AES Ohio, and why the state rule is only half the answer
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio governs solar interconnection and net metering for four investor-owned utility groups: AEP's Ohio Power Company, Duke Energy Ohio, AES Ohio, and FirstEnergy's three Ohio utilities. Dayton falls under AES Ohio, so anything you read about a Cleveland, Toledo or Cincinnati project is describing a different tariff.
What the state does settle is the crediting rate. The Ohio statute requires credits be valued at the full retail rate, and excess credits beyond a monthly bill roll forward as kilowatt-hour credits to subsequent months rather than converting to cash payments. Retail-rate crediting is a good arrangement and better than what new customers face in several neighbouring states.
What the state does not settle is what happens to a balance at the end of the year, and that is where tariffs diverge. Some Ohio utilities reset accumulated credits to zero at the end of a 12-month period, forfeiting any remaining balance; others permit indefinite rollover. Ask AES Ohio directly which applies to your rate and what date the 12-month period ends.
That answer is the input to the system size, not a detail to confirm afterwards. Under a resetting tariff the right design matches twelve months of your own kilowatt hour totals, because anything beyond is surrendered annually. Under indefinite rollover you can reasonably build a little ahead of a known future load such as an electric vehicle or a heat pump.
One of the better solar resources in the state
Plan on roughly 1,251 kilowatt hours a year for every kilowatt installed on a well oriented, unshaded array. That is toward the upper end of the Ohio range, and it means you reach a given annual production with fewer panels than in the north of the state.
Treat it as a ceiling for your address rather than a forecast. It is a screening figure derived from irradiance data with a standard performance ratio applied, not a measurement from Dayton roofs, and orientation and shading will move your real number below it.
Orientation is the first thing to get right, because no equipment upgrade compensates for a poor plane. A south-facing unshaded plane produces the most, east and west planes produce usefully but give up output, and a north plane rarely repays the hardware.
Shading is the most expensive variable, because it takes production out of the middle of the day when the array would otherwise be strongest. Ask for an assessment that covers the whole year rather than the hour of the site visit, and check the roof covering age at the same time, since panels outlast most coverings and replacing one afterwards means removing and reinstalling the array.
Who gets to decide in Dayton
Single-detached houses are 63.8 percent of Dayton's 70,335 housing units per the Census Bureau's 2020-2024 American Community Survey estimates. For nearly two thirds of households the roof and the decision belong to one owner, and quotes are worth collecting straight away.
Apartments in buildings of 20 or more are 9.0 percent, where the roof belongs to the building owner rather than to a resident. The route there is a written proposal covering cost, ownership of the equipment, insurance and roof replacement, put to the owner. That is a different piece of work from getting three quotes, and the owner's economics rather than yours will drive the answer, since they hold the roof and usually the account any generation would offset.
If you rent a house rather than an apartment, the same logic applies in a simpler form: the conversation starts with the owner, and it is worth asking early rather than after you have collected quotes you cannot act on.
The federal credit no longer applies to a purchase
The 30 percent federal residential tax credit under Section 25D applied through December 31, 2025 and is not available for a purchased home system placed in service after that date. A purchase in Dayton today cannot claim it.
That is a material change rather than a technicality, because the credit was large enough to carry a substantial share of a residential project. Removing it lengthens payback, raises the effective cost of each kilowatt hour saved, and weakens the case for adding a battery.
A great deal of published material has not been updated. A quote, a guide or an online calculator that still applies the credit may simply be out of date, but the payback figure that follows is wrong regardless. Ask any installer to rebuild the arithmetic without it, from retail-rate credits under the Ohio statute, your own AES Ohio true-up terms, and the electricity you stop buying.
If you go solar through a lease or a power purchase agreement instead of buying, the provider may claim the business version of the credit under Section 48E and reflect part of that value in the rate they offer you. What they claim and what actually reaches you are separate questions, so put both to the provider and confirm with a tax advisor rather than with the sales material.