Clear, independent analysis for homeowners, written by someone who spent years on the installer's side of the table, now working for yours.
For 45 years California has kept solar out of property reassessment. That ends January 1, 2027, and exactly which date makes your system count is less settled than the marketing suggests.
Installers, proposals, and architecture, before any signature.
With the homeowner tax credit gone, the lease and the PPA became the contract you are most likely to be handed. Here are the five clauses that decide whether it is a good one.
Most comparison sites earn a commission on your choice. We don't. The subcontractor problem, and the five questions that separate serious installers.
String inverter, power optimizers, or microinverters? The architecture shapes reliability, monitoring, and repair costs for 25 years. Nobody explains it.
A solar proposal is a sales document first. Here's how to read every line (system size, production estimate, escalator, dealer fee, financing) and spot what the design hides.
Loans, dealer fees, and the payment structures under the pitch.
Many solar loans reset to a higher payment unless you prepay about 30 percent, money that was meant to come from a tax credit 2026 buyers no longer get.
Most solar loans hide a dealer fee of 10 to 30 percent inside the system price. What the fee is, and the three questions that drag it into the light.
What credits and programs remain, and who can claim them.
For 45 years California has kept solar out of property reassessment. That ends January 1, 2027, and exactly which date makes your system count is less settled than the marketing suggests.
California's battery rebate budgets stopped taking new funding at the end of 2025. Who can still get help through RSSE, and what is genuinely left in 2026.
Section 25D expired at the end of 2025. Section 48E lives on, but the system owner claims it, not you. What that means for a 2026 lease or PPA.
Your installer is gone. The system is fine. Here is the sequence.
Manufacturer warranties on your panels, inverter, and battery survive your installer's failure. The installer's own promises do not. How to tell them apart.
Your solar loan holder can be held responsible for what your installer did wrong. Here's how the FTC Holder Rule actually works, where it stops, and how to use it.
If your solar installer is gone, here's the exact recovery sequence: documents to gather, who to call, how to move your warranty, and how to find a new servicer.
What a filing does and does not touch.
Freedom Forever's sale collapsed and the court converted the case to a Chapter 7 liquidation. If they installed your system, here's what changed for your warranty, your monitoring, your payments, and what to do now.
If your solar installer filed for bankruptcy or stopped answering, here's what it actually means for your system, your warranties, your payments, and why this keeps happening.
Hardware decisions, recalls, and the physics behind the numbers.
Tesla recalled about 10,500 Powerwall 2 batteries for fire risk, and affected units may be running with reduced backup right now. How to check yours in the Tesla app this week.
Plain definitions for the vocabulary the industry hides behind.
kW is size; kWh is how much energy you use or make over time. Get this one distinction and every number on your solar proposal and utility bill suddenly makes sense.