Is My Solar Quote Fair? A DC Homeowner's Sanity Check

Two companies quote the same roof. One says $18,000. One says $34,000. Same panels. Neither is lying. Here's what's actually going on — and how to tell which number is real.

Most solar confusion in DC isn't about panels. It's about how the deal is structured. Once you know where the money hides, quotes stop looking random.

This page walks through the three ways you'll be offered solar, and what a fair version of each looks like. If you'd rather just read your quote to someone out loud, that works too — the number's at the bottom of every section.

The three ways you'll be offered solar

Every DC solar pitch is one of these, whatever it's called:

• You buy it. Cash or a loan. You own the system and the tax implications.
• You buy the power. A power purchase agreement — someone else owns the panels, you pay per kWh for what they produce.
• A District program. Solar for All, income-qualified, currently a queue.

These aren't better or worse than each other. They're different, and the right one depends on your roof, your bill, your tax situation, and how long you plan to stay. Anyone who tells you one option is always best is selling, not advising.

If you're being offered a loan: find the dealer fee

This is the single biggest source of "why is this quote so much higher" in DC, and almost nobody explains it.

When a solar company advertises a very low interest rate — 2.99%, 1.99%, sometimes 0% for a period — that rate isn't free. The lender charges the installer a fee to buy the rate down, and that fee gets added to your system price. It doesn't appear as a line item. It's baked into the total.

The rough shape of it: at a market rate of around 9.99% or higher, the dealer fee is typically zero. As the advertised rate drops, the fee climbs — and at the lowest advertised rates it can reach a substantial share of the system price.

So the same equipment on the same roof can be quoted at wildly different totals purely because of which rate the salesperson chose to show you. The low monthly payment looks better. The total cost is often worse.

What to ask: "What is the cash price of this system, and what is the price at 9.99%?" If the salesperson won't answer, or the two numbers are far apart with no explanation, you've found the fee.

If you're being offered a PPA: the rate and the escalator

A power purchase agreement means you don't buy anything. A company installs and owns the system, and you pay for the electricity it makes — usually at a lower rate than Pepco charges.

Two numbers decide whether it's a good deal.

The starting rate per kWh. In DC this varies more than people expect. A roof in excellent condition with modern electrical can support the most aggressive pricing — in some cases genuinely $0 per kWh. A roof that needs work first typically lands in a higher band, because the cost of that work has to come from somewhere. For comparison, Maryland PPAs generally run meaningfully higher than DC's, which is why advice from a Maryland neighbor often doesn't transfer.

The escalator. This is the annual increase built into your rate. A PPA that starts cheap and escalates aggressively can cost more over twenty years than one that starts higher and stays flat. Ask for the rate in year one and the rate in year twenty. If nobody will give you year twenty in writing, that's your answer.

What to ask: "What's my rate per kWh, what's the escalator, and what does the contract say happens if I sell the house?"

If you're being offered "free solar": what free actually covers

Free solar in DC is real, and it usually means a PPA at a very low or zero rate. The panels genuinely cost you nothing up front.

What "free" doesn't automatically include is the work your roof might need first. A roof at the end of its life, an undersized electrical panel, structural issues — these have to be resolved before anything goes on top, and how a company handles that is where offers differ enormously.

Some cover it. Some fold the cost into a higher per-kWh rate. Some quote you free, then come back after the site survey with a number.

What to ask: "If my roof or panel needs work, what happens to this offer?" Ask before the site survey, not after.

Four things that should make you slow down

None of these means a company is dishonest. All of them mean ask more questions.

A price that expires today. Solar equipment pricing does not change hourly. Urgency is a sales technique, not a market condition.

Monthly payment quoted, total cost not. Any total can be made into a comfortable monthly payment by stretching the term. Ask what you pay across the whole contract.

SREC income presented as fixed. DC's SREC program is genuinely valuable, and it's a real part of the math on a purchase. But the value is structured to decline over time. A projection that assumes today's rate for twenty years is optimistic, and it can make a loan look considerably better than it is.

A system much larger than your usage. DC allows sizing up to 200% of your historical consumption, which exists because the District is committed to 100% renewable electricity by 2032. That headroom is legitimate. But a bigger system is also a bigger sale, and Pepco's net metering credits your supply charges rather than your whole bill — so overbuilding doesn't pay back the way people assume.

Just tell me if my quote is fair

That's what the phone is for.

Read me what's on the page — the total, the rate, the term, the monthly payment — and I'll tell you what it means. It doesn't matter which company gave it to you. I'm not going to trash a competitor's number to win your business, and if the quote in your hand is good, I'll tell you it's good.

No form, no site survey, no follow-up sequence. A phone call.