GridReady WNY Guide
Solar quotes & pricingProposal Autopsy: The $/W was Fine. The Financing Ate the Deal.
A real proposal reads well at the top and bleeds value at the bottom. This autopsy walks the document line by line so the pattern is easy to spot in yours.
Redacted from a WNY homeowner's 2026 proposal. Numbers rounded for clarity; structure preserved.
Quick answer
- Price per watt looked fine; the financing carried a dealer fee that raised the system price.
- The monthly payment assumed a large tax-credit principal payment. Without it, the payment recasts.
- Total paid over term was never stated. That is the number that matters.
- Always ask for cash price and financed total paid on one page, for the same scope.
Who this guide is for
- Homeowners weighing a financed quote against a cash scenario.
- Anyone whose proposal leads with a monthly payment.
The proposal
A 10.35 kW-DC system for an Amherst homeowner. Solid installer on paper. The proposal leads with a gentle monthly number and a confident savings story. It does not lead with the cost. Here is the relevant excerpt, redacted.
Proposal A (redacted)
Amherst, NY · 10.35 kW-DC · financed 25-year
System summary
Investment & financing
- 1
Specific panel count and wattage. Good. You want the manufacturer and model named elsewhere in the document, which this proposal does lower down.
- 2
Specific inverter family. Microinverters suit a roof with partial shade or multiple planes, which this roof does not have, but not a penalty.
- 3
12,500 kWh / 10.35 kW = 1,208 kWh per kW-DC per year. Within a reasonable WNY range for a south-facing roof. Ask which software produced it and what shading inputs were used.
- 4
The financed price. The cash price for the same scope, requested separately, came back at $34,300. The $8,135 gap is the dealer fee that makes the 1.99% rate possible. That is not disclosed anywhere in this document.
- 5
Thirty percent of the financed price, not the cash price. If the homeowner paid cash, the credit would be about $10,290, a $2,440 difference driven purely by the financed price being higher. The credit also depends on the homeowner owing enough federal tax to use it.
- 6
The APR is real. The dealer fee is what pays for it. This is common and not itself a scam, but it should be labeled. It is not.
- 7
This is the teaser payment. Read the next line.
- 8
The payment 'stays' at $179 only if the homeowner applies the full $12,730 credit as a principal payment inside the first 18 months. If they do not, the payment re-amortizes to roughly $241/month. That difference is not shown anywhere in this proposal.
- 9
Current bill stated clearly. Good.
- 10
Not zero. That is honest. But the residual includes fixed utility charges that are not offset by production, which is worth confirming in writing.
- 11
4.5% annual utility-rate inflation over 25 years is higher than the long-run U.S. average and well above NY's average over the last decade. Drop the assumption to something closer to 3% and the 25-year savings projection falls meaningfully.
- 12
This number is the teaser payment compounded against an aggressive rate-inflation assumption, across 25 years, ignoring the recast possibility and the dealer fee. Realistic number, when all three are corrected, is closer to $38,000 to $46,000. Still real. Still worth doing. But it is not what the proposal says.
What actually happened
Nothing criminal. The homeowner was shown a plausible, pleasant story: a payment they could live with, a savings line that looked dramatic, and a tax credit that read as free money. Every number in the proposal was technically defensible. The problem was what was not in the proposal.
The cash price. The dealer fee. The post-recast payment. The assumed rate-inflation number, written plainly. Any one of those would have given the homeowner a clearer view. All four being absent is how the deal looks better on paper than it is.
How to catch this in your own proposal
Three requests that expose this pattern
[ ] Ask for the cash price for the exact same scope.
In writing. Same page as the financed price if possible. A healthy gap is small to nonexistent.
[ ] Ask for total paid over full term, in dollars.
Not the monthly. The sum of all payments. This is the number that actually tells you what the project costs you.
[ ] Ask what the payment is if you do not apply the credit as a paydown.
If the answer is 'it stays the same,' ask for that in writing. If it recasts, have the lender send both numbers.
What to watch for
- The cash price and financed price are meaningfully different for the same scope, with no dealer fee explanation.
- The proposal shows only a monthly payment, with no total-paid-over-term number anywhere.
- The savings story assumes utility-rate inflation well above recent history.
- The tax-credit assumption is treated as certain rather than dependent on the homeowner's tax situation.
If this is your proposal
The first move is not to refuse. The first move is to ask. Installers who built a clean deal will happily produce cash price, total paid, and the post-recast number. Installers whose deal depends on the opacity will stall, deflect, or warn you that asking "changes the offer." That is useful information on its own.
Recommended tool
Runs the same kind of line-by-line read across your own proposal, with the assumption checks pre-wired.
Open the full quote auditMethodology note
This autopsy is drawn from a real 2026 proposal presented to a WNY homeowner. System type, panel model, and basic numbers are preserved. Identifying details, the installer name, and the exact addresses are changed or removed. The patterns shown here are not unique to one installer; they are the common pattern for financed residential solar in the region in 2026.
Keep reading
- Autopsy: the proposal with no total paid
What it looks like when all the decisive numbers are missing.
- Autopsy: the lease dressed as ownership
A PPA that reads like a purchase until you find the escalator.
- The number your proposal does not show up front
The fuller guide on dealer-fee framing.
- How to read a solar quote before you sign
The five numbers to insist on.
FAQ
What does a dealer fee usually look like in the proposal?
It is rarely labeled. You see it as a gap between the cash price and the financed price for the same system. Many proposals simply show one price and omit the cash side of the comparison.
Is a 0% rate always a flag?
Not automatically. But 0% combined with a financed price materially higher than the cash price means the rate is being paid for somewhere. Ask where.
How do I avoid getting surprised by a recast?
Ask the lender, in writing, what the payment is if you do not make the assumed principal payment. If the number is much higher than the teaser, decide whether you can truly make that paydown or should pick a different path.