contracts and the law, so each one has to meet a standard before it goes live.
Who writes and who reviews
Every page is written by our editorial team and checked against the sources listed at its foot. A technical reviewer who is an electrical contractor hasn't been appointed yet, so no page here claims expert review.
A named reviewer, once there is one, will appear here with their name, license number, state, years in the trade and a link to the public registry entry, and each page they've read will carry a note saying so. Until then, go by the sources at the bottom of each page, and check anything that matters with your state's licensing board.
Where the numbers come from
| Figure | Source | How often it is checked |
|---|---|---|
| Federal credit status | IRS Residential Clean Energy Credit page and the IRS FAQ on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act: the credit is not available for property placed in service after December 31, 2025 | Each IRS update |
| Installer wages | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, solar photovoltaic installers. These are wages paid to workers, not prices charged to homeowners. | Each release |
| Electricity prices | U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly, the residential average for a single month, with the month printed beside it | Each monthly release |
| National installed-price median | Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Distributed Solar and Storage 2026 Data Update. The figures are read from chart labels and are national, not a state's. | When a new Data Update is published |
| Contractor license law, permit and fee rules | State statutes, administrative rules and agency pages, and each city's printed fee schedule, each linked on the page that uses it | When a rule changes or a reader reports one |
| Utility program rules | The state utility commission's pages and each utility's own tariff and interconnection pages, with the document's date printed where it has one | Each time we re-check, and the date is shown |
| Cost estimates | Published national cost ranges from third-party sites that we haven't verified and don't cite, adjusted by the state's solar installer wage ratio to the US, plus a typical city permit fee where the work needs one. They're estimates, not quotes, and we've collected no customer quotes. | When the wage data or the fee rows change |
The rules every page follows
- If we can't source a fact, it doesn't go on the page, and one we could confirm only from a chart label or an undated page says so in the sentence. Nobody here guesses a rule or a fee from memory.
- Each cost figure is marked as an estimate, shows how it was built and is stated before any incentive. No range is presented as a quote, and no page shows a price after a federal credit, a savings figure or a payback time.
- Pages tell you when a quote isn't worth getting yet, such as when the roof will need replacing during the system's life or a pitch promises no bill.
- There are no reviews, ratings or rankings of installers here, because we don't inspect them and have no basis for ranking them.
- What an installer pays us for requests never changes what a page recommends, and installers don't see a page before it's published or get to edit it.
- You'll find the last-reviewed date on every page, plus an as-of date beside any prices it quotes.
- Software may help draft a page, but a person reads each one, and a factual claim that doesn't trace to a source we list comes out.
How we estimate costs
The figures on this site are estimates, not quotes. Each estimate starts from published national cost ranges for the job, one to three per service, taken from third-party cost guides that we haven't verified and don't cite. It takes the median of their lows to the median of their highs, or widens a single range 15 percent each side. That band is multiplied by the state's solar installer wage ratio to the US, using the mean hourly wage that the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes for solar photovoltaic installers, and a typical city solar permit fee is added where the work needs one. A wage is not a customer price, and every range is stated before any incentive, because no federal credit applies to a system installed in 2026.
In the states we cover, too few installers publish prices to show a range built from them, so every range rests on the national estimate; in a state where at least two installers publish a per-watt figure, its low end is held at or below their median. We haven't collected customer quotes or invoices. Once we have some, we'll say how many and from when, and the ranges are reviewed at least twice a year, with the last review date shown on each page. Your actual price depends on the system size, your roof, the equipment and the installer you choose.
Corrections
Seen a wrong fee or an old date? Use the contact page to send the page and what you saw instead, with a link if you have one. We'll check it against the source, and if the report holds up, we fix the page, date the fix at its foot and add a line to the log below.
- Oct 23, 2026: First published, with no corrections yet.
Where this site's money comes from
A solar installer, or a referral partner acting for one, pays SolarPanelMatch when it receives a homeowner request from us. That's a conflict of interest, and every page says so. The rules above keep it in check: sources on every claim, no rankings, no paid placement, and pages that say when a quote isn't worth getting yet. For the full account, see the how it works page.
- SolarPanelMatch: how we estimate costs, Michigan (editorial policy) Read Oct 23, 2026.
- IRS: Residential Clean Energy Credit Read Oct 23, 2026.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS May 2025: Solar photovoltaic installers (SOC 47-2231), United States (national), mean hourly wage Read Oct 23, 2026.
- Berkeley Lab: U.S. Distributed Solar and Storage 2026 Data Update (slide 8) Read Oct 23, 2026. Confirm with the source before you rely on it.