How to get a second opinion on a solar quote

The Department of Energy's advice is to get at least three bids, built on the same characteristics, so you can actually compare them.^[1] There's a reason for that. A single quote has nothing to anchor against, so you can't tell whether the price is fair, the system is sized right, or the equipment is any good. It just looks like a number with a logo on it.

Put two or three real bids side by side and the differences jump out: a 20 percent price spread on similar hardware, one company quoting premium panels and another quoting thin ones, a financing payment that's mysteriously higher for the same system. None of that is visible from a single proposal.

A useful second opinion goes past the bottom-line price. It checks the production estimate in kilowatt-hours and the assumptions behind it, the exact panel and inverter make and model, and the financing structure, including the gap between the cash price and the financed price. That gap matters, because the CFPB found some solar loans carried markups and fees that pushed the amount owed 30 percent or more above the cash price.^[2]

It also checks whether the savings claims actually hold. At Connecticut's roughly 30-cent-per-kilowatt-hour rates, solar usually does save money, but a quote can still overstate it with rosy assumptions.^[3] And it reads the fine print most homeowners skip: the escalator, the buyout, and whether every verbal promise made it into the contract.

The best second opinion comes from someone who doesn't profit from the answer, paired with at least one competing bid from a vetted installer. The competing bid gives you a real price to compare. The neutral reviewer helps you read both without a stake in which one you pick. That combination is hard to fool.