The basics
How net metering actually works
No jargon, no savings calculator that assumes you use twice the power you do.
- 01What is net metering, actually?
- Your panels make the most power in the middle of the day, which is usually when nobody is home to use it. That surplus flows out to the grid and your meter records it. At night you pull power back. Net metering is the accounting that nets those two numbers against each other, so you only pay for the difference.
- 02What is one kilowatt hour of my surplus worth?
- It depends on your state and your provider, and the gap is larger than most people expect. Some states make their investor owned utilities credit a kilowatt hour exported at exactly the rate they charge for one delivered. Others set no rate at all and leave it to the company, which is how a homeowner ends up paid roughly half of what they are charged. Municipal utilities and rural cooperatives set their own terms almost everywhere. Your provider’s own page on this site gives the figure we have read for your provider.
- 03Is there still a 30% federal tax credit?
- No. The Residential Clean Energy Credit under Section 25D was terminated by the law signed on 4 July 2025 and does not apply to any system whose installation was completed after 31 December 2025. The trigger is the completion date, not when you paid, so a deposit put down in 2025 does not preserve it. Anyone still quoting you 30% today is working from an old script. Confirm your own position with a tax preparer.
- 04What happens to credits I do not use?
- They roll forward month to month, which is how a big spring surplus pays for an August air conditioning bill. Once a year the utility trues up the account, and any surplus still sitting there is bought out at the avoided cost rate, which is well below retail. That is why systems are sized to your usage rather than as large as the roof allows.
- 05How big a system am I allowed?
- It depends on your state, and sometimes on your provider as well. Every state page here carries the cap we read from that state’s own rule, and every provider page carries anything stricter the utility itself imposes. Oversizing past the cap does not pay, which is the honest reason to be suspicious of anyone trying to sell you more panels than your bill justifies.
- 06Do I still get a power bill?
- Yes. Even at full offset there are fixed charges, meter fees and taxes that solar does not erase. Anyone promising a zero dollar bill is selling you something. A realistic target is the bill dropping to those fixed charges.
- 07What does this site cost me?
- Nothing. Installers pay us when we introduce them to a homeowner. You are never charged and we never sell your details to anyone other than the single company you pick.