Craft Quantities
Plan & Takeoffs

Quote check

Check a solar panel and battery quote

Paste the quote you were given and enter your measurements. Every line is read against the job: what the quote leaves out, what it adds, which quantities sit outside the computed range, and what to ask. Quantities only — never prices.
  • 1Line the job needs
  • 5Measurements
  • QuestionsNever a verdict

How the quote is read

Each line of a solar panel and battery quote is matched to the line of the job it names, or marked as something the Solar panels (PV) with battery storage takeoff does not measure — labour, removal, hire, fees, or anything else. Work the takeoff lists as part of the job but gives no quantity for is read as that work, not as something the quote adds.

The job’s own figures come from 5 measurements — scaffold along the wall below the array, height to the eaves, weeks the scaffold stands, roof the panels cover, loose waste, as a depth over the panels — run through the same calculators as the takeoff, so the two give the same figure for the same job.

Reading a solar panel and battery quote

A solar quote rests on a design, and its figures are worth having in writing: the panels by make and output, how many and on which faces of the roof, the inverter and the battery by make and capacity, and the yield the installer expects from this roof with its shading. Worth asking whether the layout keeps the clearances the local rules ask for, and whether anyone has looked at the rafters where the roof is old or has been altered.

The lines round the panels are where two quotes for one array part company. Worth seeing each one named: the scaffold or other access and how long it stands, the roof hooks or mounts and who replaces a tile that breaks, the route the cables take down through the house, the isolators and labels, a new consumer unit if the old one cannot take the system, the battery's place with any alarm the rules ask for there, and bird mesh round the edges if it is wanted.

The paperwork decides what the system earns and whether it may run at all. In the UK, worth confirming the installer's MCS certification, who notifies or applies to the network operator and when, and whether an export limit is expected; in North America, who pulls the permit, who books the inspections and when the utility's permission to operate is expected. Worth asking as well how the system is monitored, and what the panel, inverter and battery warranties each cover and for how long.

Three steps

  1. Give your measurements. The page opens on a typical job so it has something to show.
  2. Paste the quote's lines as they came, or add them one at a time. Leave the prices in — they are taken out, never read.
  3. Read the report: what is left out, what is added, what sits outside the range, and one list of questions to send.

Your quote

The solar panel and battery quote you were given

Paste from an email, or open or drop a PDF, Excel, CSV or text file, or a photo of the quote. Amounts of money are taken out before anything is read — this page compares quantities, never prices.

Nothing you paste or open leaves this device.

or one the job needs:

The reading

What the quote says, against the job

Solar panel and battery · Scaffold along the wall below the array 33 ft · Height to the eaves 16.5 ft · Weeks the scaffold stands 2 · Roof the panels cover 220 sq ft · Loose waste, as a depth over the panels 1 inScaffold along the wall below the array 10 m · Height to the eaves 5 m · Weeks the scaffold stands 2 · Roof the panels cover 20 m² · Loose waste, as a depth over the panels 0.03 m

  • What it leaves out

    Every line the job needs that nothing on the quote reads as, with the quantity your measurements produce.

  • What it adds

    Lines this job's takeoff does not measure — labour, removal, hire, fees, anything else — each named for what it is.

  • What sits outside the range

    Quantities above or below the computed range, by how much, in the quote's unit or converted and shown.

  • What to ask

    One list of questions, in the quote's order, ready to copy and send. Questions, never a verdict.

Paste the quote above, or add its lines one at a time. The reading appears here as each line is read.

Outside what this takeoff measures

8

Nothing in the reading measures these. Whether the quote covers each is worth asking in its own right: a scope missing from a quote tends to become a cost after work has started. Why each is left out is on the takeoff.

