The ZIPs around Rhome hold about 1,700 home lots of five acres or more, and about 7,100 of an acre or more.
It is Wise County, about forty minutes from Fort Worth.
Three electric co-ops' service areas meet around town, the ground changes from one side to the other, and inside the city new construction goes to the City Council before it gets a permit.
Three co-ops' territories meet around Rhome, so the first thing to check is the name on your bill.
In town it is usually a retail provider on Oncor's lines.
East of town you may well be on CoServ, west and north on Wise Electric, and to the south on Tri-County.
The three treat exported power very differently, and that decides how big the array should be.
Oncor runs the lines and the meter in Rhome but buys back nothing.
What an exported kilowatt hour earns is set by the retail plan you choose, and it can change when that plan ends.
Count any retail buyback as a bonus and size the array to the house.
Wise Electric credits what your panels produce at its retail rate, 11.3 cents a kilowatt hour on its solar page, and buys anything left over at an avoided-cost rate that moves month to month.
Its stated policy covers systems under 50 kW.
The co-op says there is no monthly fee to have solar.
There is a one-time $250 application fee per meter.
Production credited at retail is worth more than an export bought at avoided cost, so on Wise Electric lines the array can cover more of the bill before the extra stops paying.
CoServ buys back the solar energy it receives from you at its avoided wholesale cost, which it says is lower than the full retail rate, and bills what you use at retail.
After solar goes in, you pay CoServ's $10 monthly customer charge and a $15 monthly DG customer charge.
Exports earn the wholesale rate on CoServ lines, so the array is sized to what the house uses.
Tri-County pays an avoided-cost rate for exported power, set and published month to month, for members who added solar from March 1, 2024 on.
Credits are settled each March, with the balance paid by check.
A monthly minimum, the customer charge plus a distributed generation charge, applies to solar members and cannot be paid with export credits.
Each meter the system connects to has its own application fee.
On Tri-County lines the array is built for the house's own use, because what you sell back earns less than what you buy.
Every North Texas provider's terms are on one page: what each utility pays for exported solar
The City of Rhome issues its own permits and uses a third-party inspector.
It works to the 2021 building codes and the 2020 electrical code.
We found no solar page.
The city's accessory-building packet says all new construction inside the city limits needs City Council approval before a permit is issued.
The same packet keeps a detached accessory building out of the front yard, at least five feet off the side and rear lot lines, out of any easement, and no taller than sixteen feet.
Whether the city counts a ground mount as an accessory building is not stated, so we ask before we draw.
The permit office closes at noon on Fridays.
Outside the city limits you are on Wise County land.
The county engineer's page lists a floodplain development permit and a driveway permit, and we check with the county for your parcel.
Septic rules and the utility's approval still apply.
Inside the city, the council step comes before the permit.
We put it on the schedule from the start.
Rhome sits where two kinds of ground meet.
We ran 113 points of the USDA soil survey within six miles of town.
East of town, every point on mapped land came back with dark clay topsoil, and a quarter of them reach bedrock inside three feet.
West of town, more than eight points in ten are sandy, and not one hit rock.
North and south of town fall in between, mostly clay with some sand.
Across the 112 points on mapped land, about two in three have dark clay topsoil and about one in six reaches bedrock inside three feet.
Heavy clay rises and falls with the rain, so an east-side foundation is set below that movement.
West-side sand trenches quickly, though a deep run wants its walls watched.
We read your parcel's soil map before we price the foundation or the trench.
Pointed south at thirty degrees, an array around Rhome makes about 1,556 kWh a year for each kW, so a 10 kW system comes to roughly 15,600 kWh a year.
Across our five points, the middle of town and three miles out each way, the north point did best and the west point least, less than two percent apart.
That is not enough to pick a side of town for.
The co-op on your bill and the soil under the array matter far more, and the design tool runs your own coordinates.
Texas law stops an HOA banning solar outright, but lets it keep a ground mount inside a fenced yard and no taller than the fence. What an HOA can and cannot do
About half the houses in the ZIPs around Rhome went up in 2000 or later.
The city's own permit form says a permit does not override deed restrictions, so if your land is in a subdivision, read its dedicatory instrument early.
Where a fence line does govern, we bring the tilt down on the same frame until the array fits under it — about fourteen degrees puts four modules below six feet.
No holes in your roof, panels aimed south instead of wherever the house faces, and room to add panels when the load grows. Ground mount vs rooftop
Inside the city limits, the city's accessory-building packet says all new construction needs City Council approval before a permit is issued.
Outside the city limits it is a county question, not a city one.
We confirm which side of the line your land is on first, then put the council step on the schedule.
Look at your bill.
East of town it may well be CoServ, west and north Wise Electric, south Tri-County, and in town a retail provider on Oncor's lines.
Wise Electric credits production at its retail rate with no monthly solar fee; CoServ and Tri-County pay a lower avoided-cost rate for exports.
That changes how we size the array.
It is different on each side.
East of town is all dark clay, and a quarter of the points there hit bedrock inside three feet.
West of town is mostly sand with no rock at the points we checked.
Clay and rock shape the foundation; sand makes the trench quick.
Your parcel's soil map settles it.
The city publishes no solar rule.
Its accessory-building rules cap a detached building at sixteen feet and keep it out of the front yard and five feet off the side and rear lines.
If the city treats your array as an accessory building, those apply, so we ask the city before we draw.
The towns nearest yours with a page of their own.
No salesman. No home visit to get a number.
