Is Solar Worth It

Updated 9.19.2026

Worth it is not a feeling. It is a year of kWh, a price per watt, a utility name, and how long you will live with the roof. The Cost guide is the price. The Incentives guide is what Florida still takes off. This page is whether the leftover number is a good use of money.

What “payback” actually means

Simple payback is: what you paid, divided by what the system saves on the electric bill in a typical year. If you pay $25,000 cash and the array avoids about $2,000 of energy charges in year one, simple payback is about 12.5 years. That ignores interest on a loan, a new inverter later, dirt on the glass, and whatever the utility charges in 2035. It is a yardstick, not a contract.

The 30% federal Residential Clean Energy Credit (tax code section 25D) used to knock that $25,000 down to $17,500 if you could use the full credit. Same $2,000 of yearly savings then looked like 8.75 years. The credit ended for a system you own if installation finished after December 31, 2025. 2026 payback is the longer number. Anyone still selling the shorter one is using last year’s law.

Panels are commonly warrantied for 25 years of production, often with a slow drop of about half a percent per year. Simple payback of 10 to 13 years still leaves a long tail of cheaper power if you stay, the roof lasts, and the installer is still answerable. Simple payback of 18 years on a house you might sell in 2029 is a different product.

A worked Central Florida example (cash, no battery)

Use this as a pattern. Swap in your kWh and your quote.

• System: 10 kilowatts (kW) of panels on a simple shingle roof, south or southwest, little shade.
• Price: $2.50 per watt installed = $25,000. (Competitive online averages have been closer to $2.08 in Orlando. Many local quotes sit higher. See the Cost guide.)
• Production: in the Orlando area, 1 kW of well-placed panels often makes about 1,490 kWh in a year (National Renewable Energy Laboratory PVWatts-class figure). A 10 kW array is on the order of 14,900 kWh per year before your shade and your direction take their cut.
• What that kWh is worth: the part of the bill that is energy, not the fixed monthly customer charge. On FPL and Duke Energy Florida, extra daytime power can offset later kWh at the full retail energy rate inside the calendar year. Planning with about 12 to 14 cents per kWh of energy (not the whole bill divided by kWh, which mixes in the customer charge) is honest for 2026. Fuel and extra charges move.

14,900 kWh × $0.13 ≈ $1,937 of energy in year one, if almost all of it actually replaces power you would have bought. Simple payback at $25,000 is about 13 years. At a $2.20 per watt quote ($22,000) it is about 11 years. At $2.80 ($28,000) it is about 14.5 years.

That is Duke Energy Florida or FPL with 1-for-1 credits and a system sized to a year of use, not an oversized array that cashes leftover December kWh at the cheap year-end rate.

Same 10 kW on new OUC service after October 31, 2026 is a different machine. Power you use in the house while the panels are making it still avoids OUC’s retail price (OUC has quoted about 10.7 cents). Power you send out is paid at the community-solar rate (about 4.6 cents), then later the fuel rate (about 3.8 cents). If the house is empty at lunch and 30% of the year’s kWh leave the meter, the mix looks more like:

(70% × 14,900 × $0.107) + (30% × 14,900 × $0.046) ≈ $1,322 in year one.

Simple payback at $25,000 is then about 19 years. A smaller array, daytime loads, or a battery that holds afternoon power for evening air conditioning can pull that back toward the Duke/FPL range. Copying a neighbor’s FPL-sized roof onto an OUC meter is how people get a 19-year story and blame “solar.”

FPL still has a $30 minimum base bill. Duke Energy Florida still has a $14.35 customer charge (June 2026 residential rate). Those do not go away. Subtract them from any “your bill will be zero” sentence before you do payback math.

What actually changes your number

Yearly kWh, not one bill. A $250 August bill is not a year. Add 12 months of kWh. A house at 8,000 kWh a year has less energy to offset. The crew still rolls a truck, so cost per watt can be worse on a small job. Under about $120 to $150 a month of real energy use, 2026 math is often thin.

The utility. Duke Energy Florida and FPL still bank extra kWh at retail inside the year. OUC, for a new account after the grace, does not. Details and the side-by-side table are in the Duke vs FPL vs OUC note.

The roof. South or west, little shade, simple shingles: more kWh per dollar. East is usable. Heavy tree cover, a north plane, or five little roofs: you are buying a smaller factory at a higher price per watt. If the roof needs replacing in five years, put that bill in the math or do the roof first.

