News & guides

Plain-English writing on solar design, batteries, incentives, and the rules that actually decide your savings. No fluff, no scare tactics.

Why We Design West-Facing Arrays Under NEM 3.0

South-facing used to be gospel. California's billing rules changed the math — here's why the afternoon sun is now worth more than the noon sun.

One inverter per panel or one for the whole array? The difference shows up on the worst days, not the best ones.

Backup power used to be the only reason to buy a battery. The new rate structure added a second one: arbitrage you can see on your bill.

Install before the deadline and your system is never reassessed. It's one of the last big California solar incentives — and it has a hard date.

The 30% homeowner credit is gone for cash purchases — but a lease or PPA can still capture federal value through 2027. Here's the honest map.

Some homeowners save real money submitting their own solar permit — with the right support. Here's how the two paths actually differ.

Tile roofs are where corner-cutting hides. What proper attachment looks like — and the questions to ask any installer.

Most solar dashboards get opened twice. Per-panel monitoring is different — it's how you know, not hope, your system is earning.

An EV can add 3,000+ kWh to your annual usage. A little foresight at solar design time makes that cheap, clean miles instead of peak-rate pain.

Three quotes, three different numbers, three different stories. A practical guide to comparing solar proposals apples-to-apples.