We Will Show You the Payback Math. Including When It Does Not Work.
Solar design and installation with the actual numbers for your roof, your shading and your utility rate. No door knockers, no lease pitches, no 25-year contracts you cannot get out of.
What We Install
Owned systems only. We do not sell leases or power purchase agreements, because they complicate your home sale and the savings mostly go to the financier.
Residential Solar
Roof-mounted arrays sized to your actual consumption, not to the biggest system we can sell you. Tier-1 panels, 25-year product and performance warranties.
See the payback math →
Battery Storage
Backup and time-of-use shifting. Under current Sacramento rate structures batteries make sense for some households and not others. We will tell you which you are.
Discuss storage →
Service & Repair
Panel and inverter service for any system, including ones installed by companies that have since gone out of business. Common in this industry, unfortunately.
Book a service call →The Payback Math, Worked
Here is a real example for a 1,900 square foot Sacramento home on SMUD rates with a south-facing roof and minimal shading. Yours will differ, and we will run it properly before quoting.
Assumptions shown so you can check them. This excludes utility rate inflation, which historically shortens payback, and excludes panel degradation of roughly 0.5% per year, which lengthens it slightly. We show both in your written proposal.
Incentives Available Right Now
These change every legislative session and we keep this table current. If something below has expired, we have not done our job.
| Incentive | Value | Who qualifies |
|---|---|---|
| Federal Residential Clean Energy Credit | 30% of system cost | Homeowners with federal tax liability. Rolls forward if unused. |
| SMUD solar interconnection | Net billing credits | SMUD residential customers with approved interconnection. |
| Property tax exclusion, California | Assessed value excluded | Solar does not increase your property tax assessment in CA. |
| Battery storage credit | 30% federal | Batteries of 3 kWh capacity or greater, installed with or after solar. |
We are solar installers, not tax advisors. Credit eligibility depends on your tax situation and we will tell you to confirm with your accountant before relying on it.
When You Should Not Buy Solar
We turn away roughly one in six enquiries. Here is when we will tell you not to proceed, and why saying this publicly costs us less than a bad installation would.
- Your roof needs replacing within 8 yearsRemoving and reinstalling an array costs $3,000 to $6,000. Do the roof first, then call us.
- Significant shading you cannot removeMature trees on the south side can cut production by 40% or more. Microinverters help; they do not fix physics.
- Low electricity consumptionIf your annual bill is under roughly $900, the payback stretches past fifteen years and the money is better spent on efficiency.
- You are moving within three yearsSolar adds value but rarely recovers full cost that fast. Wait until you are settled.
How an Installation Runs
Eight to fourteen weeks from signature to switch-on, most of which is permitting and utility approval rather than work on your roof.
Site Assessment
Roof condition, structure, shading analysis and a full year of your utility data. No quote is issued without all four.
Design & Proposal
System layout, production model, payback math with assumptions shown, and a fixed price. Yours to keep and compare.
Permits & Approval
City permit and utility interconnection. This is the slow part and it is outside anyone’s control. We handle the paperwork.
Install & Switch On
One to three days on the roof, then final inspection and permission to operate. We walk you through the monitoring app.
What Customers Say
“Meridian told us to replace our roof first and come back in a year. Two other companies had quoted us a system that would have needed removing in five years.”
Diane & Robert P.Elk Grove, CA“The payback estimate said 8.4 years. Three years in, we are tracking slightly ahead of it. The numbers in the proposal were honest ones.”
Anthony M.Roseville, CA“Our original installer went bankrupt and nobody would touch the system. Meridian serviced it, replaced the inverter and did not lecture us about buying new.”
Fatima R.Sacramento, CA
Get Your Actual Payback Number
Free site assessment including shading analysis and a full review of your utility history. You get the real number for your roof, and an honest answer if solar does not make sense for your household.