If you're reading this, you might know that plug-in solar has started to take off in the US. Starting with Utah in August 2025, 9 states have now passed legislation legalizing plug-in solar (including Maine, Virginia, Colorado, Maryland, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, and New Jersey) and many more have bills advancing, introduced, or in consideration.

If you're in one of these states, you might be excited to start generating your own solar power and reducing your bills without having to go through any utilities or regulatory framework. But if you're like me just a couple of months ago, you might feel a little stuck -- unsure how to get started and not sure if the effort is worth the money. In this article, I will show you exactly how I completed my plug in solar setup, complete with price tags and links to each product, and walk you through exactly how much I'm saving and how long my payback will take. So let's get started!

Inputs

1. Your Super Cool Solar Panels!

Of course, for plug-in solar you need solar panels. In my setup above, I have 3 SunPlus445W panels, and 1 HT435W panel, totaling up to 1,770W. 

I'm in Utah where the law (HB340) limits us to 1,200W of input into the house, so you might wonder why I have 570W above that. Am I breaking the law here?

Actually, this is a standard process known as overpaneling. Overpaneling means having a higher wattage on your panel setup than the microinverter is rated for. This is done because panels rarely actually reach their lab-rated capacity (known as Standard Test Condition, or STC), due to heat, atmosphere, and sun angle. Most solar panels peak at about 75% - 85% of their STC rating. By overpaneling, you increase the amount of time that your panels are actually at the microinverter limit, which thus increases your production and your bill savings. The microinverter clips to its limit, which keeps you within the legal limit.

The amount of overpaneling in your setup is up to you, but the standard is anywhere from 120% to 140%. That means that since Utah limits microinverters to 1,200W, an ideal panel setup will have 1,450W - 1,800W. My setup is more aggressive overpaneling, because my backyard gets a bit of shade (as you can see above). With our 4 pack of Longi 415W, you'll get to 1,660W, which is right at the sweet spot of overpaneling to keep you at the 1,200W limit for as much of the day as possible!

Cost for 4 Longi 415W panels through getplugsolar.com (including delivery in Salt Lake Area!): $499

2. Mounting Brackets

For my plug-in solar setup, I simply affixed them to these adjustable solar panel mount brackets and placed them in my backyard. Of course, you have plenty of other options with plug-in solar: You can have an installer place them on your roof, you can affix them to your balcony, or you could even just lean them against a wall or leave them on the ground, but there are a lot of benefits to going with a ground mount system.

1. Increased safety (compared to leaning them against a wall or laying them on the ground). Even though panels weigh between 40-50 pounds, their large, flat surface acts like a sail that can catch the wind and cause them to blow over easily. Of course this could lead to them cracking, or even worse, someone being injured, which we definitely do not want. Affixing them to a mount counteracts the sail effect, and the mount itself can optionally be fixed into the earth or covered with sand bags, further increasing their stability.
2. Increased energy production. Angling solar panels at their optimal tilt typically increases energy production by 10% to 25% compared to laying them flat, and 30% to 50% compared to standing them up vertically. This is because solar panels perform best when sunlight hits them at a 90 degree, perpendicular angle. Since the sun is rarely directly overhead (especially in the winter months) or facing a vertical wall, angling them increases the chance they will directly face the sun. (As an added benefit, angled solar panels will self-clean, as rain washes off debris and leaves, and snow naturally slides off the surface, preventing pooling water which can degrade production by up to 10%.) Determining the optimal angle for your location is easy: Just match it to your latitude! These mounts are pretty easy to adjust and the Measure app on the iPhone makes setting them to the correct angle a breeze.
3. Increased Flexibility for Renters. If you're renting like I am, you want something you can set up easily and won't be a hassle to take down if you move. My setup time for these was about 30 minutes each, and I'm not very handy.
4. Cost Savings. A rooftop panel install can cost anywhere from $1,500 to $5,000 for labor. Simply placing them on a ground mount in your backyard, driveway, or wherever you have free space can thus save a lot of money!

Cost for 4 Mounting Brackets: $40x4 = 160

3. Solar Extension Cables

These extension cables allow you to increase the distance from your microinverter to your solar panels, because the cables that come out of the solar panel are pretty short. These 30 foot ones should cover just about any distance you need, or this 3 foot extension cable can be used for shorter distances. 

Plugging them into the microinverter and solar panel is pretty easy and foolproof since they have male and female sides so you can't really mess it up. I used these landscape staples to keep them organized, and I labeled them using this label maker on the solar panel side to make sure I didn't mix them up. (You don't want to mix the cable for PV1 and PV3 in one solar panel). And they don't decrease panel production at all.

