Proposal Readiness checks completeness, not installer quality

After the PDFs are analyzed, each proposal gets a live readiness card. It separately checks whether normalized pricing, state benchmarking, first-year production, panel/inverter identity, financing details, workmanship-warranty information and any entered battery package are complete enough for the current side-by-side calculations.

The Next action follows a fixed data-completion order: system size, cash-equivalent price, state, production, panel model, inverter model, financing detail when a financed amount exists, battery model/count when a battery portion exists, workmanship warranty and finally unresolved proposal flags. For a loan with a financed amount, first confirm whether that number is a financed contract price, Regulation Z Amount Financed or the loan amount / principal, then confirm APR and term. Quoted monthly payment, Total of Payments and Finance Charge remain optional disclosure references rather than readiness blockers. Lease, PPA and other contract structures are not forced through loan APR/term rules; instead they stay visible for separate contract review.

The same readiness cards are included in the printable comparison report so missing inputs remain visible when the browser saves the report as a PDF.

Compare the financing structure before comparing a payment

Quote Compare treats a solar loan differently from a lease or power purchase agreement. For a confirmed loan, first verify whether the quoted financed number is the financed contract price, Regulation Z Amount Financed or the loan amount / principal. Only a confirmed financed contract price is compared with the cash-equivalent project price to calculate a contract-price premium. Amount Financed remains a separate disclosure reference and is not automatically equated with principal.

The side-by-side table can also carry an explicitly quoted monthly loan payment, Total of Payments and Finance Charge. Monthly payment and Total of Payments can be carried into the Solar Loan Calculator for bounded amortization consistency checks. Finance Charge is kept as a separate disclosure reference and is not automatically treated as a dealer fee, cash-to-financed markup or modeled interest amount. None of these disclosure references is used to reverse-engineer APR, hidden fees or other unknown contract conditions.

For a lease or PPA, review the contract term, starting payment or energy rate, annual escalator, transfer rules, purchase or buyout options, early-termination terms and total contractual obligation. A low first monthly payment does not make these structures directly comparable with a loan.

Normalize battery packages without pretending they are identical

When a supported battery model, full-unit count and positive battery portion are confirmed, Quote Compare calculates quoted package $/usable kWh: the entered battery package price divided by the catalog usable capacity of that configuration.

The metric is useful for making differently sized storage packages easier to read, but it is deliberately not ranked as cheapest or best. Gateway/controller hardware, electrical upgrades, labor, taxes, multi-unit discounts and bundled installation scope can differ materially between proposals. The original quote still controls what the package price actually includes.

Compare quoted batteries with the same 72-hour resilience model

The shared PDF extraction engine can conservatively recognize Tesla Powerwall 3, Enphase IQ Battery 5P and FranklinWH aPower 2 plus an explicit full-unit quantity. Quote Compare prefills those fields when they are clear, but every proposal keeps editable battery model and quantity controls so you can correct them against the original PDF.

Once a supported battery model and full-unit count are confirmed, use that proposal's 72-hour test button. The equipment configuration moves into the same outage model used elsewhere on Home Solar Atlas. A positive battery portion price is kept out of the URL and passed through browser session storage when available, where it is treated only as that quoted package total and is never extrapolated to a different battery count.

Request Local Solar Quote Matching

If the proposals you compared are too expensive, incomplete or hard to trust, submit a first-party matching request to Home Solar Atlas. Your initial submission stays with Home Solar Atlas and does not authorize us to share your contact details with installers.

How Home Solar Atlas compares proposals

Each PDF runs through the same Quote Analyzer extraction flow. Where possible, we identify the DC system size, project price, battery and separately itemized non-solar work, annual production, equipment, financing type, financed-amount scope, APR, term, quoted monthly loan payment, Total of Payments, Finance Charge, workmanship warranty and roof-penetration or leak warranty. Supported battery model and quantity fields are also surfaced for manual verification when the proposal text is clear enough.

The comparison then calculates a solar-only cash-equivalent price by subtracting detected battery and non-solar scope from the detected project price. That amount is divided by DC watts to produce normalized $/W. Detected deductions must still be checked against the original proposal because some installers may already present a solar-only price.

Battery package $/usable kWh is calculated separately from solar $/W and uses only the confirmed model, full-unit count, catalog usable capacity and the battery portion entered for that proposal. It is not compared with the solar marketplace benchmark or Home Solar Atlas homeowner solar-price median.

