About

Calculators built to be checked, not sold

AskSolarEnergy is a library of free solar calculators. No lead form stands between you and the numbers. Every calculator shows its answer at once, and nobody else sees what you entered.

What this site is

Most solar sites ask for your name, email, and phone number before they'll show you a single number. That number then gets sold to a handful of installers who call you within the hour.

This site works differently. Every calculator runs in your browser. You put in your numbers, you get an answer, nobody else sees it.

The tools cover system sizing, savings and payback, battery storage, financing, and incentives, organized into 16 hubs with more than 950 individual calculators between them. Some are broad, like a general payback period estimator. Others are narrow on purpose, like a net metering calculator built separately for each state and province, because the actual credit rate and rollover rules are set locally and a single national average would be wrong for most people.

Who runs AskSolarEnergy

AskSolarEnergy is run by Muhammad Kashif, founder and publisher. He is not a solar engineer or installer, and this site does not present him as one. He built the platform to give homeowners and small businesses in the United States and Canada free access to the solar calculations they need before talking to an installer, without a paywall, a login, or a lead form.

Each calculator is built from published industry data and formulas, named on the page where they apply, including the DSIRE database, the National Laboratory of the Rockies, and Natural Resources Canada, with state and provincial program pages for local figures. The formulas, the program data, and the worked examples are checked against those sources, and every tool page explains what it calculates, what inputs it needs, and how to use the result.

If a figure is wrong, or a program has changed, tell us through the contact page with the tool name and the figure. Corrections are made and the page is updated. The tools are for estimates, design checks, and learning. For a final system design, cost, and expected output, work with a licensed local installer who has seen your roof.

One optional card on tool pages lets you ask for a quote from a licensed installer, only if you choose it. It never blocks a result, and using a calculator never requires it.

Where the numbers come from

Rebate and tax credit figures trace back to the DSIRE database, a project maintained by NC State with funding from the US Department of Energy. Net metering details draw on the tracking work of the National Laboratory of the Rockies, formerly the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Canadian figures come from Natural Resources Canada and individual provincial program pages.

Physics-based calculations, panel output, degradation curves, battery C-rates, don't vary by location, so those tools use standard engineering formulas rather than any single data source.

Programs change. Rebate amounts get renewed, capped, or phased out. If you spot a figure that looks out of date, the contact page is the fastest way to flag it.

What these tools are not

They're not a replacement for a site visit. A calculator can't see your roof's actual shading, your electrical panel's condition, or your local permitting quirks. Use these numbers to sanity-check a quote, not to skip getting one.

They're not investment or legal advice either. Financing comparisons and payback estimates are built from the assumptions you enter. Change the assumptions, and the answer changes with them.

How the site stays free

There's no cost to use any calculator here. The site is free to use today. If advertising or referral relationships are added later, they will be disclosed on the pages where they appear, and neither will influence what a calculator outputs, since the math runs the same regardless of who's paying for anything.

Questions or corrections

If something looks wrong, incomplete, or out of date, the fastest way to reach us is the contact page. We read everything that comes through it.

Last updated: 12 November 2026.