Brian McGowan of Coatesville, Pennsylvania, says he paid about $150 for electricity last year. After adding more solar panels in the fall, he expects an even smaller bill. Before he went solar and electrified his home, his annual energy cost would have topped $5,000: more than $2,000 for electricity, roughly $1,000 for gas and over $2,000 for heating oil.
McGowan, an engineering technician, drives an electric vehicle and relies on a mini-split heat pump for most heating, so he no longer pays for gas or burns heating oil. What began as a few panels to run small appliances and emergency lights has become a full system with battery storage and a heat pump. He now operates an off-grid array for long outages and a separate grid-tied system of 30 rooftop panels connected to batteries.
When his neighborhood first lost power, his house saw only a flicker while the rest of the block went dark. The area typically experiences three or four outages a year, some lasting days, and McGowan expects reliability strains to grow as electricity demand rises from data centers and other large users.
Retiree John Spezia in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, installed solar 13 years ago and recently added a heat pump, enabling him to cancel his gas service. Without gas bills and related monthly base charges, he estimates savings of roughly $400 to $500 a year. In some months his household exports more power than it consumes and banks credits to cover colder periods.
Electric service interruptions are rising nationally. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that customers experienced an average of 11 hours of outages in 2024, about double the average from the prior decade. A Stanford University study looking at using solar plus batteries for outage resilience found about 60% of households would also see financial benefits, though that analysis counted a federal tax credit that has since been rescinded.
How much a homeowner saves depends on many factors: how much sun a site receives, system size, installation costs (equipment, labor, permits), local retail electricity rates and how utilities value exported generation. Under net metering, utilities credit exported power at the retail price the customer pays. In net billing regimes, credits are tied to wholesale prices and can be far lower. In California, for example, net billing credits can be roughly 25% of retail, which makes on-site batteries more attractive because they let homeowners store and consume their own generation.
Payback periods vary widely. Ben Delman of Solar United Neighbors says states with strong incentives and renewable energy credits can see payback in two to five years; where incentives are weaker or electricity is cheaper, payback can stretch to seven to eleven years. He emphasizes that how much a household already pays for electricity strongly influences the economics.
About 5 million U.S. households now have metered rooftop solar, roughly one in 30 residential homes, according to a report from the Environment America Research and Policy Center. Rooftop adoption has increased in every state, driven both by environmental goals and by homeowners seeking more stable, controllable energy bills.
Getting started can take different paths. Although the federal tax break for residential systems has been reduced, many states still offer tax credits, and local financing or leasing options remain available. Policy changes in some states have reduced compensation for exported solar or added fees for solar customers; in response, some homeowners are adding batteries to lower grid dependence. McGowan advises that anyone considering solar include battery storage.
Energy efficiency is a low-cost complement to generation. McGowan installed a drain-water heat exchanger to recover heat from wastewater and, together with his heat pump, now uses far less energy for hot water. Spezia recommends starting with an energy audit, sealing leaks, improving insulation and converting appliances and heating to electric before investing in on-site generation.
Beyond direct dollars-and-cents calculations, homeowners should weigh resilience: how much they value avoiding interruptions and preserving service during outages. For many households, the combination of rooftop solar, batteries and electrification delivers both lower bills and greater energy security.