Home solar has many benefits, but it can be intimidating to start a project.

After all, it’s no secret that installing solar panels costs tens of thousands of dollars, and it can be nerve-racking to invite a parade of salespeople into your home just to get an actual number.

So, we analyzed thousands of solar systems purchased through solar.com in 2022 to give you a ballpark idea of how much solar panels cost per square foot for homes with 1,750 to 2,250 square feet of living space. We hope that sharing this data takes the edge off sticker shock and gives you the confidence to take the next step toward solar.

If you would like to compare binding solar quotes online (without the sales pitches), you can always start a project here.

How much do solar panels cost for a 2,000 square foot house?

Based on national averages, solar panels cost just over $20,000 for a house with 2,000 square feet of living space. The gross cost is closer to $29,000, but claiming the federal solar tax credit worth 30% of the project cost brings the net cost down to around $20,000.

The table below shows the average solar panel cost per square foot of living space for California, non-California states, and the US as a whole.

Figures are for informational purposes only and do not constitute binding quotes. *Starting in 2026, the federal tax credit is only accessible through third-party owned solar arrangements, such as leases, PPAs, and Prepaid Solar.

Of course, not everybody’s home is exactly 2,000 square feet. So, we broke the data into intervals of 100 square feet to get a more precise estimate based on home size.

By zooming in, we found:

• Solar panel cost tends to increase as square footage increases
• The cost per square foot decreases as the living space and system size increase

Of course, every home is unique, and the cost of solar panels varies based on your electricity consumption, sun exposure, equipment, and local incentives.

In fact, the square footage of your home isn’t a great indicator of the cost to power it with solar panels. After all, a person with two EVs and all electric appliances in a 1,000 square foot house would likely use far more electricity than a person with all gas cars and appliances in a 2,500 square foot house.

Typically, annual electricity consumption is a better indicator of the size and cost of a solar system.

How many solar panels are needed for a 2,000 sq ft home?

In addition to price, it’s nice to have a simple, round number of panels that will make up your system.

Again, there are a number of variables that impact how many panels make up a system. But, if we have the cost of the system, we can use some simple division to get down to a number of panels.

So, let’s say the system costs $29,000 before the solar tax credit or any other incentives. First, we divide that by the average cost of solar panels, which is measured in price per Watt (PPW), to get the generating capacity of the system in Watts.

Since every project is different, we’re providing a range of price points.

Once you have a system size, divide it by the power rating of the panels. Today, 400W is by far the most popular rating and considered the industry standard.

The number of 400W panels needed for a 2,000 square foot home ranges from 14 to 24 depending on the size of the system, as shown in the table below.

Related reading: What Is the Cost of Solar for a 3 Bedroom House?

The bottom line

While living space isn’t a great indicator of how much a solar system will cost, the data provides a baseline net cost around $20,000 for solar for a 2,000 square foot home. Having a baseline cost estimate can help you identify solar scams, avoid sticker shock, and set savings goals for financing solar panels.

However, it’s important to note that the size, cost, and number of panels in a solar system depends on a variety of factors, including your electricity consumption, sun exposure, and available incentives.

If you’d like to see exactly how much solar would cost for you, connect with a solar.com Energy Advisor to design a customer system and generate binding quotes.

Whether you’re a fan of Elon Musk or not, Tesla is one of the most recognizable brands for rooftop solar, battery storage, and electric vehicles.

While Tesla offers some of the lowest solar panel costs in the industry, it also has a reputation for less-than-desirable workmanship and customer service.

So, in this article we’ll explore how much Tesla solar panels cost and the Tesla Solar Roof, and weigh the pros and cons of hitching your energy costs to a massive operation versus a local installer.

Want to estimate the cost of your project? Try our solar panel cost calculator

How much do Tesla solar panels cost?

One nice thing about Tesla solar panels is that you don’t have to wait long to get a cost estimate for your system. Simply punch in your address and average electricity bill, and the Tesla solar calculator will spit out a few size and price options.

We punched in a random address in Irvine, California with an average electricity bill of $200 to get size and cost estimates from Tesla Energy.

The key figure to focus on here is price per Watt (PPW), as this is the standard measurement for comparing solar quotes. In 2023, it’s common for solar installers to offer a pre-incentive PPW between $3 to $5. However, since entering the residential solar market by acquiring SolarCity, Tesla has offered an exceptionally low PPW solar panel cost.

So why aren’t Tesla solar panels a no-brainer?

Perhaps the best way to put it is that Tesla’s rooftop solar division is unpredictable, at best, and the name of the game for solar savings is predictability.

Most recently, Electrek reported that Tesla “canceled solar projects en masse across the US,” laid off employees in its solar division, and shut down operations in many markets. It also appears Tesla is shifting its strategy to rely more on third-party installers instead of handling installations themselves, which is being met with mixed emotions.

For example, a solar installer commented on the Electrek article above with the following:

There are also serious concerns over Tesla’s customer service, both before and after installation. Granted, every company has its share of good and bad reviews. But scouring Reddit threads, the latest Yelp reviews, and various comment sections reveals that it’s challenging just to get a Tesla representative on the phone – and it doesn’t always get better from there.

While there’s no harm in finding out how much Tesla solar panels cost, it’s worth asking how and why their price per Watt is so much lower than local installers that are more easily held accountable.

How much does a Tesla Solar Roof cost?

In addition to solar panels, Tesla offers the Solar Roof featuring sleek solar shingles that blend seamlessly into their surroundings.

Tesla solar shingles are a luxury product and require an entire roof replacement, so they are only competitive with solar panels if you need an entire roof replacement anyway. Also, Tesla does not offer upfront estimates for the Solar Roof like they do for solar panels.

So, I requested a Solar Roof quote from Tesla online and after a month of radio silence, a certified installer called and delivered an initial estimate of $100,000.

For reference, I already have a 4.5 kW solar system that offsets 105% of my electricity consumption. I paid $19,500 for it and claimed the 30% tax credit to reduce the cost to $13,650.

After explaining this to the salesman, he lowered his estimate to $75,000 and pointed out that “it’s a luxury product.”

Granted, I didn’t need a roof replacement. But even if I added a $30,000 roof replacement to my $19,500 solar system, a Tesla Solar Roof would have been $25,500 more than my traditional PV system with premium panels and inverters.

What are the drawbacks of tesla solar shingles?

The biggest drawback to Tesla solar shingles is the cost. The Solar Roof is a luxury product, and even factoring in the new roof, it’s often much more expensive than traditional solar panels.

The next drawback is that the Solar Roof pricing and customer service has been unpredictable in the last handful of years.

In 2021, Tesla abruptly increased the price of the Solar Roof by 30% to 150% – based on a “roof complexity” factor – and emailed customers with existing contracts that they would need to agree to the new price or cancel their project.

This type of unpredictability is the last thing you want from a solar installer that you’ve entrusted to lower your electricity costs.

The bottom line

Tesla is a tempting option given the low prices its solar panel cost calculator spits out. However, its track record of poor customer service and abrupt cancellations are worth considering before signing a contract.

The key to solar savings is to soak up as many rays of sunshine as possible  – and that’s difficult to do if your system goes down and you get through to customer service, let alone schedule service to fix the problem.

There’s no harm in getting a solar quote from Tesla, but we highly recommend balancing it with quotes from local installers with excellent track records of workmanship and customer service.

Get multiple quotes from trusted local installers here.