  • The design of the system and its figures
  • A structural check of the roof and any strengthening of its rafters, which is flagged; and roof repairs found when the tiles come up, such as broken tiles, rotten battens or perished underlay
  • The network operator's or utility's approval itself, any export limit it sets and any larger supply it calls for; the notice or application is listed
  • The supplier's or utility's work on the meter, such as a smart or bidirectional meter fitted for export
  • Deciding where the energy store may stand beyond naming the rules that decide it; a smoke or heat alarm those rules ask for is listed
  • An export tariff, a grant, and the paperwork for either, beyond what the installer hands over
  • A ground-mounted rack, frames ballasted on a flat roof, solar water heating (solar thermal), and a charger for an electric vehicle
  • The scaffold's design and its inspection record, which are the scaffolder's

The reference

Every line the reading looks for

For Scaffold along the wall below the array 33 ft · Height to the eaves 16.5 ft · Weeks the scaffold stands 2 · Roof the panels cover 220 sq ft · Loose waste, as a depth over the panels 1 inScaffold along the wall below the array 10 m · Height to the eaves 5 m · Weeks the scaffold stands 2 · Roof the panels cover 20 m² · Loose waste, as a depth over the panels 0.03 m. Each is the calculator linked under it, run with those measurements; a range is that calculator at both ends of one choice, not a margin for error.

How the ranges are taken

Where the choice is cutting waste, the ends are the site’s own allowances: 5%, the tight buffer of a crew with a planned set-out, and 15%, the wider one a first-timer orders. Where the calculator decides between patterns or materials, the ends are the options it offers. Where it adds nothing for loss, the range runs from the net quantity to 15% over it.

A minimum — the fewest hangers a spacing allows, the least airflow a room needs — has no upper end. A single figure carries an allowance the material itself needs, such as a lap, and names it.

What a reading like this cannot see

  • It does not know your prices, your market, or what the work ought to cost.
  • It does not know the building — the access, the condition of what is there, or what has to happen first.
  • It cannot check a lump sum, because there is no quantity in one.
  • A line it reads as missing may be priced under another name. A quantity outside the range is not evidence of anything. Each is a reason to ask a question.
  • Two quotes are not comparable until their scopes are.
  • It is not advice, and it is no substitute for a second quote.

The full takeoff

Every quantity for this job, with its working

The Solar panels (PV) with battery storage takeoff runs the same calculators on the same measurements and shows what sits under each line here.

Open the takeoffEvery quote check

  • Base, allowance, order

    Each line's quantity before and after its allowance, and what to buy.

  • Every allowance editable

    Change a waste figure and the order follows, with its source named.

  • Into a project

    Add the whole job to a workspace with your own prices.

Frequently asked questions

What quantities does a solar panel and battery job need?
It depends on the measurements, so this page asks for yours. At the size it opens on — Scaffold along the wall below the array 10 m · Height to the eaves 5 m · Weeks the scaffold stands 2 · Roof the panels cover 20 m² · Loose waste, as a depth over the panels 0.03 m — the lines come to: Skip (dumpster) or a collection for the packaging, 0.5 m³. In imperial units — Scaffold along the wall below the array 33 ft · Height to the eaves 16.5 ft · Weeks the scaffold stands 2 · Roof the panels cover 220 sq ft · Loose waste, as a depth over the panels 1 in — they come to: Skip (dumpster) or a collection for the packaging, 0.68 yd³.
What does a solar panel and battery quote often leave out?
The reading names every line of the job that nothing on the quote reads as — the one line the takeoff measures. The takeoff also lists 8 things it does not measure, shown under the reading, and each is worth asking about: a scope missing from a quote tends to become a cost after work has started.
Can I paste the quote exactly as it came?
Yes — from an email, a PDF or a spreadsheet, one item to a line. Amounts of money are taken out before anything is read, headings and totals are skipped, and each line is shown with what it was read as, so a misreading is one correction. Quantities in the other unit system are converted and the conversion is shown; a count of boxes is never compared with a count of tiles.
Does this check the price as well?
No. It reads quantities, never prices, and this site publishes none: an installed price moves with the market, the season, the access and the specification, so a figure for what the work ought to cost would give you confidence in a number nobody can defend. A quantity against your own measurements is checkable, and every figure here links to the calculator that produced it.