Skip to main content
VA Horizon
Book a Call
Free Solar Tool

What is actually hiding inside your solar loan?

Quick answer: multiply your loan amount by the dealer fee percentage. That dollar figure funds the door-to-door dealer commission stack, not the physical system. Enter your numbers below and see what that same money could buy in direct appointments instead.

Run the Calculator Book a Call
Sourced defaults, no signup Runs entirely in your browser
22%
Avg Dealer Fee (2026)
$5,700+
Added To A Typical Loan
20-35%
Dealer Fee Range
$249
VA Horizon Per Appointment
The Calculator

Loan amount, times fee percent.

Set your loan amount and dealer fee percentage to see the embedded fee dollars, the effective system cost without it, and how many direct appointments that fee could have bought instead.

Your Inputs

Defaults to a typical financed system and IntegrateSun's published average dealer fee.

Defaults to EnergySage's average residential system cost example, a 12 kW system at roughly $2.58 to $2.95 per watt.

IntegrateSun cites an average dealer fee of about 22%, within a published 20 to 35% range.

What's Embedded

Estimate based on the inputs you set. Not a guarantee.

Embedded Dealer Fee
$6,850
Fee as % of loan 22%
Effective system cost without the fee $24,285
Direct appointments that fee could buy at $249 27
What This Fee Could Buy Instead
Appointments at $249 each27
$300 setup + appointments26 appts
Left over after setup + appointments$76
How The Math Works

One percentage, applied to one loan.

This tool runs a simple multiplication, then compares the result against a direct appointment purchase.

Embedded fee dollars

Loan amount multiplied by dealer fee percent. A $31,135 loan at 22% has $6,850 embedded in it.

Effective system cost

Loan amount minus the fee dollars. That is the portion of your loan actually going toward panels, inverters, and labor.

Appointments the fee could buy

Fee dollars divided by $249, rounded down to whole appointments, since a fractional appointment cannot be purchased.

Setup plus appointments

Fee dollars minus VA Horizon's $300 one-time setup, then divided by $249 and rounded down, showing what is left over.

This is a comparison of what the dealer fee could fund if spent directly on booked appointments, not a claim that a dealer fee and an appointment purchase are functionally identical. A dealer network's commission stack pays for a full in-home sales process, including the closer who signs the contract. An appointment purchase only buys the booked, double-confirmed consultation itself.

Appointment counts are rounded down, not up, because you cannot spend a partial appointment's worth of fee dollars on a whole appointment.

Sources

Every default, traced to a source.

No number on this page is invented. Here is exactly where each default came from.

FAQ

Dealer fees, answered.

What is a solar dealer fee?
A dealer fee is a percentage the lender deducts from a solar loan to fund the commission stack behind a door-to-door dealer network: the setter, the closer, and the regional manager override. It is embedded in your loan balance rather than shown as a separate line item, so most homeowners never see it broken out.
How is the embedded fee dollar amount calculated?
Multiply your loan amount by the dealer fee percentage. A $31,135 loan at a 22 percent dealer fee has $6,850 embedded in it, funding the sales commission stack rather than the physical system.
Why is the average dealer fee rising in 2026?
IntegrateSun's analysis puts the average solar loan dealer fee at roughly 22 percent in 2026, within a cited 20 to 35 percent range, as rising customer acquisition costs and margin compression push installers to lean harder on the dealer-fee-funded commission structure to keep 1099 sales reps in the field.
What does the dealer fee actually pay for?
It funds the entire door-to-door dealer network commission stack: the setter who books the appointment, the closer who runs the in-home consultation and signs the contract, and the regional manager override on top of that. None of it goes toward panels, inverters, or labor.
How does this compare to buying appointments directly?
This calculator divides your embedded fee dollars by VA Horizon's $249 flat rate per booked appointment to show how many appointments that same money could buy directly, with no dealer network commission stack in between. It is a comparison of what the fee funds today against what it could fund instead, not a claim that every dollar converts one for one.

Skip the dealer network. Buy the appointment directly.

VA Horizon books exclusive, double-confirmed solar consultation appointments at a flat $249 per booked appointment, plus a flat $300 one-time setup. No-shows are replaced free. Book a 15-minute call to see your exact rate.

Book a Call

Recommended next steps

Continue with the most relevant next step

Solar Tools Solar Setter Pipeline Calculator Solar Insights How Solar Appointments Work