How you pay. Cash has the shortest payback. A loan’s annual percentage rate (APR) is extra cost. A $25,000 job at 7% for 15 years is more than $25,000. Compare the total of payments to cash, not the monthly loan to your current electric bill. A lease or a power purchase agreement (PPA) means a company owns the panels. You may get a lower monthly number. You do not get an asset, and selling the house means a transfer the company has to accept.

How long you stay. If you move before simple payback, you need the next buyer to pay you for the remaining value. Studies on resale premiums are all over the map (older work in the 3 to 4% of home-price range; some newer work closer to 1 to 2%). There is no clean Central Florida number. What is consistent: an owned system is the one that can help. A lease often slows a closing. Florida’s property-tax rule still keeps the device off the assessed value, which is a real after-tax plus if the market pays you anything for the roof.

A battery. On Duke Energy Florida and FPL, a battery is mostly lights-and-fridge money when the grid is down, not a shorter payback. On new OUC, it can also be a bill tool. It adds $10,000 to $16,000 for one home unit in 2026, with no federal 30% credit. Put it on a second line. Do not hide it inside “solar is worth it.”

What happens after payback

If simple payback is year 12, years 13 through 25 are the point, as long as:

• The panels are still making most of what they made in year one (they should, if they were not junk and they were kept reasonably clean).
• The inverter (the box that turns panel power into house power) is still alive, or you budget a replacement. Many string inverters are in the 10 to 15 year class. Microinverters are often warrantied longer and cost more up front. Ask which you are buying.
• The utility has not rewritten the credit in a way that strands you. Duke Energy Florida and FPL credits are a Public Service Commission rule today, not a constitutional right. OUC already rewrote theirs.
• You are still in the house, or a buyer paid you for the remaining years.

Electric rates in Florida have risen over the last decade, then jumped around with fuel and storms. FPL’s 2026 typical 1,000 kWh bill is about $137. Duke Energy Florida’s typical 1,000 kWh bill in mid-2026 has been in the high $140s after some fuel cuts, and was higher earlier in the year. Do not build a 25-year model on “rates only go up 3% a year.” Do not build one on “rates never go up.” The honest statement is: you are prepaying a chunk of a bill that has been expensive, and you are taking utility-rule risk in exchange.

When it is usually worth a hard look

• You can add up a full year of kWh and it is not a small apartment number.
• The roof gets decent sun, not a thick cover of trees and a maze of tile valleys.
• You are on Duke Energy Florida or FPL, or you are on OUC and you will actually use the power in the house (or add a battery on purpose).
• You will own the system (cash or a loan you understand).
• You expect to stay through most of a 10 to 13 year payback, or you are fine treating resale as a bonus rather than the plan.
• You have two or three licensed quotes with model numbers, and cost per watt is in a real 2026 band (see the Cost guide).

When it is usually not, or not yet

• Yearly kWh is low. Solar’s overhead does not shrink with the bill.
• The roof is a mess of shade, or it is due for replacement and nobody priced that.
• You are moving in two or three years and you would have to sell a lease with the house.
• The quote still subtracts a 30% federal credit, or it never names your utility.
• You are on new OUC service and the array is sized to export. That is the 19-year example above.
• The only number you like is a monthly payment stretched over 25 years.
• Someone promised a $0 bill. FPL’s $30 floor and Duke Energy Florida’s customer charge are still there. So are taxes and franchise fees.

How to decide without a salesperson in the room

1. Twelve months of kWh from the bill. Write the utility name at the top.
2. A first size: yearly kWh ÷ 1,450. On FPL, keep estimated production under 115% of yearly use. On new OUC, think about daytime use, not 100% of the year.
3. Two or three licensed quotes. Convert each to cost per watt. Throw out anything that still has a 30% federal credit on a 2026 purchased system.
4. Simple payback: cash price ÷ (yearly kWh the system should actually offset × your energy rate, not the whole bill). If it is a loan, use the total of payments in the top of that fraction and watch the years stretch.
5. Stay-or-sell. If you leave before payback, resale of an owned system is a hope, not a line item you can take to the bank.
6. The payback calculator on this site, with your bill and your utility, as a check. It is a planning tool, not a quote.

Solar in Central Florida in 2026 is still a machine for turning a decent roof into fewer energy charges over a long stay. It is not a plan for someone selling in five years, not a $0-bill coupon, and not the same product on OUC as it is on Duke Energy Florida. If the simple payback you can explain on a napkin is inside the first half of a 25-year warranty, and you will own the thing, it is usually worth a serious look. If you cannot explain the napkin, do not sign.