FreshSuns gives you simple, transparent calculators for system size, savings, payback and carbon impact - so you can check an installer's projections against your own estimate. Everything runs in your browser and nothing is for sale.
Start with Savings Check a Quote's PaybackStep 1: estimate system size, production and monthly savings from your bill, sunshine and roof space.
Step 2: enter the price from a real quote and only incentives you have confirmed, to test its payback.
Step 3: estimate the yearly and lifetime CO2 your system could displace.
Background reading that helps you interpret the numbers.
A practical guide to solar panel maintenance — what you need to do, how often, and what to watch for to keep your system producing at peak efficiency.
Read the guide →How home battery systems work, which products lead the market, and how pairing batteries with solar changes your energy independence.
Read the guide →What solar panel efficiency ratings actually mean, why they matter, and how to compare panels when evaluating your solar options.
Read the guide →A realistic guide to what true energy independence requires — the costs, the systems, and the lifestyle considerations of going off-grid with solar.
Read the guide →Every solar savings figure - ours or an installer's - is built from a handful of assumptions. Knowing what they are makes it much easier to judge whether a projection is realistic.
How many kilowatt-hours a system produces depends on its size, panel efficiency, roof direction and tilt, shading and local sunshine. Our estimator uses peak sun hours and a roof-direction factor; professional tools model shading hour by hour. Read understanding panel efficiency ratings to see how panel specifications feed into production.
Savings depend on what each kWh is worth to you: the price you avoid buying from the grid, and the credit (if any) you get for power you export. Where export credits are low, using more of your own solar power - or adding storage, covered in our home battery guide - matters more.
Net cost is the installed price minus incentives you actually receive. Incentives change frequently, so the payback calculator starts with no incentive applied - add one only once you have confirmed it.
Lifetime savings assume the system keeps producing for decades and that electricity prices keep rising at some rate. Small changes to those assumptions make large differences over 25 years, so test a range. Keeping the system healthy, as explained in our maintenance guide, protects those long-term numbers. If you are considering independence from the grid entirely, read going off-grid with solar first.
FreshSuns is an independent informational site. We do not sell, finance or install solar, and calculator results are estimates, not financial, tax or engineering advice. See our disclaimer.