I am thinking of getting Solar at my house in Brighton. Any issues with the system and would you recommend the company?
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I am thinking of getting Solar at my house in Brighton. Any issues with the system and would you recommend the company?
No particular issue, I'm with Solar City. I've got issues with my house being so old and their engineering/liability hesitations. But that's because of my house. :)
Solar system is running well, My wife mentioned something about us owing solar city a $ or something because the system over produced according to the contract. But i'll have to re-check on that.
2014 my system produced:3,214.8 kWhIf you need a referral or need to know more, PM me and I can add you to my Solar City referral/profile/sales info. no catch from me anyways. Free quotes from SC.
My neighbor drives a Namaste solar truck, but he seems young so I've never talked to him about it.
Guys were pretty young that did my install.Quote:
Originally Posted by Irving
My hang up is that I have United Power, so I have limited options compared to XCEl. I have to different purchase options for the panels, but I am required to buy them because of United Power.
Let me rephrase. He had to jump start his car one morning, so he sold it and bought something else.Quote:
Originally Posted by gnihcraes
Seems about normal for the younger crowd. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Irving
Interesting. I wonder what the people like solar city do about that? I'll ask my rep and get back to ya.Quote:
Originally Posted by KevDen2005
The local power company can tell you that you HAVE to buy the panels? I'm interested to hear more about how they can do that. Sounds like a raw deal.Quote:
Originally Posted by KevDen2005
The difference is United Power does not allow for third party ownership of the panels They are forcing you to buy them per se, but they are requiring you to purchase them and own them if you choose to get Solar. XCEL does not require that. This is the info I got from Solar City.
I guess since they are controlling the grid, they have a say as to how power gets added to it. It sounds like that is their way of ensuring that home owners who want solar power have some skin in the game.
I'm still wondering why there are not disconnection switches in our market yet.
My solar city rep says they work with United Power, but she didn't answer my question about unique requirements. If you'd like to chat with her, let me know and I'll PM her email address.
there are companies that sell you the panels for no money down
solar mart maybe?
Not "new" news but I'm excited to hopefully see details on the 30th. 10kWh battery pack...
http://money.cnn.com/2015/04/22/tech...ery/index.html
Just something I learned today. I am with Solar City. Almost the day after the panels were installed, pigeons took up residence. I did research on various barriers, and decided to call Solar City to see if any of the solutions would void the warranty.
They told me they would have a local Pigeon abatement company come out and solve the problem.
For free.
I'm also excited to see the home battery solution from Tesla. Hopefully one day I can have that done.
Has anyone on the board done a grid-tied system that was a straight purchase? That's the direction I'm currently leaning based on my situation. Solar City was not exactly supportive of this option, seems like they went out of their way to show me how it was a bad idea using "creative" financial projections. I'm planning to reach out and talk to some of the other local installers not quite as famous for the lease option to see what it looks like. I think I'll start with Namaste as they seem to be a pretty well-regarded local company. Looking for other suggestions though.
I purchased (financed) my system through Solar city. I'm not leasing. Did they give you their schpiel on the "Mypower" option?Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian
Downside of those solar panel leases
\
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/...el_leases.html
When I talked to them last, they didn't offer that option. I'm planning on giving them another shot after I talk to some other installers, but I was not impressed by the "comparison" options they gave me. They had artificially tweaked the numbers to make a purchase option look like it wouldn't provide me any financial benefit for 15 years, vs. their lease which of course paid for itself in 6years. A good portion of that involved taking the entire system cost before any rebates/incentives and dividing it into a kWh price and comparing that to the PPA price that I would pay under contract (not taking into account the initial payments involved). It could have been that I had a bad sales guy, but the numbers were definitely cooked in a way I didn't feel comfortable with.Quote:
Originally Posted by rbeau30
My dad just installed a system on his house by himself that hooks to the grid. He's been pretty happy with almost no electric bill.
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What's his hourly rate? ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Firehaus
I'm sure I could handle the technical and design work, but there's no way I'd feel comfortable walking around on my roof. With the walkout basement, it's a long way down on the side I'd be putting the panels on. LOL.
It was a pretty plug and play system he bought. You log into a website to see your output.
Only issue was the city made him hire a licensed electrician to hook it up at the meter.
He lives in Kansas.
Sounds like you'll want at least a good harness strapped to something just in case. ;)
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Spoke to Namaste today. One thing that surprised me... apparently the cement tile roof we have is a big issue, to the tune of approx $4-5k of additional subcontracted work. They pull out the tiles, penetrate the roof and re-double-flash the mounting pegs, and then reinstall the tiles. The sales rep said they would be glad to work with any other roofer if I wanted to handle it that way, but thought it was a good number to use as ballpark. He was surprised that Solar City had even given us a quote, as he thought they didn't do work on cement tile roofs.
The initial numbers were high as they were SunPower panels, etc. but I did feel like it had a lot less weird sales/manipulation going on with the numbers compared to some other quotes we've run in the past. They seem like a solid, honest shop from the brief visit I had.
Hit up TriggerHappy's roofer thread and get an opinion of a roofer you trust.