Is Solar Worth It? When Rooftop Solar Is the Wrong Call

Short tenure, cheap power, heavy shade, and weak export credits can make a rooftop system look better in a quote than it is in real life.

The honest disqualifiers a lead-generation site rarely leads with.

Key takeaways

undefined should be judged with conservative payback assumptions, not a single optimistic quote number.

Check the strongest assumption against public sources, current rates, and the homeowner's bill context.

Use the next-step links to compare rankings, rerun the calculator, and verify the methodology before treating the estimate as final.

When solar is not worth it

Solar is often not worth it when the payback range is longer than the time you expect to stay in the home, when electricity is cheap, when the roof is shaded, or when export credits are weak.

That does not mean solar is bad. It means the economics need to clear a higher bar than a sales presentation may suggest.

Short homeowner tenure can break solar payback

If you expect to move in five years and the conservative payback range is twelve to sixteen years, the system may not recover its cost during your ownership period.

Cheap electricity weakens solar savings

Solar saves money by offsetting utility power. In a low-rate state, each kilowatt-hour offset is worth less, so the same system can take longer to pay back than it would in a high-rate state.

Shade and export policy are deal breakers

Heavy shade cuts production. Weak export credits cut the value of excess production. Together, they can turn an attractive gross production estimate into a marginal financial result.