What solar actually costs -- and why nobody will quote you a flat price

Solar is priced per watt of system capacity, and the capacity you need is driven by how much electricity you use, how much sun reaches your specific roof, and how much of your usage you are trying to offset. Two houses on the same street can need meaningfully different systems because one has a west-facing roof plane shaded by a neighbour's tree and the other does not.

That is why a flat price is either a lie or a bait number that changes after the site assessment. What a real quote contains is a system size in kilowatts, an estimated annual production figure, the equipment being installed, and the financing structure -- not a single dollar amount with no basis attached.

Usage is the biggest driver. A household running air conditioning through a San Diego summer and charging an electric vehicle needs a substantially larger system than one that does not, and system size is the main cost lever.

Roof condition and complexity come next. Tile roofs, which are common across San Diego County, take longer to work on than composition shingle and that shows up in labour. A roof that needs work before panels go on adds cost, though folding that into the same project is usually cheaper and less disruptive than doing it separately later.

Then there is electrical work. Some homes need a main panel upgrade before a system can be interconnected, and that is a real line item rather than an upsell. Battery storage, ground mounts, long conduit runs and trenching all sit outside a standard rooftop install too.

Look for the price per watt, because it lets you compare quotes for differently sized systems. Check what is excluded -- panel upgrades, roofing work and structural remediation are the common exclusions, and a quote that is silent on them is not necessarily cheaper. Check the production estimate and ask what assumptions it rests on.

And check whether savings are presented as estimates or as guarantees. Production and savings projections are estimates. Anyone guaranteeing you a specific dollar figure or a specific utility bill outcome is telling you something they cannot know, because it depends on weather, your future usage and how your utility structures rates over a 25-year horizon.

Our own sizing calculator will give you a rough planning figure in about a minute. It is deliberately labelled preliminary -- it is subject to engineering review, roof-fit verification and utility approval, and it is not a quote.