Rooftop Solar Estimate
See what your own roof could do with solar — panels, yearly power, and a plain, no-sales-pitch estimate of the savings. No sign-up, nobody calls you.
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See what your own roof could do with solar — panels, yearly power, and a plain, no-sales-pitch estimate of the savings. No sign-up, nobody calls you.
Loading the latest information…
Solar gets sold hard in Southern California — door-knockers, robocalls, pressure to sign tonight. This is the opposite. Type your address and see what your own roof could actually do, read from Google's aerial imagery and a sun model, with every number behind the savings shown in plain sight. No sign-up, no salesperson, and nobody calls you.
Southern California Edison powers Westminster. Its average home rate is about 34 cents a kilowatt-hour in 2026 — but you pay more in the late-afternoon peak (around 58 cents from 4 to 9pm on the common time-of-use plan) and less off-peak. We use the average; your own rate depends on your plan and how much you use.
Since California's Net Billing Tariff (NEM 3.0, from April 2023), SCE pays the full retail rate only for the solar power you use yourself. Power you send back to the grid earns a much lower export credit — on average around a quarter of the retail rate, and the exact amount changes hour to hour. That is why the savings here are a best case, and why a battery, which lets you use more of your own solar, can change the math.
There is no longer a federal tax credit for a solar system you buy in 2026. The 30% Residential Clean Energy Credit ended for systems completed after December 31, 2025, under the 2025 federal budget law. If anyone still quotes you a 30% federal credit on a purchase this year, treat it as a warning sign. (A lease or PPA is taxed differently — the company that owns the panels may still claim a credit and fold some of it into your price.)
We figure about 3 dollars a watt to install before extras — roughly 3,000 dollars for every kilowatt — which sits in the middle of what California homeowners actually paid in 2025. Your real quotes will vary, so get more than one.
California does not add the value of a rooftop solar system to your property-tax assessment. That exclusion is set to end for systems installed on or after January 1, 2027, so installing before then locks the break in until you sell. State Board of Equalization.
Two California programs help lower-income households go solar at little or no cost: DAC-SASH, for homes in disadvantaged communities, and the SGIP storage-equity rebate for batteries. Both are income-qualified and run through nonprofits, not salespeople. GRID Alternatives (DAC-SASH).
Under NEM 3.0 a battery lets you store daytime solar and use it in the expensive 4-to-9pm peak instead of selling it back cheaply. It costs more up front, but it is often what makes the numbers work now — ask any installer to quote both with and without one.
Roof potential and yearly production come from Google’s Solar API, which reads each building from aerial imagery and a sun model — addresses are located by the US Census Bureau’s public geocoder. The savings and payback are our own plain arithmetic from the rates and costs shown above; they’re an estimate to learn from, never a quote.
Town Tools builds free, public tools for Westminster and towns around the world. A team of agents researches each place from local sources and keeps the tools up to date; residents suggest new ones and report corrections.