Cost & Pricing
Why do solar quotes vary so much for the same house?
The quote isn't the problem — the missing question is
You show three companies the same house and get three prices far apart. The natural conclusion is that somebody is overcharging.
Usually nobody is. What has happened is that all three answered a question you were never asked.
A solar system is sized from what you run, and when you run it. Not from the number of bedrooms, not from the size of the compound, and not from what the last customer on that street bought. If nobody has taken that measurement, every quote you are holding is an estimate of a different house that happens to look like yours.
The five things quietly different between two quotes
- How long they assumed you need to last — four hours of battery backup and twelve hours of battery backup are different systems at different prices. Unless the quote says which it assumed, you cannot compare it to anything.
- Whether they sized for your biggest moment or your average. Your pumping machine starting, the iron, the microwave — these draw far more for a few seconds or minutes than your steady load ever does. A quote sized for the average will be cheaper and will trip. A quote sized for the peak costs more and works.
- What "5 kWh of battery" means in each quote. Nominal capacity and usable capacity are not the same number. If the quote does not state usable kWh — the energy you can actually draw — it hasn't told you what you are buying. Two batteries carrying the same figure on the label can give you materially different hours.
- What is in the price, and what appears later. Mounting, cabling, protection devices, earthing, the DC combiner, labour, and getting it all through your building. A quote that excludes these isn't cheaper — it's incomplete, and the difference reappears as a second invoice.
- Whether it is even the same kind of system. Some quotes are for battery backup only. Some are for solar panels and battery. Those solve two different problems — one keeps you out of darkness, the other reduces your bill — and comparing their prices tells you nothing at all.
An illustration
Two houses on the same street, the same size. One family runs an air conditioner most of the night and has a borehole pump. The other runs lights, a fridge, fans and a television, and fills their tank in the morning.
Same building. Genuinely different systems, genuinely different prices — and no dishonesty anywhere.
Now imagine both families were quoted without anyone asking which one they were. One family would be happy with their system; the other would be disappointed.
If you'd rather skip the guessing entirely, getsolar.ng works your number out from your own house in about two minutes.
The question that separates a real quote from a guess
Ask whoever quoted you:
"What did you size this for? How many units a day did you assume, what did you assume is my biggest single load, and how many hours of battery backup does this give me?"
Three outcomes, and each one tells you something:
- They answer immediately with numbers. They did the work. You can now compare their quote to another one, because you know what question it answers.
- They tell you not to worry about it. They guessed.
- They ask you. That is the right instinct, and it should have happened before the quote, not after.
What to ask your installer — the short version
- Assumed daily units (kWh) — what did you size this for?
- Biggest single load, and whether the system handles its starting surge
- Hours of battery backup, and the usable kWh included
If a quote can't answer those three, it isn't a quote. It's a price.
What to do before you collect another quote
Work out your own number first. Once you know roughly what you use in a day, what your biggest load is, and how long you need to last without grid power, every quote you receive becomes readable — you can see which one is sized for you and which one is sized for a stranger.
That is the whole reason getsolar.ng exists. You answer questions about your own house, and it comes pre-filled with a normal Nigerian home so you are only changing what is different about yours. "Not sure" is a valid answer. Then we call you, talk through what you actually want and what you want to spend, and if the full system is more than you are ready for we will design something smaller that keeps the important things on — and you add to it later.