Before You Buy Solar: A Buyer's Field Manual for Sizing, Quotes, Batteries and Payback

The federal solar tax credit for homeowners is gone. Most of the math you have been shown still assumes it.The 30% Residential Clean Energy Credit is not allowed for any home system whose installation was completed after 31 December 2025. Not paid for, not signed. Completed. Yet quotes, calculators and loan paperwork still subtract it, and a system that paid back in eleven years now takes sixteen or more. This book does the arithmetic again, from the beginning, for the person who has to write the check.This is a buyer's guide, not an installation manual. It covers every decision you make before a panel goes up, and none of the wiring.What is inside: - A five-fact screen that tells you in one evening whether solar is worth pricing for your house at all- How to size a system yourself with a free federal calculator, and check any quote's size and production estimate in two minutes- Grid-tied, hybrid or off-grid, and why your utility's export rules matter more than the equipment- Batteries: runtime arithmetic, warranty fine print, and when a generator is the better buy- How to read a solar quote line by line, and the eight red flags that hide cost- Comparing quotes fairly by cost per kilowatt-hour, not cost per watt or monthly payment- Cash, loan, lease or PPA: dealer fees, PACE liens, lease escalators and what happens when you sell- An honest payback calculation at three rate assumptions, with maintenance and degradation included- Choosing an installer, permits and utility approval, the roof underneath, and owning the system for twenty-five years- A failure-modes chapter, a chapter on when the answer is don't, and worksheets built to be photocopiedEvery figure is sourced and dated: IRS guidance, national installed-cost data from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, federal cost benchmarks, CFPB and FTC consumer findings, EIA electricity data. One household's numbers run through the whole book, so you see the arithmetic, not just the advice.Who this is for: homeowners and landowners with a quote in hand, or about to get one, who want to know whether it is a good deal before they sign.Who this is not for: anyone looking for wiring or installation instructions, or for a book that promises solar always pays. This one tells you when it doesn't.