The terms behind every claim on this site.

1. Savings claims and modeling assumptions

Every savings figure on this site is a modeled estimate, not a guarantee. Actual results depend on your roof orientation and shading, your household’s energy usage, your utility’s rates and net metering rules, your system’s final size and design, and how those change over time.

“Slash your power bill by up to 90%” describes the upper end of modeled outcomes for well-suited homes: good sun exposure, a roof that fits a system sized to the home’s usage, and a utility whose rate structure credits solar production. “Up to” means just that. Many homes will model below that figure, and some roofs are not a good fit for solar at all, which we will tell you. Before you sign anything, we produce a shade- and irradiance-based production model for your specific roof (built in Aurora Solar, an industry design platform) so the estimate you see is for your house, not an average.

The interactive savings slider and the 25-year cost comparison chart on our homepage use the following assumptions:

The example shown in the chart ($99,950 in cumulative utility bills versus $46,039 in solar costs, a modeled difference of $53,911) applies those assumptions to a $200-per-month starting bill. Change any input and the output changes. Utility rate inflation in particular is an assumption about the future, not a known number; your utility’s actual rate path may be higher or lower.

Where every utility rate on this site comes from

Every utility residential rate figure used on solarassure.net, from the calculator’s state defaults to the payback pages’ worked math, comes from one rate table, published below, and is re-checked against that utility’s own published tariff on a regular basis. The table below is the September 24, 2026 snapshot.

One method, every utility (updated 24 Sep 2026 after an internal review caught an inconsistency): each utility’s own published or CURB-tabulated base energy rate, plus every published per-kWh rider, plus its monthly customer/service charge, all amortized over a flat 1,200 kWh/month usage assumption (14,400 kWh/year, the same annual figure used sitewide) and blended 4 summer months + 8 winter months. Where a tariff is tiered, the first 1,200 kWh/month is walked through the actual tier boundaries rather than averaged. The customer charge is added at its own nominal monthly value, not scaled by any percentage rate-case increase applied to the energy and rider components. An earlier pass on 24 Sep 2026 used this method for Ameren but had not yet added the customer charge for Evergy Missouri Metro, Evergy Kansas Metro/Central, Columbia, or Xcel; this section and the table above reflect the corrected, consistent figures.

Ameren Missouri excludes formula-based riders that are not published as a fixed cents-per-kWh number (the Fuel Adjustment Clause, Energy Efficiency Investment Charge, and Renewable Energy Standard Rate Adjustment), so 12.2¢/kWh is slightly conservative — the real bill is likely a little higher.

Evergy Missouri Metro sells residential service only as time-of-use (Schedule RTOU-2: 38.328¢/kWh on-peak and 9.582¢/kWh off-peak in summer, 11.311¢/kWh off-peak and 5.656¢/kWh super off-peak in winter, plus a $12.00/month customer charge), so there is no single published flat rate to quote. The 13.0¢/kWh figure used sitewide is Solar Assure’s own blend, not a utility-published number: we assume a solar household without a battery draws 75% of its grid electricity in off-peak hours and 25% in the on-peak window during summer, and 70% off-peak / 30% super off-peak in winter, at the same 1,200 kWh/month usage assumption, plus the customer charge. A different usage pattern (for example, a household that runs air conditioning heavily during the 4–8pm on-peak window) would see a higher effective rate.

Evergy Kansas Metro and Evergy Kansas Central start from the Kansas Citizens’ Utility Ratepayer Board’s own published rate-component history (base energy rate, plus fuel, property tax, transmission, and energy-efficiency riders), but Solar Assure re-blends those components at its own 1,200 kWh/month usage assumption and 4-summer/8-winter month weighting, plus the $14.25/month customer charge both utilities share, rather than using CURB’s own reference usage (1,000 kWh/month for Metro, 900 kWh/month for Central) or its simple seasonal averaging. Kansas Central’s tariff is two-tier (the marginal rate above 900 kWh/month runs cheaper in winter and pricier in summer than the shared first-900-kWh rate), so walking it out to 1,200 kWh/month crosses into the second tier, which is most of why its figure (14.14¢/kWh) sits further from its old value than the other utilities’ review-fix change. The excess-export credit used on the Kansas payback page (~2.4¢/kWh, the K.S.A. 66-1263 system-average-cost rate) is carried forward from before this review and was not independently re-verified against a current KCC docket this week.

Columbia Water and Light is Ameren-style: each of the city’s own published tiered summer/non-summer rates plus its 7.5268% in-lieu-of-gross-receipts-tax surcharge (applied to the energy charge) plus the $22.44/month customer charge, at the same 1,200 kWh/month usage assumption and 4/8-month weighting. Adding the customer charge, which an earlier pass had left out, moves the figure from 12.0 to 13.85¢/kWh.

