SIA’s Free White Glove Service to Going Solar for Homeowners

We pull Google’s Solar building-insights for your roof: LIDAR-derived 3-D geometry, every roof face with its own azimuth, pitch and usable area, and measured sunlight across the surface hour by hour. Nearby trees and neighbouring buildings are in the model, so the shade is measured, not guessed. From that we build the Shade Studio, which plays the real shadows across your roof through the day and through the year, and counts how many panels sit in sun at each moment.

Each face gets a Total Solar Resource Fraction (TSRF = tilt-and-orientation factor × shade factor), the share of ideal south-facing output it can actually reach. That one number decides which faces are worth using, and whether shading-gated incentives (Massachusetts SMART, for one, needs TSRF ≥ 80%) apply at all.

• Google Solar 3-D
• LIDAR flux
• per-face azimuth / pitch
• hourly shade
• TSRF per face

We lay panels onto each usable face, segment by segment: module count per face, setbacks, row spacing, and the exact faces to use or skip based on their TSRF. We size the array against your actual load, not a round number, and compare module and inverter options, including micro-inverters versus a string inverter, which matters a lot on a multi-face or partly shaded roof where one shaded panel can drag a whole string down.

• per-segment layout
• panel count by face
• setbacks / spacing
• module & inverter choice
• micro vs string
• DC & AC sizing

Each array runs through NREL’s PVWatts engine with its own loss figure that encodes the measured shade on that face, so a shaded face produces less, exactly as it would in reality. The output is an 8,760-hour generation profile for the year, not a single annual number, accounting for tilt, orientation, inverter efficiency, the DC-to-AC ratio and system losses.

• NREL PVWatts® v8
• per-array shade losses
• 8,760 hourly output
• temp-corrected DC
• inverter clipping

We turn your twelve monthly kWh figures into an 8,760-hour load profile for your home. You can shape it with lifestyle patterns (typical, work-from-home, away during the day, flat) set per month, and layer on the big loads that change the shape: an EV charged at home, electric heating or air-conditioning, a pool pump, an electric water heater. Air-conditioning even swaps the seasonal shape from a winter peak to a summer one. If you have interval data, we can thread your real 8,760 straight through.

• monthly kWh → 8,760
• 4 lifestyle archetypes
• per-month selection
• EV / HVAC / pool / water heater
• seasonal shaping
• custom interval upload

We load your utility’s actual filed tariff and model it the way it really bills, including the rate you would be moved onto when you go solar. Inclining-block (tiered) rates are modeled tier by tier, not flattened to an average, so solar correctly shaves your most expensive kilowatt-hours first. Time-of-use periods, seasonal rates, fixed charges, and the net-metering or net-billing rules that set what your exports are worth are all in the model, and every input is editable. Filed rates are re-synced monthly.

• filed URDB tariff
• tier-by-tier blocks
• TOU & seasonal
• fixed charges
• NEM vs net-billing
• export credit
• monthly re-sync

We check every incentive that could apply to your address, from the DSIRE database (re-synced monthly) plus utility and local programs: state tax credits, upfront rebates, storage incentives, and performance programs. Critically, each one is gated on eligibility, not applied blindly: shading thresholds, income limits, geography, equipment rules. The federal residential credit is modeled at 0%, because it ended for 2026 and later. When an incentive qualifies, it flows into the financials automatically, and you can see and edit every figure.

• DSIRE + utility + local
• eligibility-gated
• federal ITC 0% (2026+)
• storage & performance programs
• auto-applied, editable

Before you ever talk price with an installer, we give you an estimated reasonable price range for hardware-plus-install in your market, drawn from recent installed prices for your region (the national Tracking-the-Sun dataset and current market data). We show a range, not a single number, and run the modeled profit-and-loss across it — so you have a market benchmark to discuss. Final pricing is set by the installer and depends on your specific site and equipment.

• TTS 2025 + market data
• regional $/W range
• P&L by price
• negotiation target
• before incentives

We run the same system four ways: cash, loan, lease and PPA. Each gets its own year-by-year cash flow, payback, lifetime savings and return. Loans are modeled with the dealer fee that financing quietly adds, which can inflate the cash price by a fifth or more, so a loan that looks cheaper monthly is compared honestly against cash. Lease and PPA terms, including any annual escalator, are modeled in full, because an escalator buried on a later page is the most common way these deals quietly erase their own savings.

