You signed your solar contract because the numbers looked great. The salesperson showed you a proposal where the new, low monthly solar payment was significantly less than your old, high monthly power bill. You were promised a “100% offset,” leading you to believe your utility bill would vanish, replaced by this smaller, fixed payment.
But now, months later, the reality is painfully different. You have your new solar payment, but you’re also still getting a significant bill from your utility company. How is this possible?
You have likely been a victim of the single most common and deceptive tactic in the solar industry: intentional system undersizing. This isn’t a simple miscalculation; it’s a calculated strategy designed to create the illusion of savings and pressure you into a deal that doesn’t actually meet your needs. This guide will break down exactly how this scam works, show you how to spot it in your own documents, and explain what you can do about it.
Step 1: Understanding Your True Energy Needs (The Number They Ignore)
Before you can spot the deception, you need to know your baseline. The most important number in your solar journey is your annual energy consumption, measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh). Think of kWh like the “gallons of gas” your house uses over a year.
To find this number, log in to your utility company’s online portal or look at your last 12 months of paper bills. Add up the total kWh used for the entire year. This number—let’s say it’s 10,000 kWh for this example—is the amount of energy a solar system needs to produce to give you a true 100% offset.
Step 2: The Sales Rep’s Deception: A Step-by-Step Breakdown
Now, let’s walk through how a deceptive salesperson manipulates this number to create a deal that looks too good to be true.
The Setup: Your Real Situation
Your home uses 10,000 kWh per year.
Your average monthly utility bill is $200.
A correctly sized 10kW solar system that would produce 10,000 kWh would have a monthly loan payment of $180.
The Real Savings: $200 – $180 = $20 per month. This is a real, but modest, saving that might not be exciting enough to close a deal.
The Trick: The Undersized Proposal
The salesperson knows that a $20/month saving isn’t a compelling pitch. So, they don’t propose a system to cover your real usage. Instead, they secretly base their proposal on a much lower, fictitious usage number—for example, 8,000 kWh. A smaller system that produces only 8,000 kWh is cheaper, with a much lower monthly payment.
The Illusion: Creating Fake Savings
The new, smaller system has a monthly loan payment of only $150. The salesperson presents this to you. They show you your current $200 utility bill and then show you their new, lower $150 solar payment. It looks like you’re saving $50 a month! They tell you this system provides “100% offset,” conveniently failing to mention it’s only offsetting 100% of a usage number they made up. Trusting them as the expert, you sign the deal.
The Painful Reality: Your New, Combined Bills
Months later, the truth emerges. Your new 8kW system is only covering 80% of your actual energy needs. You still have to buy the other 20% from the utility company. So now you have two bills:
Your $150 monthly solar loan payment.
A new, smaller utility bill for the remaining 20% of your power, which is roughly $40-$50.
Your total monthly energy cost is now ~$200, the same as before. Your promised “savings” have vanished completely.
The “Double-Dip”: When Deception Becomes Outright Fraud
It often gets even worse. In the most egregious version of this scam, the salesperson will use the undersized system to massively inflate their commission.
They will propose the smaller 8kW system, but they will charge you the price of the larger 10kW system. In this case, your monthly loan payment is now $180, but you are still only getting the small system that doesn’t cover your full bill.
Your new total monthly cost is now $180 (solar loan) + $50 (new utility bill) = $230. You are now paying more for energy than you were before you went solar, all while the salesperson has walked away with a huge, fraudulent commission.
What To Do If This Happened to You
This is our most common fraud we see, every single day. Has this happened to you? If you are still receiving a significant utility bill after being promised a full offset, this may be what happened. This isn’t just a bad deal; it’s a form of misrepresentation and can be a violation of state and federal consumer protection laws.
Our case review process specializes in this exact analysis. We compare your actual, historical energy usage data against the system you were sold, exposing any shortfalls. We build a comprehensive report that documents the financial discrepancy and provides the hard evidence needed to build a powerful case.
