What Your Electric Bill Looks Like With Solar

Will solar panels eliminate your electric bill?

For most homes, no, and that's by design. Solar replaces most of the power you buy from the utility, so your bill gets much smaller. But you stay connected to the grid, and the utility still sends a bill each month.

That's good news. Staying connected means you have power at night and on cloudy days, and the grid acts like a bank for the extra power your panels make at midday. You get credit for that power and use it later.

So the real question isn't whether the bill goes to zero. It's whether your solar payment plus the small bill that's left costs less than what you pay now. For most homes it does. Our guide to solar cost and savings covers the bigger picture; this article is about the bill itself.

What's still on your electric bill with solar?

Two things usually remain, even when your panels produce about as much power as you use in a year:

• The customer charge. This is a fixed monthly fee for being connected to the grid. You pay it whether you use a lot of power or very little, so it stays with solar.
• Power your credits don't cover. Panels make nothing after sunset and much less in December than in June. When you use more than you've banked, you pay for the difference at the normal rate.

A few other charges can stay too. In Massachusetts, Eversource calculates your credit on most parts of the rate, but it leaves out a few charges, such as energy efficiency and renewable energy charges. That's one reason a well-designed system still shows a small bill.

This is why your designer asks for a recent bill before sizing anything. It shows how much power you use and what you pay for it, which our article on why solar companies need your electric bill explains.

How do net metering credits show up on your bill?

When your panels make more power than your home is using, the extra flows to the grid. Your meter counts it, and the utility turns it into credits on your bill. Our guide to how net metering works explains the meter and the yearly true-up in detail.

On an Eversource bill in Massachusetts, credits appear under "Other Charges or Credits." The line reads "Net Mtr Crdt" in Eastern Massachusetts and "Net Metering Credit" in Western Massachusetts. Any credit you don't use carries forward to the next billing period.

Each state handles credits a little differently:

If you're in Connecticut, the option you pick changes how your bill looks. A Buy-All bill shows your full usage charges plus a large production credit, so read the total, not just the usage line. Our guide to Connecticut's RRES program compares the two. Massachusetts homeowners can read more about net metering in Massachusetts.

Why does your solar bill change from summer to winter?

New England days are long in June and short in December, and your panels follow the sun. In late spring and summer, a typical system makes more than the home uses, so credits pile up. In winter, production drops and the home draws those credits down.

That means one month's bill tells you very little. A July bill near the customer charge and a January bill with real usage on it can both be part of a system that's working exactly as planned.

Here's how a typical year plays out. In January and February, short days and snow keep production low, so you draw on banked credits and may pay for some power. March and April bring longer days, and the bill starts to shrink. From May through August, the panels usually make more than the home uses, so the bill drops to about the customer charge while credits build. September and October stay strong. By November and December, production falls again and the credits you saved carry the home through the darker months.

Your system is designed around a full year of use, not a single month. The best way to judge it is to add up 12 months of bills and solar payments and compare that total with the year before.

Why is my electric bill so high with solar panels?

A high bill with solar is unsettling, but the cause is usually simple. These are the most common reasons we see:

1. It's winter. Shorter days and snow on the panels mean less production, and the credits you banked in summer get used up.
2. You're using more power. An electric vehicle, a heat pump, a new pool or a home office can raise your use well past what the system was sized for.
3. Credits haven't started yet. Panels on the roof don't earn credits until the utility approves the system to run. Eversource, for example, says you're eligible for net metering credits only after your system is authorized to be online.
4. The system is offline. A tripped breaker or an inverter fault can stop production without any sign from the street.
5. Utility rates went up. Any power you still buy costs more after a rate increase, even though your panels keep producing the same amount.

If your use has grown a lot since you went solar, it may make sense to add panels. In Connecticut, RRES sizing rules include allowances for a planned EV or heat pump, so mention them before your system is designed.

How do you compare your bill before and after solar?

The right comparison has two sides. On one side is the bill you paid before solar. On the other is your solar payment plus the small utility bill that's left. For most homes the second number is lower, and Evergreen Solar customers save about 15% on average on day one.

How you pay decides what goes on that second side, so add up 12 months of solar payments and utility bills and compare the total with the 12 months before solar.

The gap tends to grow over time. Electric rates have tended to rise about 5% a year, while your solar payment stays predictable, so the bill you're avoiding gets bigger each year.

Our Day One Savings Guarantee is built on this same comparison. We compare your solar quote with your average electric bill, and if the quote isn't lower, we'll contact you and offer to cancel your consultation. It covers solar-only projects and isn't a guarantee of how much your system will produce.

To see what applies where you live, visit our pages for Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. You can also call us at (508) 507-2908 and bring a recent bill.

Frequently asked questions