The same system, four ways. Cash saves the most over 25 years; the loan is cash-flow positive from year one but the dealer fee shows up in its total; the lease and PPA ask nothing up front and give back the least.

• cash / loan / lease / PPA
• dealer-fee modeling
• APR & term
• escalator modeling
• payback / return per option

If a battery is on the table, we dispatch it hour by hour across the full year, against your modeled load and tariff: self-consumption of solar, time-of-use arbitrage where the rate allows it, and backup. This uses a deterministic dispatch heuristic, not a guaranteed-optimal schedule, so actual savings can differ materially. We account for round-trip efficiency, usable depth and degradation, and we sweep sizes to find the one that models best. Often the honest answer is that it does not. On a flat or full-net-metering rate with no time-of-use spread, a battery adds backup but little or no bill savings, and we say so.

• 8,760 dispatch
• self-use / arbitrage / backup
• round-trip & depth
• degradation
• size sweep
• does-it-pencil verdict

We project 25 years of cash flow: panel degradation each year, utility-rate escalation, maintenance, an inverter replacement, and your bill with and against solar, side by side. From that come cumulative savings, net present value at a stated discount rate, internal rate of return and payback, for every financing path. The result is a plain verdict: a good investment, a close call, or not worth it, with the numbers behind it.

• 25-year horizon
• degradation + escalation
• O&M + inverter swap
• bill with vs without
• NPV / IRR / payback

Nothing is a black box. A simulation-detail view opens the hour-by-hour dispatch, the monthly bill broken into its components, and the tier-by-tier breakdown of every charge. The whole thing exports to an Excel workbook with the full 8,760-hour series and every line item, so any number in your report can be traced and audited.

simulation detail

📊  sia_8760_166-S-Logan-St.xlsx 8,760 rows · .xlsx / .csv

	A	B	C	D	E	F	G
#	hour	solar kWh	load kWh	battery kWh	grid kWh	rate ¢	soc %
1	Jul-15 06:00	0.31	0.55	0.00	+0.24	5.9	18
2	Jul-15 08:00	1.42	0.60	−0.70	−0.12	5.9	41
3	Jul-15 10:00	2.55	0.70	−1.50	−0.35	5.9	78
4	Jul-15 12:00	3.10	0.85	−1.80	−0.45	5.9	96
5	Jul-15 14:00	2.80	0.95	−1.50	−0.35	5.9	100
6	Jul-15 16:00	1.60	1.10	−0.40	−0.10	10.5	100
7	Jul-15 17:00	0.90	1.60	+0.70	0.00	10.5	87
8	Jul-15 18:00	0.45	2.10	+1.50	+0.15	10.5	58
9	Jul-15 19:00	0.10	2.30	+2.00	+0.20	10.5	21
10	Jul-15 20:00	0.00	1.80	+1.05	+0.75	10.5	3

hourly_8760monthlycashflowinputs√ auditable · sign-conventions: − charge / export

• hourly dispatch view
• monthly bill components
• tier breakdown
• full 8,760 export
• auditable Excel

Before any of it reaches you, we check the model against your actual electric bills. In one recent case the modeled annual bill reconciled to within about 2% of what the homeowner paid — a single example, not a guarantee; accuracy depends on your data and individual results vary. If it does not reconcile, we find out why before we send it, not after.

• reconciled to your bills
• example, not a guarantee
• checked before it ships

All of it lands as a roughly 25-page written report you can keep: your roof and shade, the right-sized system, production, every applicable incentive, all four financing paths, the battery verdict, and a market-price benchmark to judge any quote against. Here is a real one.

See a real sample report (PDF) →

Because you get exactly one introduction, the whole thing rests on that company being good. So the vetting is built to be hard to pass. Every check is done by hand, against public records, before anyone makes the list.

• licence & discipline
• GL / WC / bond
• 10+ yrs, one name
• own W-2 crews
• no predatory financing
• worst-reviews-first

The first quote an installer sends is rarely their best. We do not disappear at the introduction — we read the quote with you, line by line, and hand you the exact words to get it fixed. You advocate; we load the ammunition.