Learning Center · Plain English
Learn before you buy.
Plain-English explainers for homeowners thinking about solar, batteries, heat pumps, and EV charging in New England. No sales pitch. No jargon. Written by people who actually install this stuff.
- Honest about what we don't know.
- Tuned to MA, NH, VT, and ME — not generic national averages.
- No hidden assumptions in the cost ranges.
What's on the shelf
Seven articles, more on the way.
We'd rather publish one piece worth reading than pad the shelf. Here's what's live and what we're working on next. If you want to vote on what comes after, scroll down.
The order matters: how to electrify your home in the right sequence.
Solar generates the energy. Heat pumps put it to work. Backup keeps you running when the grid can't. The sequence — and how the pieces fit together — is the difference between a coherent home energy system and four separate sales over five years.
Read the article →How to read your electric bill before you talk to anyone.
The two or three numbers on your bill that actually tell you something about your home, and the ones that matter less than vendors claim.
Read the article →How big a battery do I actually need?
What "whole-home backup" really means, how many kWh you need to ride out a typical New England outage, and how pairing a battery with solar changes the math.
Read the article →What MA, NH, VT and ME actually pay you to electrify your home.
The state and utility incentives for solar, battery storage, heat pumps and EV charging across New England: what they pay, who qualifies, and how they stack.
Read the article →Plug-in solar in New Hampshire, explained.
Starting January 1, 2027, you can plug a small solar setup into a regular outlet with no permit. How it works, what two panels realistically make here, what to look for in equipment, and how it compares to a full rooftop system.
Read the article →What solar actually costs a real home in Chester, NH.
Chris and Dave's 8.1 kW system, with the real numbers: about $109,000 in utility bills over thirty years, or less than 20% of that to make the same power on their own roof. Includes their video.
See the case study →Going all-electric in Andover, MA: the 30-year math.
A family of four, a $750,000 Andover home, and two full 30-year projections: solar, battery, heat pump and EVs versus oil heat and gas cars. The electrified path comes out roughly $400,000 ahead.
See the case study →Do heat pumps actually work in a New England winter?
The short answer is yes. The long answer involves sizing, defrost cycles, cold-climate-rated equipment, and what "100% heating capacity at 5°F" actually means on your worst February morning. Plus when a partial-displacement install is the smarter move.
In the worksWhat does solar actually cost in Massachusetts right now?
A look at real installed pricing for residential solar in 2026 — by system size, by financing structure (cash, loan, lease, PPA), and why the headline-grabbing "$/watt" number leaves out half the math. Tuned to MA, NH, VT, and ME utility rates.
PlannedNo "10 articles" launch trick. Seven are live, and the last two are drafts we'd rather get right than rush.
Reading → Doing
When you're ready to put numbers to it.
Each article in the Learning Center points at one of our homeowner tools. The tools live separately at /tools — no email gate, no required order, run them whenever the article makes you curious.
All three were built by the same people who install the systems. None of them charge you for the answer.
Vote on what's next
What should we write about?
If you've got a home-energy question we should answer in plain English, tell us. We'd rather write the article you actually want than guess. (Replies go straight to our team — not a marketing list.)
Get Started
Read enough? Let's run your numbers.
A remote consultation with one of our energy experts is free and runs about 45 minutes on a screenshare — we walk through the numbers together on a shared screen, no in-home visit, no obligation. You walk away with a clear next step, even if that next step is "wait six months."