A CLEARER PICTURE / SEPTEMBER 12, 2026

Solar savings.
Without the fine-print surprises.

ArumSolar's calculator is a transparent starting point for a residential solar conversation in Alberta. It is not an engineered production forecast, utility bill replica, binding quote or investment recommendation.

Three different things happen on your bill.

Use solar as you generate it: buying fewer kilowatt-hours can avoid energy charges and applicable consumption-based delivery fees. Send surplus to the grid: exports earn the retailer's energy credit, not a refund of all delivery charges. Stay connected: fixed connection and retailer charges continue, and imported electricity still attracts applicable delivery charges. Treatment depends on the wires owner and tariff class. See the AUC's billing explanation.

What the regional presets include.

The EPCOR Edmonton residential preset uses January 1, 2026 base rates: distribution $0.01783/kWh, transmission $0.04050/kWh, and fixed distribution $0.72856/day. Sources: EPCOR DAS-R distribution tariff and SAS-R transmission tariff.

The ENMAX Calgary D100 residential preset uses January 1, 2026 base rates: distribution $0.015477/kWh, transmission $0.038996/kWh, and fixed distribution $0.769463/day. Source: ENMAX 2026 distribution tariff. Current schedules and riders are available from ENMAX and EPCOR.

These are base-rate snapshots, not complete current bills. Local access fees, balancing pool allocations and other riders are not preloaded. Enter genuinely per-kWh adjustments under other variable fees, and flat charges under other fixed fees. Percentage-based charges are not modeled. GST is excluded. A $10 monthly administration charge and 10-cent energy rates are illustrative defaults. FortisAlberta, ATCO and other regions require your own tariff inputs. Retailer and wires provider are not necessarily the same company.

How the model moves energy.

The calculator steps through 8,760 synthetic hours. Annual consumption is spread across a winter-weighted seasonal profile and either a daytime or morning/evening household pattern. Solar follows a daylight curve with deterministic variation between days. Monthly generation shares from January to December are 2%, 4%, 7%, 10%, 13%, 14%, 14%, 12%, 10%, 7%, 4% and 3%. These are illustrative assumptions, not observed weather data.

The editable 1,150 kWh/kW/year starting yield is a planning assumption, not a city-specific forecast. Generation is capped at the modeled array rating. Roof direction, tilt, shading, snow, soiling and equipment losses can substantially change output. A professional roof study should replace the example yield and profile. Natural Resources Canada's solar resource tools explain how location and orientation affect photovoltaic potential.

Solar supplies simultaneous household demand first. Remaining solar can charge the battery, limited by available capacity and total battery/inverter charging power. Remaining surplus is exported. The battery then serves unmet demand within its energy and power limits; the grid supplies the rest. This model never charges from the grid or exports battery energy. Short bursts of demand, inverter-specific clipping, tariff arbitrage and backup events are not modeled.

16 kWh does not mean 16 kWh of daily savings.

Nominal capacity is reduced by the editable depth of discharge and reserve settings. With one 16 kWh unit, 90% depth of discharge and a 20% reserve of usable energy, daily cycling capacity is 11.52 kWh before conversion losses. The example 90% AC round-trip efficiency is split equally between charging and discharging. The modeled cycling store begins empty and carries energy between days. Backup reserve is held out of the cycling model, not offered as free energy.

Battery value compares the same array with and without storage. Charging gives up export credits; discharging avoids imports. This is why a battery can have a small or even negative bill-saving contribution on a high-export-rate plan. Backup resilience may still matter to you, but no dollar value for it is included. The example 5 kW system limit is not an inverter or battery specification.

How costs and seasonal plans are calculated.

Each month's modeled cost equals imported kWh multiplied by the import energy and applicable variable delivery rates, plus daily and monthly fixed fees, minus exported kWh multiplied by the export rate. Annual savings equal the no-solar baseline cost minus the modeled system cost. Export credits can make the modeled balance negative; the calculator does not promise cash payouts or a particular retailer's credit settlement.

