Editorial Policy

How Solar & Battery Guide researches, writes, fact-checks and updates its solar and battery guides, how we use AI tools and how we stay independent.

Last updated: October 18, 2026

This policy explains how we choose topics, research them, write and check them, and keep them current. It applies to every guide, calculator page and checklist on Solar & Battery Guide, in all three languages.

Our standards

Home solar is a financial decision, often a large one, so we hold our content to a high standard of accuracy. Our core rules:

Answer first. Each guide opens with a direct answer to the main question, then explains it.
Primary sources. Facts come from official and primary sources, cited inline and listed at the end of each guide with the month we checked them.
No invented evidence. We never invent people, quotes, reviews, testimonials, surveys or statistics.
Numbers you can check. Worked examples use figures we calculate and show, and calculators show their formulas.
Plain language. We aim for about an 8th-grade reading level and explain technical terms where they first appear.
Dates on time-sensitive facts. Tax, tariff and incentive rules carry an "as of" date because they change.

Independence

We do not install, sell, lease or finance solar or batteries, and we take no referral or lead fees from installers or lenders. Companies cannot pay to be mentioned, ranked or reviewed. We mention equipment brands only when needed to explain something factually, and we do not link to sellers' pages from our guides.

The site carries no advertising or affiliate links today. If we add them, they will be clearly labeled, explained on our advertising disclosure page and kept separate from editorial decisions. A paid relationship will never change a guide's conclusion, a calculator's defaults or which sources we cite.

How a guide is made

Topic selection. We cover questions homeowners actually face, such as cost, payback, net billing, batteries, financing and contracts, and gaps where rules changed recently.
Research. We read the primary sources first: statutes and IRS guidance for taxes, utility tariffs and commission decisions for net metering, NREL and EIA for production and prices, FTC and CFPB for consumer protection.
Drafting. Research and drafting are assisted by AI tools. A draft is a starting point, never a finished page.
Fact-check. Our editorial team checks every claim with a number, date or rule against the cited source. Anything we cannot verify is removed.
Calculation check. Worked examples are recomputed with the same formulas our calculators use.
Publication. The page shows its published, updated and reviewed dates and its source list.

Use of AI tools

We use AI tools to speed up research summaries, outlines, drafts and translations of our own working notes. We do not use AI to generate facts, quotes, reviews or images of real people. Every page is checked against its cited primary sources by our editorial team before it goes live, and the team is accountable for what we publish. Images on the site are illustrations, not photos of real customers or installations.

Languages

Our Spanish and Chinese pages are written for those readers, not translated word for word. They cover the same facts but may use different examples, such as contract language rights or outage risks that matter to those communities. Key contract terms are often shown in English as well, because that is how readers will see them in paperwork.

Updates and reviews

We review every guide at least every six months, and immediately when a rule it covers changes. Federal tax rules, net metering decisions and state incentive programs get first priority. When we make a substantive change, the updated date changes and we describe what changed. See our corrections policy for how we handle errors.

Sources we prefer

Government agencies, utility regulators, national laboratories, standards bodies and peer-reviewed or primary research. Our methodology explains the full sourcing hierarchy and how calculator defaults are chosen.

Feedback

If you think something is wrong, unclear or out of date, tell us at Please use the contact form. or through our contact page.

Frequently asked questions

Do installers or lenders influence your coverage?

No. We take no referral fees, commissions or payments from installers or lenders, and no company can pay to be covered or ranked. Editorial decisions are made by our editorial team alone.

Do you use AI to write your guides?

Yes, as an assistant. Research and drafting are assisted by AI tools, but every page is checked by our editorial team against the primary sources it cites before publication, and the team is responsible for every published word. We do not publish unreviewed AI output.

How often are guides updated?

We review every guide at least every six months and sooner when a rule, incentive or tariff it covers changes. Pages about taxes, net metering and state programs are checked first when news breaks.

Why don't your articles have named authors?

We publish as the Solar & Battery Guide Editorial Team and do not invent names or credentials. If qualified expert reviewers join us, their real names and backgrounds will appear on our author page and on the pages they review.

