What happens when the grid goes down
A grid-tied system without storage disconnects during an outage. People reasonably assume panels plus sunshine equals electricity, and it is far better to learn otherwise now than during a July afternoon.
If keeping part of the house running matters, ask any installer to be specific. Which circuits stay live, for how long at a realistic load, and does the battery recharge from the array while the grid is down. Those differences compound over a long event.
Be concrete about the load. A system keeping a fridge, some lighting and a few outlets running is a very different proposition from one attempting to run central air conditioning in desert heat, and that conversation belongs before the contract rather than after.
Ask how a battery sized for outage cover compares with one sized for everyday bill savings, because they are frequently not the same system and knowing which you are being quoted is essential before comparing prices.
Where a battery also earns its keep
New customers enroll in Tier 4, which credits excess energy at 75 percent of the retail rate, while electricity consumed as it is generated avoids a purchase at the full rate. A battery closes that gap by holding production for the evening rather than exporting it.
Ask for that as arithmetic rather than a recommendation: how many kilowatt hours per year would move through the battery, the value difference between exporting them at 75 percent and using them later at retail, the cost of the storage, and the period over which the difference repays it.
Treat the bill saving and the outage cover as two separate answers even though they come from one piece of equipment. Buying for one and being disappointed by the other is a common and entirely avoidable outcome.
Ask what maintenance a battery needs, what its expected life is, and what the warranty covers and for how long. A battery is a shorter-lived component than the panels and that belongs in the arithmetic.
Heat, and who permits your project
Panel efficiency falls as cell temperature rises, so the hottest afternoons are not the highest-producing ones. Ask what temperature assumptions sit behind your production estimate and how the mounting handles airflow beneath the modules.
Ask to see monthly production figures rather than an annual total, since the annual number averages away exactly the season you most care about.
Confirm which building department has jurisdiction over your address, since much of the Las Vegas valley outside the incorporated cities is unincorporated county land permitted through the county rather than a city.
Agree in writing who files the permit and who schedules inspections, and ask for the expected date of permission to operate rather than the installation date. Only the second earns you anything.
The tier you join, your association, and the federal credit
New Nevada customers must enroll in Tier 4, which credits excess energy at 75 percent of the retail rate, and keep that tier for a period of 20 years at the location where the system was originally installed. Earlier tiers credited 95, 88 and 81 percent and closed in August 2018, June 2019 and June 2020.
Because exports are credited at 75 percent while electricity you consume as it is generated avoids a purchase at the full retail rate, ask your installer to model the self-consumed share explicitly and value the remainder at 75 percent rather than at retail.
On associations, NRS 111.239 makes void and unenforceable any covenant that prohibits or unreasonably restricts an owner from using a system for obtaining solar energy, and treats a restriction reducing the effectiveness of the system by more than 10 percent as unreasonable. If a committee proposes moving your array, have your installer model both placements and put the difference in writing.
There is also a route that does not require litigation: under NRS 701.180(6) the Director of the Governor's Office of Energy shall make a determination within 30 days if asked to decide whether an unreasonable restriction has been placed on a solar energy system. Separately, the 30 percent Residential Clean Energy Credit under Section 25D expired for property placed in service after December 31, 2025.