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Net Metering Savings Calculator

Enter your self-consumed and exported kWh with retail and export rates to estimate annual savings.

How it is calculated

Annual savings are the sum of two parts: self-consumed kWh × retail rate and exported kWh × export rate. Self-consumed energy is solar power used in the building as it is produced, so it replaces units you would have bought at the full retail price. Exported energy is the surplus sent to the grid, credited at the export rate. Rates are in dollars per kWh and energy is kWh per year. If you leave the export rate empty, the tool credits exports at the retail rate, which models full one-for-one net metering. Negative values give no result. The result does not include fixed monthly charges, taxes, demand charges or panel degradation, and it does not show the cost of the system.

Worked example

A home self-consumes 4,200 kWh a year and exports 3,100 kWh. The retail rate is $0.18 per kWh and the utility pays $0.06 per kWh for exports. Self-consumed value is 4,200 × 0.18 = $756.00. Export credit is 3,100 × 0.06 = $186.00. Annual savings are $942.00. If the utility credited exports at the full retail rate instead, the export part would be 3,100 × 0.18 = $558.00 and the total $1,314.00. That $372 difference per year shows why the export rate matters for the payback period.

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Common mistakes

  • Entering the total solar production as the self-consumed amount. Production is the sum of what you use and what you export, so counting it all as self-consumption overstates the savings.
  • Leaving the export rate blank when your utility pays less than retail. A blank rate is read as full retail credit, so enter the real export rate if the utility pays a lower one.
  • Entering the rate in cents. Rates are in dollars per kWh, so 18 cents must be entered as 0.18, not 18.
  • Entering monthly kWh. The fields are annual totals, so multiply a monthly figure by 12 or use the sum of your bills.
  • Treating the figure as profit. It is a saving on your bill; it does not subtract the cost of the system, financing or fixed grid fees.

About this calculator

Net metering is the billing arrangement that lets solar panel owners get credit from their utility for electricity they generate but don’t use themselves — the meter effectively runs backward when the panels export more than the home is drawing. Savings come from two separate sources: energy you generate and consume on-site directly offsets electricity you’d otherwise buy at the full retail rate, while excess energy you export to the grid is credited at a separate, usually lower, export rate (sometimes the wholesale or avoided-cost rate, depending on the program).

This calculator adds those two savings streams together — self-consumed kWh times the retail rate, plus exported kWh times the export rate — to estimate your total annual net-metering savings, the calculation homeowners and solar installers use to size a system and estimate payback period, since self-consumption is typically worth more per kWh than export credits.

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