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    How Much Does a Simple Solar Site Visit Really Cost You?

    IJ

    Author: Ivan JankovFounder and CEO

    Sep 22, 2025
    How Much Does a Simple Solar Site Visit Really Cost You?

    Imagine this: it’s Tuesday morning. You or one of your employees gets in the car to check a new lead’s home. The house is within a 30-mile radius – not far – but let’s see what this “small” trip actually costs.

    The Real Cost of a Local Site Visit

    • Driving time: A round trip of 60 miles at about 30 miles per hour = 2 hours on the road.

    • On-site time: Measuring roof planes, counting obstructions, answering questions = 1 hour.

    • Total: Roughly 3 hours per lead.

    Now, let’s do the math.

    • Average solar site surveyor wage = $25/hour. With benefits and taxes = $32/hour.

    • Labor cost per lead = 3 × $32 = $96.

    • IRS mileage cost = $0.70/mile × 60 miles = $42.

    • 👉 Total = $138 per lead

    And that’s just for one single site visit.

    What If You Visit Two Sites a Day?

    Most vendors do at least two inspections daily. That’s:

    • $138 × 2 = $276 per day

    • $1,380 per week (5 days)

    • $5,520 per month

    • Over $66,000 per year in inspection costs

    And remember: 30–50% of those leads don’t even convert. That means half your time and money evaporates before you even get to send a proposal.

    Why Acting Fast on Hot Leads Matters

    When a homeowner fills out a form or picks up the phone, they’re curious. They’re interested. They’re what we call a hot lead. But interest cools quickly. If you can’t provide an estimate until days later – after a site visit, after scheduling, after waiting – chances are high that your lead will drift away to another vendor who responded faster.

    Momentum is everything. Lose it, and you lose the customer.

    How Enervio Changes the Game

    Enervio eliminates the wasted trips. Instead of burning hours and dollars on the road, here’s what happens:

    • AI-powered site analysis: Our system remotely analyzes the property – roof size, shading, orientation – without you leaving your desk.

    • Instant offers: You can prepare a personalized solar offer in just 2 minutes.

    • Lead education: Enervio doesn’t just crunch numbers. It also explains solar to your lead, gives them an estimated savings, and answers their first questions, so they feel informed and confident.

    • Better-qualified conversations: By the time your lead sees the offer, they already understand the value of solar for their home, which makes your follow-up discussions more productive and focused on moving forward.

    The Result: Faster Sales, Less Waste, More Wins

    With Enervio, instead of spending $276 every day on two inspections, you spend nothing on travel and just a couple of minutes preparing an offer. You keep the momentum, you keep your team focused on closing, and you convert more leads while saving tens of thousands of dollars a year.

    And the real difference shows when you look at cost per visit. A traditional in-person inspection costs about $138 per lead. Enervio’s packages average just around $10 per RFP - and every one comes with a full AI-powered inspection, an automatically generated solar offer, and built-in lead education. That means you save not only money, but also at least one full hour of employee time per lead.

    At 40 inspections per month, that’s a cost of more than $66,000 per year with the old way. With Enervio, the same volume costs less than $8,000 per year. That’s a yearly saving of over $58,000, plus hundreds of employee hours freed up for closing more deals.

    The old way costs time and money. The Enervio way costs 2 minutes.

    Ready to see it in action? Book a demo today and discover how quickly you can turn hot leads into happy customers with Enervio.

    Share this article

    IJ

    About the author

    Ivan Jankov is the founder of Enervio, a platform built to make life easier for solar installers and vendors. His goal is to reduce the time and effort spent at the very start of the sales process by using AI in smart, practical ways. Through Enervio, Ivan works to accelerate the global shift to renewable energy and contribute to a cleaner future for everyone.

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