Cost for 4 PV Extension Cables: 4 x $36 = $144

4. Microinverter

The EcoFlow Stream Microinverter is what you plug your solar panels (or solar panel extension cords into). It converts direct current (DC) from solar panels into alternating current (AC) for your home.

Here, I used the provided bolts to drill into a board below my deck. It's important to mount the microinverter off of the ground, as it can give off a lot of heat, so you don't want to lay it on the grass.

Cost for Microinverter: $369  

5. Outdoor Outlet

This final component is often overlooked but is the way your house actually uses the energy from the solar panels! You plug the microinverter into this and the house draws its energy from the solar panels.

Although I plan to write a full article about safety concerns here, do note that it is important to follow proper safety precautions with the outlet you use:

Make sure the outlet is on a dedicated or lightly used circuit that is rated at least 15A. This is probably the most important safety step when setting up plug in solar! Your panels are producing as much as 1,200W. Plugged into a 120V outlet means they produce 10A. This is totally fine on a 15A circuit. It's also OK to have other loads on that circuit, such as a garage door opener. You might worry that, if the garage door opener draws 6A, and the solar panel produces 10A, isn't that 16A which is more than the circuit is rated for? Actually, the other loads simply draw from your solar panel, and they don't use the grid, so there's no problem here. The circuit only sees 10A (6A being used by the garage door and the other 4A going to the circuit and other parts of the house).

The concern is something called breaker masking. That occurs if you plug another load that uses more amps than the circuit is rated for onto the same circuit as the solar panels. For example, you plug in a window AC unit that uses 25A onto a circuit that is rated for 15A. What should happen in this situation is that the circuit breaker flips, and everything turns off. But if the solar panels are producing 10A, the window AC unit uses those 10A and gets the other 15A from the circuit breaker. So the circuit sees 25A but the circuit breaker doesn't flip, which can cause overheating. So the takeaway is, if the circuit your solar panels on is shared, do not plug anything in that is more than the circuit is rated for, which you should not be doing anyway!

Also, it is advised to use a weather-resistant GFCI outlet with a proper cover (as shown above).

Cost: Variable (you likely already have what you need here, just take care!)

Total Cost of Setup (finally!)

Solar panels: 499

Brackets: 160

Extension cables: 144

Microinverter: 369

Total Cost: $1,172

Given that, let's look at how much energy our system is producing and calculate how long it will take us to make our money back!

Cost Saving and Calculated Payback Time

The output side of things is a bit harder to calculate given it is based on weather, sun conditions, etc.

But it is calculable if you take these numbers:

1. Peak output of the system per hour
   
2. Average peak sun hours in your location

1. Peak output of my system

The EcoFlow microinverter has 3 inputs -- PV1, PV4, and PV2/3 (which allows 2 panels to connect to).  

• PV1 I have a 445W panel. at 70% of STC this gets 300W max
• PV4 I have a 445W panel. at 70% of STC this gets 300W max
• PV2/PV3 has 2 panels, which add up to 900W. But the input is limited at about 400W

So the peak output of my system is around 1kW, which is what we see above (albeit on a shady day).

2. Peak sun hour numbers for your state

This site and this site offer estimates of average peak sun hours for your state. They both list Utah at about 6, but I'll lower to 5.5 since we are in the backyard which gets a bit of shade 

So: 5.5 peak sun hours at 1kW = 5.5kWh / day. Multiple by 365 ~ 2,000kWh/year.

3. Translating into savings

Now you need to take your kWh production and convert that into saving using your bill rate. 

We are under Rocky Mountain Power, which changes its bill rate throughout the year and depending on how much kWh you've used, which adds further complexity. Prices range from 8.7c/hr to 12.5c/hr. For this analysis we can use an average of 12.5c/kWh.

So, (drumroll please), 2,000kWh at 12.5c/kWh = $250 / year.

This means I should pay off the system in approximately 4-5 years (allowing some range for the estimates).

Note here: Plug-in solar only pays back for your use, it is not net-metered. So if you produce more than you use, you will not be paid for that. But the average house in Utah uses 20kWh per day, so it's very likely you will use it all. Also, if you have net-metering set up through a rooftop system, this will pay actually give you credits through that, (since the energy backfeeds through the same meter) so you will get credits for anything you don't use! Look out for another article on that in the future.

Thanks for reading, and plug away!