Most people who look into solar give up somewhere in the middle. The first quote uses a roof that is not theirs, the second promises a payback that sounds too good, and a third never explains how it got to its number. You are left holding three PDFs that disagree and no honest way to choose between them. Apolaki was built to replace that confusion with a single, transparent artifact — a bill-backed readiness report that shows its work. Here is exactly what happens between the moment you start and the moment you have it.
Step 1 — Anchor on your roof and your real bill
Everything begins with two inputs only you can give us: where your roof is, and what you actually pay. You drop a pin on your home — or search your address — so we are looking at your rooftop, not a stock photo of one. Then you tell us your bill. You can type in your monthly figure, or upload a photo of your MERALCO statement and let us read the kilowatt-hours and the rate straight off it.
This matters because the bill is the anchor for every number that follows. A house paying ₱4,000 a month and one paying ₱11,000 a month live in completely different solar realities, and any tool that skips your bill is guessing. Apolaki refuses to guess. If you would like to know what to look for on the statement first, our guide to reading your MERALCO bill for solar walks through every line.
Step 2 — Look up the sun on your specific rooftop
With your location set, Apolaki pulls real solar data rather than a national rule of thumb. We combine two trusted sources: NASA POWER irradiance, which tells us how much sunlight energy actually reaches your part of the country across the year, and Google Solar rooftop data, which describes your roof itself — its usable area, orientation and the way shade falls across it.
The difference is the whole point. Metro Manila averages roughly 1,817 sun-hours a year, but an average is not a roof. A south-facing slope with no obstructions and a shaded section behind a tall neighbour will produce very different amounts from the same panels. By starting from your actual rooftop, the assessment models the energy your surfaces can realistically capture — before a single salesperson is involved.
A national average can tell you solar "works in the Philippines." Only your roof, your bill and the sun above your address can tell you whether it works for you — which is the only question worth answering.
Step 3 — Right-size the system and cost it honestly
Now the pieces meet. Apolaki matches the energy your roof can produce against the energy your bill says you use, and proposes a system sized to your home rather than to a price list. Oversizing wastes money on exports that are credited cheaply; undersizing leaves savings on the table. Right-sizing to your real usage is most of the job, and it is done before you ever talk to anyone.
From that size we build an honest cost range — using an indicative planning figure of around ₱50,000 per kilowatt installed — and a likely payback period, commonly 3–5 years for Filipino homes with a healthy daytime load. Crucially, we show the assumptions instead of hiding them. The readiness report lays out, in plain language, four things:
- What is known. Your bill, your address, the irradiance and rooftop data we pulled.
- What is assumed. The planning figures — cost per kW, performance ratio, blended tariff — and that they are ranges, not quotes.
- What needs installer confirmation. Roof condition, electrical specifics and the final binding price, which only a site visit can settle.
- What to do next. A clear, low-pressure recommendation rather than a "buy now" button.
That four-part structure is what makes the output a decision-ready artifact and not a brochure. You can hand it to a sceptical partner, a parent or an installer and everyone can see precisely where each number came from.
Step 4 — Preview the financing against your bill
A total price in the hundreds of thousands can stop a good decision cold, so the report reframes it the way households actually budget: monthly. Apolaki previews an indicative monthly payment spread over a typical term and sets it directly beside the electric bill the solar would replace.
For many Metro Manila homes that monthly figure lands at or below what they already send the utility — so instead of paying for power you will never own, you redirect a similar amount toward an asset you eventually do. We present these as illustrations, not loan offers; real rates and approval depend on the lender. The goal is simply to answer the question every homeowner asks next: can I afford this without changing how I live?
Step 5 — Connect, on your terms, and keep watching
Here is where a lot of "free solar tools" reveal their real business: they sell your details to whoever bids highest. Apolaki does the opposite. Your assessment is private until you connect. Until you decide to move forward, your information stays with you; if you choose to proceed, only anonymised rooftop metrics are shared, and only with a vetted installer, and only after you consent. We operate in line with the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (RA 10173), and the consent is an explicit step you take — never a checkbox buried in the flow.
If you do hand off, you are introduced to a screened installer who already has the structured version of your readiness report, so you skip the part where you re-explain your home five times. And the relationship does not end at installation — Apolaki is built to support later performance monitoring, so you can see whether the system is producing what the report promised, rather than taking it on faith.
Why a readiness report beats a quote
A quote tells you a price. A readiness report tells you whether that price is worth paying — for your roof, against your bill, with the assumptions in plain sight. It is free for homeowners because installers, not households, pay to be part of the network, which means the report works for you rather than for a sales target.
None of this takes long. The hard parts — pulling the irradiance, reading the rooftop, sizing the system, running the economics — happen in the background in minutes. If you would like to read more before you start, the Apolaki blog has plain-language guides on net metering, sizing and financing. And when you are ready to turn this article into a number that is actually about your home, you can run a free assessment and have your readiness report in hand before your coffee goes cold.