Ground-Mount Solar: Fixed-Tilt or Tracking?

How can the homeowner compare the actual proposal records, including the mounting category and configuration each names, while marking missing or noncomparable details unknown?

Compare the written offers

Create two columns, one for each actual proposal. At the top, copy its title or number, bidder, date and revision if stated. Keep the original files alongside your notes; label absent information “not stated.” Use the same fields in both columns:

• The bidder’s stated production estimate and the assumptions attached to it.
• The quoted scope, total price and exclusions, using the proposal’s own wording.
• Who the proposal names for service and maintenance, and what responsibilities it actually describes.
• Open design or approval questions and any person the proposal identifies to answer them.

This is a transcription of two offers, not an independent check of their claims. Do not supply a missing value from a sales conversation you cannot document, calculate an adjustment to make the columns match, or treat a blank as zero. If two documents conflict, retain both versions and mark the entry unresolved.

What does DOE’s category explanation leave unanswered for a particular property, and who can clarify each open proposal question?

Resolve the differences before choosing

Read each pair of entries together. Where the wording, assumptions or included work differ—or one side says “not stated”—mark the pair “not yet comparable.” Send the open question to the bidder responsible for that proposal. For a design or approval issue, ask which qualified project professional will address it and request that person’s written response. This guide does not assign legal responsibility or determine required approvals.

A usable question is: “Proposal A [title; date/revision] states [exact estimate and assumptions]; Proposal B [title; date/revision] states [exact estimate and assumptions, or ‘not stated’]. Are these based on the same scope and assumptions? Please identify the current documents and explain any difference in writing before I choose.” Fill the blanks only from your records; the example supplies no figures or claimed result.

Add the reply date, respondent and applicable document version to the open entry. If the reply changes a proposal, request the revised document and keep the superseded version. Recompare the affected fields; a response about one offer does not resolve the other. Hold the decision while an answer needed for your comparison remains open.