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OWNERSHIP IS MORE THAN THE STICKER PRICE

Plan for the years
after installation..

Explore capital costs, upkeep, replacements and financing with visible assumptions and separate benefit scenarios.

YOUR BUDGET, YOUR ASSUMPTIONS

Build a cost scenario.

Enter your allowances or quotes. A retailer price does not establish a delivered, installed or compatible system cost. This calculator does not add catalog prices automatically, select a lender or determine incentive eligibility.

Projects & equipment references

1 · INITIAL CAPITAL

Keep the installed budget separate.

Year 0 is the initial purchase, before the first operating year. These are your starting dollar amounts; no rebate or tax benefit is deducted from equipment prices or the capital budget. All values use USD.

2 · OPERATING ASSUMPTIONS

Price the use, not just the equipment.

The difference between the two first-year operating figures is the entered energy-cost reduction. Both follow the energy-cost escalation; a positive reduction additionally follows its annual retention assumption. Negative reductions remain costs. Maintenance, other operating expenses and replacement events follow their separate cost escalation. Residual value is a nominal amount at the analysis end, before unmodeled selling costs or tax.

Use a dated tariff scenario from the selected project

Import its before/after payable components with an explicit repetition assumption. Unused export credit is not cash. One winter or summer bill does not establish a whole year’s costs.

This replaces the two operating figures with period subtotals × repetitions. No other months, demand/event charges, credit realization, battery wear or omitted utility fees are added. The original tariff source and inputs remain attached to this cost scenario. Editing the imported operating figures makes them your assumptions again.

Build a tariff scenario

3 · CASH OR FINANCING

Follow what is borrowed and paid.

Modeled principal = financed capital + financed loan fees. Initial cash = capital budget − financed capital + upfront financing fees. Monthly payments use the entered note interest rate; this is not a disclosed APR or a lender offer. Benefits do not automatically reduce principal or make prepayments.

If the horizon ends before the loan term, the model assumes the remaining principal is paid off at the analysis end. That closing payoff appears separately in the cash flow. Prepayment fees, variable rates, payment resets, interest-only periods, leases and PPAs are not modeled. Debt service and other future annual cash flows are discounted at year end.

CFPB’s August 2024 discussion of solar financing, fees and principal · DOE: costs beyond hardware. These explain cost concepts; this tool applies no tax rules or financing offer.

4 · EVENTS AND SEPARATE BENEFITS

Leave room for upkeep and replacement.

Replacement amounts are in first-operating-year dollars and escalate to the selected year. Year 1 is the first operating year, not the purchase date. Events beyond the selected horizon must be removed or rescheduled explicitly.

Model benefits separately.

The no-benefit case always remains visible. Add hypothetical or visitor-recorded receipts to a second case, at the year you assume cash is actually available. A recorded award is still your record, not independent eligibility verification. No federal percentage, tax liability, rebate stacking rule, credit sale or loan prepayment is inferred.

Benefit amounts are nominal receipts in their stated years and remain fixed across sensitivity cases. Do not enter the same benefit more than once. Taxes, benefit clawbacks and borrowing restrictions are not automatically modeled.

5 · TIME VALUE AND SENSITIVITY

See what changes the result.

The comparison uses a lower-capital/higher-operating-value case and a higher-capital/lower-operating-value case. The financed share stays constant as initial capital changes. Maintenance, replacement and benefit event amounts retain their entered assumptions. A positive reduction cannot exceed the entered operating baseline; cost increases are stressed in the opposite direction. These are selected cases, not statistical confidence ranges.