Solar cost estimator
Sample dataA low, typical and high installed cost in dollars per watt from system size, roof complexity, panel tier, battery or no battery, and state, with each factor sourced and the federal credit line shown at $0.
Your answers stay on this device. Nothing you type here is sent anywhere.
How this works
- SAMPLE PRICES. The per-unit price ranges in this tool have not been sourced yet and must not be quoted as a market rate. They are a placeholder so the tool works end to end, and they stay in place until a licensed contractor in this trade or a published cost database supplies the table and the reviewer signs it off. The regional factors below are real.
- REAL DATA: the state factor is that state's median hourly wage divided by the national median, from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for May 2025, for Solar Photovoltaic Installers (SOC 47-2231, national median $25.55/hr); and Electricians (SOC 47-2111, national median $30.38/hr). Where a state reports more than one of these trades, the factor is the average of their ratios; where BLS suppressed a trade in a state, the factor uses the trades it does report. It is applied only to the labour share you set below, which is itself an assumption you can change.
- How the arithmetic works: size × the per-unit range for the tier you pick, plus any add-ons, plus fixed costs — then the labour share of that total is multiplied by your state's wage factor and the rest is left alone. Every line is shown so you can see where the number came from.
- A low / typical / high range is the honest shape of this answer. Any single number is a guess dressed up. Use the range to tell whether a quote is inside the normal band, not to predict a price.
- It does not know your house. Access, condition, what is found once work starts, and what your local market is doing this month all move the real number, and none of them are in here.
- Use it to sanity-check a quote you already have, and to know roughly what to budget before anyone visits. Do not take it to a contractor as a price you expect to be matched.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 — state data file (the state median hourly wages behind every regional factor on this page)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: OEWS May 2025 — national data file (the national medians the factors are divided by)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: OEWS tables
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: OEWS frequently asked questions and methodology
- BLS OEWS: Solar Photovoltaic Installers (SOC 47-2231), state and national wages
- BLS OEWS: Electricians (SOC 47-2111), state and national wages
- IRS: Residential Clean Energy Credit (section 25D) — "The credit is not available for any property placed in service after December 31, 2025."
- IRS: Home energy tax credits
- IRS: Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credit (section 25C)
- Expert review
- Not yet reviewed
- Last verified
- September 18, 2026
An estimate, not a quote, and the per-unit prices in it are SAMPLE placeholders that have not been sourced — do not present them to a contractor as a market rate. The state wage factors are real BLS data. Only a contractor who has seen your house can price your job.
Common questions
What does the solar cost estimator do?
A low, typical and high installed cost in dollars per watt from system size, roof complexity, panel tier, battery or no battery, and state, with each factor sourced and the federal credit line shown at $0.
Where do the numbers come from?
Until this tool is reviewed it uses sample assumptions. The sources it will cite are listed on this page.
Why are the prices marked SAMPLE?
Because we have not sourced them yet, and we would rather say so than publish a number that looks authoritative and is not. The regional wage factors are real — straight from the Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2025 data — but the per-unit prices are placeholders until a licensed contractor in this trade or a published cost database supplies them and our reviewer signs them off. When that happens this page will say so and the sample labels will go.
What does the state factor actually do?
It adjusts only the labour share of the estimate, using that state's median hourly wage for the relevant trades divided by the national median, from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for May 2025. Materials cost roughly the same everywhere; labour does not. The labour share itself is an assumption you can change.
Why a range instead of one number?
Because the honest answer to what this costs is a band. Two houses on the same street can differ by a third on access, condition and what turns up once work starts. A single number would be more satisfying and less true — and the range is what tells you whether the quote in your hand is normal.
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