Household cash-flow tool

Solar Savings Calculator

Enter documented annual use, address-specific production, same-scope price, utility cash flows, and each source document's event date. No national price, production, incentive, or payback default is supplied.

Annual household electricity use

kWh/yr

Use the household's documented annual usage, not a national household value.Target solar coverage

Enter the share of annual use the documented production target is intended to cover.Expected production per installed kilowatt

kWh/kW/yr

Use an address- and roof-specific production model such as NREL PVWatts.Same-scope unfinanced cash price

Use the written cash price for the same equipment, labor, warranties, and services.Annual utility cost without solar

Use a documented annual bill total or a same-period utility forecast.Expected annual utility charges with solar before export credits

Include imports, fixed charges, and non-bypassable charges, but do not subtract export credits here; enter those separately below.Annual export credits received

Enter zero only when the applicable tariff or forecast supports zero.Other first-year owner costs

Include documented operations, maintenance, or other owner cash outflows.Annual-usage source date

Use the source-event date on the household annual-usage history. Future dates are rejected.Production-model source date

Use the date the address- and roof-specific production model was generated. Future dates are rejected.Cash-quote source date

Use the event date shown on the same-scope written cash quote. Future dates are rejected.Without-solar baseline-bill source date

Use the event date on the bill or forecast supporting the no-solar annual cost. Future dates are rejected.With-solar utility-forecast source date

Use the event date of the forecast supporting before-credit utility charges. Future dates are rejected.Export-credit tariff source date

Use the event date of the tariff or forecast supporting export credits. Future dates are rejected.Owner-cost source date

Use the event date on the quote, contract, or maintenance plan supporting owner costs. Future dates are rejected.

Result unavailable. Enter every required cash-flow value and each supporting source-event date. Dates must be valid and no later than today; zero must be entered explicitly when a source supports zero.

Cash-owner payback ledger

Enter an explicit amount—including 0.00 when the amount is truly zero—for every applicable category and year. Year 0 uses only other owner costs and incentives received; later years use only incentives, avoided and exported utility value, remaining utility charges, operations and maintenance, and replacement costs. Use “Add another” when the same category has more than one record in a year; those records are summed exactly in cents. Every nonzero incentive keeps its own amount, jurisdiction, receipt year, and four-digit, non-future source-event year. Loan proceeds/payments, lease payments, and PPA energy charges never enter this owner-asset payback table.

Same-scope unfinanced cash price for owner payback

Payback analysis horizon

Payback method

Enter a whole-year horizon from 1 through 100 to create the cash-flow table.

Enter the required owner cash-flow values. Missing: Unfinanced cash price, Payback horizon.

How to read this

This is a first-year cash-flow screen, not a quote or lifetime projection. Model address-specific production with the free NREL PVWatts tool — and your export compensation depends on the applicable utility tariff. The exact formula and input boundaries are documented on the methodology page.

Next steps: verify the federal boundary in the Federal Credit Timing Guide, then use the explicit owner ledger and separate contract schedules in the Cash, Loan, Lease & PPA Comparator.

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