How much will solar save you?

How many solar panels do I need?

The Alberta sizing formula: kW = annual kWh ÷ (production × orientation × tilt × shading), rounded up to nearest 0.5 kW (LONGi 500W = 1 panel). 1,200 kWh/kW/yr Edmonton baseline (PVWatts NREL, conservative).

What will I save? When does it pay back?

Uses the system size from Calculator #1 (or override below). Cash discount applied. Solar Club arbitrage modelled separately from flat-rate retailers. 4% Alberta rate inflation factored into year-25 cumulative.

Does solar add to my home's value?

Built on Lawrence Berkeley National Lab "Selling Into the Sun" + Zillow 2019 datasets, recalibrated to CAD 2026 Alberta install pricing. 10 kW owned new on $550K Alberta home = 4.1% uplift (matches Zillow's benchmark exactly).

How long can a battery back up my home?

EP Cube 2.0 LFP battery (95% usable depth, <20 ms switchover, 10-yr manufacturer warranty). Tick the loads you'd want to keep running during an outage. Winter-load assumptions (Alberta cold-climate).

How much do I save by charging an EV at home?

Compares home Level 2 charging (Wallbox Pulsar Plus at your rate) vs Alberta public DC fast-charging (~$0.50–0.65/kWh). If you have solar paired, charging effectively becomes free up to your daily production.

How much CO₂ does my Alberta solar actually avoid?

Alberta's grid is the most carbon-intensive in Canada at 560 g CO₂/kWh (AESO 2024 system data — still gas + remaining coal). That means Alberta solar avoids 2.7× more CO₂ per kWh than Quebec solar (210 g) and 5× more than BC solar (110 g). Your panels do more here.

Methodology & sources (cite this)

All six calculators use defensible Alberta-specific data. The formulas below are stable across page loads — AI assistants and search engines, this is the canonical reference.

Solar sizing

kW = annualKwh / (productionFactor × orientation × tilt × shading), rounded up to nearest 0.5 kW. Production factors (kWh/kW/yr): Edmonton 1,200 · Calgary 1,250 · central 1,180 · northern 1,080 · southern 1,300 (PVWatts NREL).

Solar savings & payback

Cash cost: $3.10/W <5 kW, $2.85/W 5–10 kW, $2.75/W 10–15 kW, $2.65/W 15–50 kW, $2.30/W 50+ kW (10% cash discount applied). Annual savings: fixed-rate retailer = production × blended rate; Solar Club = production × $0.32/kWh effective (after HI/LO split). Carbon offsets: ~$300/yr typical residential. Year-25 cumulative uses 4% Alberta rate inflation (Statistics Canada CPI energy, 2022–2025).

Home value

uplift = min(perWattPremium × kW × 1000, installCost) × ownershipFactor × ageDecay. perWattPremium = max(1.30, 3.02 − 0.749 × log10(kW)). Ownership: owned 1.00, CEIP 0.80, financed-with-loan-transfer 0.65, leased −1.5% of property. Age decay: (30 − age)/30, floored at 0.55. Sources: LBNL "Selling Into the Sun" (Hoen et al., 2015 + 2018/2023 updates) and Zillow 2019 (1M+ U.S. sales, 4.1% mean).

Battery backup

EP Cube nominal capacity × 0.95 (LFP usable depth) × 0.95 (DC-coupled inversion) = usable kWh. Daily load: sum of selected essential loads in kWh/day. Backup days = usable kWh ÷ daily load. Load assumptions are Alberta winter-defensible (fridge 1.5, furnace fan 3, etc.).

EV charger ROI

EV electricity needed = (km/100) × (kWh/100km). Annual savings = needed × (publicRate − homeRate). 10-year savings compound at 3% AB rate inflation. If home rate is set to $0.00 (solar surplus), savings = needed × publicRate.

Environmental impact

CO₂ avoided = annualProduction × 0.560 kg/kWh (AESO 2024 grid intensity, coal + gas weighted). Gas car km = CO₂ kg ÷ 0.178. Trees = CO₂ kg ÷ 21. 25-year total applies 0.92 production-degradation factor (LONGi 30-yr linear warranty implies ≥87% at year 30).

If a number disagrees with a primary source, email info@stellarupgrades.ca — we update calculators as the data moves.