How We Check Claims

Plug-in solar is new, and new markets are full of claims that are easy to print and hard to check. These are the rules every article on this site follows.

State laws

For each state we link the legislature’s own page for the bill, never only a news story or another tracker. We say what stage it is at (introduced, passed, signed, in effect), the output cap it sets, what your utility can and cannot require, and when it takes effect. Laws change, so every state card shows the date we checked.

Claim labels

When we compare products, every safety and certification claim gets one of three labels:

• Certified: the model is listed under the named standard in the directory of a nationally recognized testing laboratory, such as UL Solutions, CSA Group or Intertek (ETL). We link the listing and note the date we checked it.
• Test report only: the maker publishes a report from an independent lab, but the product is not listed as certified for that claim.
• Maker claim only: we found no certification listing and no independent test report.

Standards cover different things. UL 3700, for example, is the safety standard written for plug-in solar systems, while other standards cover inverters, batteries or portable power stations on their own. We name the standard on every certified claim, and we check the listing itself, not the box, the maker’s website or another review. A certified microinverter does not make the whole kit certified.

Savings

We work out savings from published electricity rates (from the EIA and your utility’s tariff) and solar production data, and we show the assumptions: panel size, direction, shading, your rate and how much of the power you use as it is produced. When the payback is long or the kit won’t pay for itself, we say so.

How articles are written and updated

Articles are researched and drafted with the help of AI tools, then checked by a person before publishing: every claim against its cited source, every state card against the bill and every certification label against the listing. The date at the top of each article shows when it was last updated.

What we don’t do

We don’t test products ourselves, and we never imply that we do. We don’t publish invented reviews, testimonials or “we tried it” stories. Experience from real people appears only with their permission, and attributed to them.

Commercial relationships

We earn money through affiliate links, advertising and introductions to installers. Partners never see or approve our content before publication, and what a partner pays never changes a claim label. See our affiliate disclosure.

Corrections

Found a mistake, a law that has moved on, or a listing that has changed? Tell us. We fix factual errors promptly and note significant corrections in the article.