Skip to content
ClearWatt

Independent U.S. Solar Guidance

Section: Buying Guide

How to Compare Solar Quotes: A Checklist Based on Federal Consumer Protection Guidance

By ClearWatt Editorial Team · Published June 5, 2026

Two workers installing photovoltaic solar panels on a rooftop
Photo: Dennis Schroeder / NREL, U.S. Dept. of Energy (public domain)

Short answer: Compare at least three written bids that each spell out system size, expected power output, full installed cost, any production guarantee, and warranty terms — the exact categories the FTC’s own consumer guidance tells homeowners to demand in writing. Never sign with a company that pressures a same-day decision, asks for cash payment, or can’t show a clean history with your state licensing board.

Most advice about comparing solar quotes is written by solar companies, which is a conflict of interest built into the content itself. This article is built instead on what two federal agencies — the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Treasury Department, working jointly with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — actually tell homeowners to check before signing a contract. None of it is proprietary or hard to verify; it’s public guidance, and it’s more specific than most sales conversations.

What the FTC says every quote must include, in writing

The FTC’s consumer guidance on residential solar is direct about the minimum a bid needs to contain before it’s worth comparing to another one. According to the FTC’s own guidance, bids should have specific details in writing about the system, including its size and how much power it’s expected to deliver, the full cost of installation including any building or electrical permit fees, whether there’s a guarantee it will produce a certain amount of energy, and what warranties apply to both the equipment and the installation workmanship.

That’s five distinct line items, and it’s worth checking a bid against each one individually rather than treating “I got a quote” as a single data point. A one-page estimate with a monthly payment and a total price, but no system size in kilowatts, no permit fee breakdown, and no named production guarantee, doesn’t meet this bar — it’s a sales figure, not a bid you can compare against a competitor’s.

One more thing worth confirming explicitly in 2026: whether the quoted price already reflects that the 30% federal Residential Clean Energy Credit ended for purchased systems placed in service on or after January 1, 2026. A quote that still shows a “post-credit” price for a cash or loan purchase is either outdated or misleading — ask the installer to confirm the number in front of you is the actual price you’ll pay, not last year’s math.

What to check if the offer is a lease or PPA instead of a purchase

Leases and power purchase agreements need a different comparison checklist, because you’re not buying the equipment — you’re buying a service, priced monthly or per kilowatt-hour, for 15 to 25 years. The FTC guidance specifically flags what to compare across offers of this type: the full cost including installation and monthly fees, the minimum guaranteed power production and what recourse you have if the system underperforms that guarantee, the warranty and repair terms and how long they last, and — a detail that’s easy to overlook until you need it — what happens if you need roof repairs after the system is already installed. A lease or PPA provider that can’t answer who pays to remove and reinstall panels for a roof repair, in writing, is leaving you exposed to a cost with no ceiling.

For a full breakdown of how loans, leases, and PPAs differ on ownership and tax treatment, see Solar Loan vs. Lease vs. PPA. It matters here because the quote-comparison checklist genuinely changes depending on which structure you’re evaluating — comparing a loan quote to a PPA quote line-by-line using the same criteria will produce a misleading picture.

The Treasury/CFPB/FTC checklist for gathering multiple quotes

A joint consumer advisory issued by the U.S. Treasury Department, CFPB, and FTC on August 7, 2024 goes further than the FTC’s general page and lays out a specific list for gathering and comparing several quotes side by side. It recommends each quote include:

The same advisory recommends getting an independent energy audit — one performed by someone with no financial stake in selling you a system — rather than relying solely on the installer’s own estimate of how much energy your home uses and therefore how large a system you need. An installer-performed audit isn’t automatically wrong, but sizing recommendations from the party being paid based on system size carry an obvious incentive to round up.

The specific pressure tactics that mean you should walk away

The FTC guidance is blunt on this point: never deal with a power or home repair company that pressures you for a quick decision, tells you to sign a contract without time to review it, or asks you to pay in cash. Each of those three behaviors shows up repeatedly in the same guidance for a reason — they’re the mechanism by which a bad contract gets signed before a homeowner has time to compare it against anything else.

A legitimate installer’s price and terms should hold for at least a few days while you get competing bids. If a sales rep frames a discount as expiring “today only” or “if you sign this visit,” that urgency is doing work the actual numbers might not survive. For a longer list of documented sales-pressure and contract patterns — including real enforcement cases — see Red Flags When Choosing a Solar Installer.