On this page

25D credit (Residential Clean Energy Credit): A 30% federal tax credit homeowners could claim for solar and batteries they paid for. It ended for expenditures made after December 31, 2025; the IRS counts the expense when installation is completed.
48E credit: A federal business tax credit for clean electricity property. Companies that own leased or PPA systems on homes may claim it, subject to construction deadlines and sourcing rules. The homeowner does not claim it.
Avoided cost: What it would cost a utility to produce or buy the same power elsewhere. Some states pay rooftop exports at an avoided-cost rate, which is far below retail.
Dealer fee: A charge a solar lender takes from the loan, usually built into the amount you borrow so the advertised interest rate looks low. The CFPB has warned these fees can add tens of percent to the price.
Degradation: The slow loss of a panel’s output over time. NREL research puts the median around 0.5% per year, and most panel warranties guarantee roughly 80–90% of original output after 25 years.
Escalator: A yearly percentage increase written into a lease or PPA, often 0–3%. A 2.9% escalator raises the payment by about 100% over 25 years.
FEOC rules: Federal “foreign entity of concern” sourcing limits added in 2025 that a business must meet to claim 48E credits on projects starting construction in 2026 or later.
Interconnection: Your utility’s approval to connect a solar system to the grid. Most utilities require an application before installation and a final permission to operate (PTO) before you turn it on.
Inverter: The device that turns the direct current (DC) from panels or batteries into the alternating current (AC) your home uses. Types include string inverters, microinverters and hybrid inverters that also manage a battery.
Islanding (backup mode): When a solar-plus-battery system disconnects from the grid during an outage and keeps powering your home. Ordinary grid-tied solar without a battery shuts off in an outage for line-worker safety.
kW (kilowatt): A unit of power: how fast electricity is made or used at one moment. Solar system size is quoted in kW of panel capacity (DC). A 7 kW system has panels rated 7,000 watts in total.
kWh (kilowatt-hour): A unit of energy: using 1 kW for one hour. Your electric bill charges you per kWh, and solar output and battery capacity are measured in kWh.
Microinverter: A small inverter mounted under each panel. Shade on one panel affects only that panel, and each panel can be monitored separately. Usually costs a little more than one central string inverter.
NABCEP certification: A voluntary professional certification for solar installers from the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners. It is a useful signal, but you should also check state contractor licensing.
NEM 3.0: The common name for California’s Net Billing Tariff, which applies to new rooftop solar customers of PG&E, SCE and SDG&E who applied on or after April 15, 2023. Exports earn hourly values far below retail rates.
Net billing: A billing rule where exported solar earns a credit set by a separate, usually lower, export rate rather than the full retail price. California’s Net Billing Tariff (often called NEM 3.0) is the best-known example.
Net metering: A billing rule where each kWh your panels send to the grid earns a credit equal (or close) to the retail price you pay. Credits offset power you buy later, often rolling over month to month.
Offset: The share of your yearly electricity use that solar is designed to produce. A 100% offset aims to match a year of use; under low export credits a smaller offset can pay back faster.
Payback period: How many years of bill savings it takes to recover what you paid for a system. A shorter payback means a better investment, all else equal.
Peak sun hours: Daily sunlight expressed as the number of hours at full-strength sun (1,000 watts per square meter). Five peak sun hours means the day’s sunlight equals five hours of full sun.
PPA (power purchase agreement): A contract where a company owns the system and you pay for the electricity it produces at a set price per kWh, often rising each year.
PTO (permission to operate): The utility’s final go-ahead to switch on a grid-connected system. Running a system before PTO can violate your utility agreement.
Round-trip efficiency: The share of energy you get back out of a battery compared with what went in. About 90% is typical for home lithium batteries.
Solar lease: A contract where a company owns the panels on your roof and you pay a fixed monthly amount, often with a yearly increase (escalator), usually for 20–25 years.
Specific yield: Yearly energy a solar system produces per kW of capacity, in kWh/kW. It depends on sunshine, tilt, direction and shade. Sunny Southwest roofs often reach 1,600–1,800; cloudier northern roofs 1,100–1,300.
Time-of-use (TOU) rate: An electricity plan where the price per kWh changes by time of day, with the highest prices in late afternoon and evening. Batteries save money by covering those peak hours.
True-up: The annual settlement on a net metering or net billing account. Charges and credits from the past 12 months are totaled, and you pay any balance owed. Leftover credits may be paid out at a low rate or lost.
Usable capacity: The share of a battery’s energy you can actually draw. Spec sheets list it in kWh; compare usable, not total, capacity between batteries.