$10 sounds high for a typical system, but it sounds like you’re doing this in a more customized way than typical. You also need racking, which is extra, and if you’re using as an awning, you’re probably paying extra for that hardware. Also don’t know about any other electrical upgrades needs you might have, which can add to the cost. So…. I would get 2 or 3 quotes to be sure.

If it were a normal, typical roof top system, without any unusual extras, it should be around $7.50/watt or $7,500/kilowatt, installed. New York is also not as competitive as other states, where it might be even less. But again, it sounds like you’ve got extras, so… might be fair. Best to get another quote and compare.

Also, most calculator parameters are set to a “Default” per watt charge and other defaults. These are usually way behind the times or are too conservative. Based on our sources, we try to give you a competitively priced example that’s in the middle, but it’s always lower than the default (higher) price.

Of course this default changes all the time. I actually wrote the NY post BASED on the NY calculator. The difference is that I changed the cost parameter to $7.50/watt (7500/kilowatt.) What you save per year is going to also be based on what you input as the your electric rate, as well as what you anticipate the rate rising over the next few years. Taxable income and marital status also affect these figures.

This is one reason why I don’t like these public calculators. You really have to know how to use them and have the right info to use them. We do our best to keep up to date as professionals, so we’re better than others. The other problem, as I said earlier, is that the rates change…but the software isn’t updated to reflect that.

In any case, I just redid my calculations using the parameters that I believe I used and I was off. I also had to update because the new rebate rates just went into effect. This may also be the difference, but I swear I didn’t pick that earlier number out of my solar butt. I just input another parameter, and I don’t remember what that is…or the NY state rate software was updated and is now giving a more conservative figure.

I’m thinking the latter because we really, REALLY try to be transparent and honest on SolarPowerRocks. In all of our posts, we simplify things, yes, so that you can understand it, but we are always honest with our figures.

As always, if you want to check our figures, get a few quotes from one of our partner installers. Bottom line, we’re human and we make mistakes or are outdated sometimes, but we’re always transparent and if we make a mistake, we’ll always cop to it and tell our readers. If we were trying to hide something, we wouldn’t have published your comment and I wouldn’t have spent the last hour updating the post. The delete button is so much easier, but that’s not how do things here at SPR.

Thanks for the question!

Thanks for pointing that out. We short hand things here to keep it simple, but that’s one we should have been more specific about. Hope our error didn’t keep you from going solar.