Loan premium versus cash is also kept separate from other financed-number meanings and non-loan financing. It is calculated only when the proposal is identified as a loan, a positive cash-equivalent project price is available and the quoted financed amount is confirmed as a financed contract price. Regulation Z Amount Financed and loan amount/principal never receive a synthetic cash-to-contract-price premium. Amount Financed is not automatically reconciled with modeled principal. Lease/PPA contracts do not receive a synthetic loan premium, APR or loan-term comparison.

Quoted monthly payment, Total of Payments and Finance Charge are displayed only when explicitly identified in a loan proposal. They are optional disclosure-reference fields and do not make Proposal Readiness pass or fail. The Loan Calculator performs bounded amortization comparisons for monthly payment and Total of Payments after the homeowner reviews the terms; Finance Charge remains reference-only and is not automatically reconciled with modeled interest or dealer fees.

When the proposal state is detected, normalized solar $/W is compared with the current state marketplace benchmark where available, or the clearly labeled U.S. fallback. If Home Solar Atlas has at least three approved homeowner quotes in that state, the tool also shows the current homeowner-sample median.

Warranty years are shown only as extracted proposal terms. They do not tell you whether exclusions, labor coverage, transfer rules or service responsibility are equivalent, so the original contract still controls.

After reviewing and correcting detected values, the comparison can be printed or saved as an A4 landscape PDF directly from the browser. The printable report includes proposal readiness, the comparison summary, normalized table, automatic review questions and methodology disclaimer.

What the comparison does not decide

• It does not certify an installer or choose a contractor for you.
• It does not turn Proposal Readiness into an installer or proposal-quality score.
• It does not verify roof condition, structural capacity or final electrical design.
• It does not assume the highest production forecast is the most accurate forecast.
• It does not treat a lower monthly payment as a lower-cost loan.
• It does not treat Regulation Z Amount Financed as automatically equal to the loan principal or financed contract price.
• It does not treat Finance Charge as automatically equal to dealer fees, cash-to-financed markup or modeled amortization interest.
• It does not treat quoted Total of Payments as cash price, down payment or total out-of-pocket.
• It does not treat lease or PPA terms as if they were loan APR/term fields.
• It does not treat the lowest quoted battery $/usable kWh as the best battery package.
• It does not treat a detected battery model or quantity as verified until you check the original proposal.
• It does not replace review of workmanship, roof-penetration, equipment and service warranties.

The goal is to make proposals comparable enough that the differences become explicit and the homeowner knows what to ask before signing.

Frequently asked questions

How should I compare two solar quotes?

Start with the proposal checklist, then compare solar-only cash-equivalent $/W, system size, first-year production per installed kW, exact equipment, non-solar scope, financing, warranties and installer service obligations.

What does Proposal Readiness mean?

It is a data-completeness check, not an installer score. It shows which pricing, benchmark, production, equipment, financing, warranty and battery fields are ready and surfaces one next action for the highest-priority remaining gap. Optional quoted monthly payment, Total of Payments and Finance Charge disclosures do not independently change readiness.

What should I verify before comparing the PDFs?

Confirm the equipment, production assumptions, cash price, financed-amount scope, APR, term, any quoted monthly payment, Total of Payments and Finance Charge, electrical and permitting scope, monitoring, warranties and change-order/PTO responsibilities. PDF extraction is a review aid rather than proof that the written contract is complete.

Is the lowest $/W automatically best?

No. It is one of the strongest normalization metrics, but a very low price deserves the same scope and warranty verification as a very high one.

What does quoted battery package $/usable kWh mean?

It is the entered battery package price divided by the usable capacity of the confirmed supported battery configuration. It helps normalize differently sized packages, but it is not a market-price benchmark or automatic value ranking because package scope can differ.

Can I test each quoted battery under the same outage assumptions?

Yes. Confirm the supported battery model and full-unit count for a proposal, then open its 72-hour test. The same resilience engine will evaluate that exact configuration, and the package price is kept out of the URL.

Can I compare financed solar proposals by monthly payment?

No. For a loan, first distinguish the financed contract price, Regulation Z Amount Financed and loan amount/principal, then compare APR, term, monthly payment, Total of Payments and Finance Charge when disclosed. The cash-to-financed premium is calculated only for a confirmed financed contract price. Amount Financed and Finance Charge remain separate disclosure references rather than being assumed equal to principal, dealer fees or modeled interest. For a lease or PPA, compare the payment or energy-rate schedule, escalator, contract term, transfer/buyout rules and total obligation.

Can I save the comparison as a PDF?

Yes. After the comparison table is available, use Print / Save as PDF. The browser generates a landscape report including Proposal Readiness; Home Solar Atlas does not need to create or store a separate report file on the server.