Net metering is the billing arrangement that lets a grid-tied solar system export excess production back to the utility and receive credit for it. In practice, your meter runs backwards when your panels produce more than the house is using, and forwards when the house is drawing power at night or on cloudy days.
At the end of the billing period, you pay for the net consumption. A well-sized array in Ohio can offset a large fraction — sometimes all — of the electricity a household uses over the course of a year, even though production and consumption rarely line up in the same hour.
The economics of solar depend heavily on how the local utility structures its net metering program: what it credits exports at, whether credits roll over month to month, and how any true-up at year end is handled. We help homeowners read their specific utility's tariff before sizing an array.