When seasonal mode is selected, the illustrative April-September rate applies to both imports and exports. Outside that period the regular entered rates apply. The no-solar comparison retains the regular import rate all year. Actual plan eligibility, switching dates, admin charges and credit terms must be confirmed with the retailer. No retail plan is endorsed or automatically selected.

Simple payback is the entered installed quote divided by positive first-year bill savings. Keep the quote on the same pre-GST basis. This ignores financing, grants, maintenance, degradation, replacement, changes in rates, future cash-flow discounting and resale value. It is not a lifetime return calculation.

Existing homes and new builds.

The residential planner adds only planned annual demand excluded from the base figure. Existing homes can use measured bills; new builds need a supported projected load calculation. Floor area alone cannot establish demand. The 1,150–1,300 kWh/kW/year Calgary/Airdrie screening band does not model a particular roof, orientation, shading or snow.

The roof preview packs modules in usable rectangular roof-plane areas after exclusions, using exact supplied module dimensions. It chooses one orientation per rectangle. It does not calculate mandatory setbacks, approve attachment or structure, design electrical strings or substitute for permit drawings. Do not overlap roof rectangles.

Backup estimates distinguish a full bank from the reserve that may remain when an outage starts. They assume a constant essential load and no recharge. The proposed N3H-X16US reference sheet distinguishes 16 kW grid output from 13 kW backup; additional batteries do not increase that inverter limit. Battery current, BMS, surge and ESS siting/approval remain separate checks.

Adding a plan to the enquiry includes an editable summary and structured planning inputs. They are sent only with the contact form, stored in the private enquiry queue and imported into the installer workspace as reported information. The team must verify them before a proposal.

Product and installation transparency.

The calculator begins at 530 W because that is ArumSolar's proposed panel configuration. Confirm the exact 530 W model, dimensions, datasheet, suitability and Canadian approvals with the supplier. Sunman's eArc product page describes the product family. The Sunman picture represents the product family, not a verified 530 W SKU.

Amensolar battery imagery shows the AMF16000 as a 16 kWh example. The exact supplied battery and inverter models must be stated in your proposal. Manufacturer specifications can differ between revisions and regions. Cold-weather siting, approved equipment combinations, permitting and electrical design require professional assessment. No claim of whole-home backup or automatic operation in Alberta winter temperatures is made.

Micro-generation sizing is subject to the wires owner's review. Systems are intended to meet all or part of the site's annual needs; documented future loads may be assessed case by case. See Alberta's micro-generation guidance.

AI conversations and your information.

The optional ArumSolar AI advisor sends your questions through this website to our privately hosted Qwen model over an encrypted private network. Do not include account numbers, payment information, passwords or other sensitive identifiers. You do not need to provide a name or email address to ask a question.

If you select “Include my current calculator inputs”, your annual electricity use, panel count, panel watts and battery count are sent with each question. These are planning assumptions and do not submit an enquiry. The website keeps recent messages in temporary server memory for up to 30 minutes so the conversation has context, using an essential, secure session cookie. A restart can end your session early. Start over clears the website session; it cannot erase any separate infrastructure or model-server logs. We do not promise that infrastructure logging is disabled. No conversation is automatically submitted as a sales enquiry. If you request a human follow-up, review your questions and contact details before submitting the separate enquiry form.

AI answers can be inaccurate and are not professional electrical advice, a binding quote or guaranteed savings. The advisor cannot change utility plans, book work or operate accounts. If it is unavailable, the calculator and enquiry form remain available.

Sources, imagery and your information.

Prepared by ArumSolar for this planning tool, with sources accessed September 12, 2026. Tariffs and product details should be confirmed before purchase. Product imagery depicts Sunman and Amensolar equipment. The home hero is an AI-generated concept illustration, not a photograph of an ArumSolar installation.

Calculator inputs are processed in your browser and are not submitted by the calculator. Download creates a local CSV. Selecting the proposal link adds a summary to the enquiry form; it is sent only when you submit that form. Do not include payment information, account passwords or utility account numbers.