Liberty Utilities Missouri: we could not confirm a current, single cents-per-kWh figure against a primary source this week. Liberty’s base residential tariff on file with the Missouri PSC (Schedule RG) shows roughly 12.5¢/kWh plus a $16/month customer charge, a Storm Uri Cost Recovery rider, an Energy Efficiency rider, and a separate formula-based Fuel Adjustment Clause whose current value we could not pin down; Liberty’s own page also describes a January 2026 rate-case settlement phasing in with no confirmed effective date as of this check. Rather than republish the site’s old, unsourced 16.2¢/kWh figure, pages that mention Liberty now say its rate is the highest of Missouri’s three investor-owned utilities without citing an exact number.

Xcel Energy Colorado: the 14.72¢/kWh figure layers three verified-but-separate things — Xcel’s own published Schedule R base rate and per-kWh riders (rates in effect May 1, 2024), the 4.77% increase the Colorado Public Utilities Commission approved for Xcel effective August 29, 2026, and Xcel’s own $7.10/month Service and Facility Charge (from the same May 1, 2024 rate brochure as the energy charges and riders, added unscaled by the 4.77% increase) — because Xcel’s own current-rate pages are JavaScript-rendered and did not return readable content when checked. This is Solar Assure’s estimate, not a single current tariff sheet; an earlier pass had cited the customer charge from a different Xcel document (a 10-year rate-history trend table, $6.29/month) instead of the same brochure the other figures come from, which this update corrects.

2. Financing, “$0 down,” and payment comparisons

$0-down financing is subject to credit approval through third-party lenders. Not every applicant is approved, and approved terms (rate, length, fees) vary by lender and credit profile. See our full breakdown of every financing option Solar Assure offers.

Where this site says a monthly solar payment is “typically” or “often” lower than a current electric bill, that reflects modeled outcomes for many qualifying homeowners, not a promise about yours. Whether your payment lands below your current bill depends on your system size, your usage, your utility’s rates, and the loan terms you’re approved for. Your proposal will show the actual comparison for your home before you commit.

Statements about “locking in” or fixing your energy cost refer to the fixed nature of a fixed-rate loan payment compared to variable utility rates. They do not mean your total energy spending is frozen: most homes remain connected to the grid, retain a utility service charge, and buy some grid power, especially in winter or as usage grows.

3. Equipment and workmanship warranty summary

The warranty references on this site are summaries of manufacturer warranties, which are issued and honored by the manufacturers under their own written terms and conditions. This summary is provided for disclosure and is not itself a warranty.

Manufacturer warranties have conditions, exclusions, registration requirements, and claim procedures that this summary does not reproduce. See solar and roof replacement for how this warranty interacts with roof age, and does insurance cover solar panels for how this differs from your homeowners policy.

Complete written warranty terms are available before sale. Ask us at any point before signing and we will provide the full manufacturer warranty documents for every component in your proposal, at no cost and with no obligation. They are also linked in every installation agreement we issue.

Battery backup duration claims (for example, running essential loads through a multi-day outage) depend on battery capacity, the loads you choose to back up, weather, and solar recharging conditions. A whole-home, all-loads backup through an extended outage requires a system designed for it.

4. Reviews and ratings

Solar Assure does not publish self-hosted ratings or review counts on this site. Customer reviews live on platforms we don’t control: our Google Business Profile and our Facebook page. If we ever quote a customer on this site, it will be with that customer’s written consent and records of the underlying install. See our reviews page for more.

5. Better Business Bureau

Solar Assure LLC is not currently BBB Accredited and does not display BBB accreditation marks on this site or in its advertising. If we earn accreditation in the future, we will say so here and use the marks under BBB’s license terms.

6. Promotional installation credit

Solar Assure may offer a $250 installation credit applied to the final project cost for qualifying customers who request a quote through a specific promotion (such as the on-site exit offer) and who then sign an installation agreement and complete an installation with Solar Assure. The credit applies once, to a single qualifying installation; it is not redeemable for cash, not transferable, and cannot be combined with other Solar Assure promotional credits. Eligibility, amount, and availability may change or be withdrawn at any time before an agreement is signed.

7. General

Solar Assure LLC does not provide tax, legal, or financial advice. Nothing on this site is a substitute for advice from a qualified professional who knows your situation. The federal residential solar tax credit (Section 25D) expired for systems placed in service after December 31, 2025. Licensing: Solar Assure LLC is licensed and insured for residential solar installation in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Illinois and Colorado; license details are available on request.

Questions about anything on this page: josh@solarassure.net or (636) 679-0998. Solar Assure LLC, 1200 Lake Saint Louis Blvd #1016, Lake Saint Louis, MO 63367.