Why “free solar panels” is always a red flag, not a deal

The Department of Energy addressed this directly in guidance titled “Free” Solar Panels? Don’t Get Burned, published April 26, 2023: there is no federal program that gives homeowners free solar panels. Any offer using that phrase is a marketing hook, and it usually describes a lease or PPA where you pay nothing up front but take on a multi-year payment obligation — which is a legitimate financing structure, just not a free one. If a quote or an ad uses the word “free” without immediately clarifying the actual monthly cost and contract length, treat that as an incomplete quote, not a generous one.

The same DOE guidance recommends looking for installers with NABCEP certification — the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners — as a baseline credential, since solar installation isn’t uniformly licensed the way electrical or plumbing work is in every state. NABCEP’s own site lets you search for certified installers by location, which is a faster verification step than taking a company’s own claim of certification at face value.

Checking the company itself, not just the number on the page

Both the FTC and Treasury guidance recommend checking a company’s track record before signing, separate from evaluating the quote itself. That means looking up the installer’s history with your state or local consumer protection agency and confirming its standing with your state’s contractor licensing board. A company with an unresolved pattern of complaints, or one that isn’t actually licensed to do electrical or roofing work in your state, isn’t a company whose quote is worth comparing on price alone — the lowest number from an unlicensed or complaint-heavy installer isn’t actually the cheapest option once you account for the risk of an incomplete or abandoned installation.

Putting the checklist together

Before you compare a single number across quotes, confirm each bid includes: system size and expected output, full itemized installed cost, any production guarantee, warranty terms for equipment and workmanship, and — for a lease or PPA — the monthly fee schedule and outage behavior. Then confirm the company itself checks out with your state licensing board and consumer protection agency, and that no one involved in the sale pressured you toward a same-visit signature. If a bid is missing more than one of these items, ask the company to provide it in writing before you treat the price as comparable to anyone else’s. Financing terms and credit requirements are their own comparison exercise — see Solar Financing With Bad Credit if approval, not just price, is part of what you’re weighing.

This article summarizes federal consumer guidance for informational purposes; it isn’t legal or financial advice, and your specific contract should be reviewed against your own state’s consumer protection and contractor licensing rules before you sign.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

How many solar quotes should I get before deciding?

The FTC's consumer guidance recommends comparing bids from several companies rather than accepting the first one, without naming a specific minimum number. In practice, most people can meaningfully compare on price, equipment, and contract terms once they have three written bids in hand, since that's usually enough to spot which numbers and terms are outliers.

What documents should a legitimate solar quote include?

Per the FTC and a joint Treasury/CFPB/FTC advisory, a real bid should specify system size and expected power output, full installed cost including permit fees, any production guarantee, equipment and workmanship warranty terms, your home's annual energy use and what share of it the system is sized to cover, and — for a lease or PPA — the monthly fee schedule, minimum guaranteed production, and what happens if that guarantee isn't met.

Is there a real government program that gives away free solar panels?

No. The Department of Energy has stated directly that there is no federal program that gives homeowners free solar panels, and that offers using that phrase are a marketing tactic, not a benefit. Any company using the words 'free solar' as a hook for its sales pitch is a reason to ask more questions, not fewer.

Should I get an energy audit before getting solar quotes?

The Treasury Department's consumer advisory recommends an independent energy audit — one not performed by the installer trying to sell you a system — before finalizing how large a system you need. An installer-performed audit isn't inherently dishonest, but it creates an incentive to size the system toward a bigger sale rather than your actual usage.

How do I check if a solar installer is legitimate before signing anything?

Check the company's complaint history with your state or local consumer protection agency and confirm its standing with your state's contractor licensing board before signing. The Department of Energy also recommends looking for NABCEP-certified installers, since that certification reflects a baseline of verified training that isn't legally required to sell or install solar in most states.

Written by

ClearWatt Editorial Team

The ClearWatt Editorial Team researches and writes every guide on this site. We work from primary sources — federal and state agencies (EIA, NREL, DSIRE, IRS), legislative text, utility rate schedules, and manufacturer documentation — rather than summarizing other websites' coverage of the same topic. We are not licensed solar installers, financial advisors, or tax preparers, and nothing published here is a substitute for advice from one. When a figure can't be traced to a specific, current source, we say so and give a range instead of a false-precision number. Articles are dated, and we correct confirmed errors promptly. See our Editorial Policy for the full standard every guide is held to, and About & Methodology for the sources we draw from.