What it costs, and why it's so much less than a roof

Where a $25,000 rooftop job actually goes

The sticker shock people carry into this conversation comes from rooftop solar, so it's worth taking apart.

On a typical residential rooftop install, the panels and inverters are a minority of the price. The rest is labour, roof work, permits and inspections, engineering, the electrical upgrade the panel board sometimes needs, the financing arrangement, and — a substantial slice — customer acquisition. Someone knocked on a door, someone ran an ad, someone drove out to do a quote that didn't convert.

A plug-in kit skips all of it. There's no installer, because you hang it yourself. No permit, because you're not altering the building. No financing, because it's a few hundred dollars. No salesperson, because it's bought like an appliance.

What's left is the hardware, at roughly what the hardware costs. Which also means it won't get dramatically cheaper — there isn't much margin left to compete away.

What kits actually cost right now

Full comparison of what's actually shipping →

What you'll also spend

Kits are quoted as if they arrive complete. They usually don't.

• Mounting hardware for your specific railing: $30–$120. Round railings, square railings, and glass balustrades all want different clamps.
• A tilt bracket: $40–$90. Worth more than an extra panel, if your panel would otherwise hang vertically.
• An outdoor-rated extension cord, if the outlet isn't right there: $20–$40. Don't use an indoor one.
• An outlet cover that closes on a plugged-in cord, if you're outside: $15.

Budget an extra $100 or so on top of the kit price and you won't be surprised.

The credit that no longer exists

The federal Residential Clean Energy Credit — the 30 percent one, Section 25D — was terminated for expenditures after 31 December 2025 by P.L. 119-21, signed 4 July 2025. It does not apply to rooftop solar, plug-in solar, or batteries bought in 2026.

There is no California statewide credit for this. SGIP, the battery rebate, has been waitlisted.

We mention this because a lot of 2026 pricing content still quietly subtracts 30 percent. If a payback figure looks unusually good, check whether it's assuming a credit that expired.

So should you buy now or wait?

Reasons to wait. The choice is genuinely thin until certification catches up — as of 1 September 2026, no complete kit has full UL 3700 system certification, though components are getting there. Prices sometimes fall when a market opens. And until the Governor signs, your utility can technically still ask you for interconnection paperwork.

Reasons not to. This equipment is already close to cost, so a dramatic price drop isn't coming. Every month you wait is a month of bills you could have been trimming. And the wattage cap means there's no future product that'll be twice as good.

Our honest view: if your balcony faces south or west and you can see a lot of sky, a modest setup now is reasonable, and buying certified components rather than an uncertified complete kit is the way to do it. If you're unsure whether your place suits this at all, check the numbers first — that's free and takes a minute.

Payback, worked through

Take a 900-watt setup on an Irvine balcony, tilted, west-facing, in a home where someone's around during the day.

Estimated, using NREL irradiance data for Orange County and SCE's June 2026 rate advisory. Your result will differ. Full working.

The thing that ruins this arithmetic fastest isn't price, it's orientation. The same kit on a north-facing balcony makes about a third as much and takes eight years or more. That's the calculation the wizard is really doing.

Work out yours →