Start here: watch the escalator do its work
Rather read it? What the video says, in words
A worked example of the escalator on a solar payment, set against the power bill it replaces. The payment starts below the bill and climbs at the escalator printed on the quote; the bill climbs at the rate the utility has historically raised prices. Both curves are drawn side by side for twenty-five years so the gap between them is visible without reading a number. The film then runs the control this page tells you to ask any installer for — the same comparison with no utility increase at all — and shows that the answer is smaller but still positive at the escalator tiers Helio uses, and negative at the highest tier. Every figure on screen is arithmetic you can reproduce with the calculator further down this page.
The nine questions
- 01
Who will own this system?
Every other answer follows from this one. Both can be fine; being unclear which one you are signing is not.
- 02
Who receives the credits and certificates?
Ask to be shown the clause, not told the answer. In a third-party agreement it is one unambiguous paragraph.
- 03
Is there an escalator, and what is year 25?
Year one is the brochure number. Year 25 is the one you live with. The calculator below does the arithmetic.
- 04
Where did the production estimate come from?
It should come from a shading analysis of your actual roof, not a regional average.
- 05
Show me the cash price beside the financed price.
Most solar loans carry a dealer fee inside the price. Normal and legal. Refusing to show both numbers is not.
- 06
What happens if I sell the house?
For an owned system, little. For a lease or PPA the buyer must qualify — and you need to know what happens if they do not.
- 07
Does the roof or the panel need work first?
Both are common and expensive to discover after the array is up. A proposal mentioning neither has usually not looked.
- 08
What is not covered by the warranty?
Every warranty has exclusions. Someone who cannot name one has not read theirs.
- 09
Who is actually going to install this?
Sales organisations subcontract. Not automatically bad — but know whose crew is on your roof, and who answers in year eight.
Question three, done properly
Four numbers off the proposal in front of you: the system size on the cover, the annual production on the production page, the rate per kWh being quoted, and the rate you pay your utility today. Then set the escalator to whatever the contract says.
Works on anyone’s quote
Two paths. Twenty-five years.
Four numbers off the proposal in front of you, plus the rate you pay now. Nothing here is sent anywhere or stored. The utility side compounds at Helio’s own modelling assumption, stated below and switchable to nothing at all.
Starts on a 11 kW worked example · 12,500 kWh/year
Year one · solar is 28% less per month
$188 solar vs $260 utility — saved $73 a month in the first year on these figures.
Utility 4%
$668 / mo
Solar 1.99%
$301 / mo
Utility year 25
$668
Solar year 25
$301
Kept on your side
$58,167
Twenty-five year totals: $130,143 staying with the utility vs $71,976 on solar. Both are the same 12,500 kWh a year, so this compares the rates and nothing else — fixed charges stay on the bill either way, and a real array degrades slightly as it ages.
11 kW
On the cover of the quote
12,500 kWh
kWh a year, on the production page
25¢ / kWh
What you pay today, before solar
18¢ / kWh
The rate per kWh printed on the quote
That is 1,136 kWh a year per kW of array. Two proposals for the same roof should land close to each other there — if one is well above the other, its production estimate is doing the work its savings figure gets credit for.
Solar payment escalator
What the utility does
4% is what Helio assumes, disclosed rather than buried, and it is roughly what the last twenty years of published prices did in three of our four states. No increase at all is the control — the one this page tells you to ask any installer for, us included. Press it.
Nothing you type here is sent anywhere or recorded. Use it on someone else’s proposal.
Five reasons to walk away
Red flag
The price drops if you sign tonight
A price that expires in an evening was not a real price. Nothing about solar economics changes overnight.
Red flag
Savings shown against a rising utility rate
Assume the utility raises rates forever and any system looks good. Ask what the savings are at today's rate.
Red flag
“It's basically free” or “the government pays for it”
The homeowner credit ended for expenditures made after 31 December 2025. Anyone still saying you get 30% back is out of date, or hoping you are.
Red flag
One number, no breakdown
You should see equipment, labour, adders and any dealer fee. If it is one figure, ask what is inside it.
Red flag
They will not leave the proposal with you
Anything you cannot read alone the next morning is designed not to be read alone the next morning.