Solar City

The company has amazing technology - I was a little surprised at the expense. The project management leaves something to be desired, but if you can manage the project yourself it still takes 2-3 month, but the product is great. The installation team was fantastic, the sales team is less than responsive when returning calls or checking email. Customer Service was a great asset and often got the answers or the right person to call. All in all, consultation was 3/7 - turned the system on 6/4! and that was with me staying on top constantly.

Eventually used a different solar company. Solar City's sales engineer created a system for my home which I approved and on which plan I put down a deposit. But, when final engineering plans were returned to me, the system generated a smaller percentage of my solar power needs at a higher price than was originally quoted. I complained, was told the situation would be corrected, my order got lost in Solar City's computers for over a month, but bottom line, this company never delivered what it initially promised. I feel I was a victim of "bait and switch."

It a leased, so the first thing they do is they checked your credit. Then they come out and then go through my home owners association which they are a number of other people, then they do the designs, then the approval and the instillations which takes two days. So it takes time. Then you pay a fixed rate to them. It has saved me overall $100-$150 a month. They are very professional, it durable and if there are any issued they would come out and take care of it. Very pleased.

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We got a rebate, and then we paid so much money, and so it costs us $96 a month. Our last electric bills were $18. It depends on what time of the year, this last winter it was cooler than normal, so you are going to use more electricity. It is for the long haul, it is not for the short haul, because even when prices go up, our prices will remain the same.

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As we proceeded through the contract phase we noticed the guaranteed output of the system kept changing. Each time it was lower and lower. When we talked to our sales rep he advised the initial proposal was a best case option, the one he showed us orginally. The contract had a significantly lower output. We felt, in our opinion, it was a bit of a bait and switch. It would of been better if they advised us of the two output numbers up front.

What stood out were their knowledge in the field and their customer service. We are renting the solar system so there is no upfront cost. They have a monthly fee of $75.

The installation took place in June, and then it had to sit and wait for final inspection before they could turn it on. They had to put racks for the panels and it took 2 days, but it was a huge crew of about a dozen guys, and they worked in the heat. It worked great. We lease the equipment, so I pay about $115 every month. The same time last year, the electric bill was over $300, and this year was $150. Solar City is good, and you can buy the equipment if you want to spend $30000 or $40000. They did a site visit and the engineers went over it a couple of times. We now put kilowatt into the grid. The electric company gives you credit for the difference.

The installation went well, it's been operating for a little over 4 weeks now.

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During installation, they punched a hole in the ceiling of my garage that they never fixed. They also could not seem to find the joists in the roof so they drilled many holes and pounded on the roof so hard the interior sheet rock has pulled down in many places requiring redoing of the screws, spackling and re-painting. After operating for two months, the system started to drop in output power. and Now only produces 4KW. Solar City did not notice this drop with their monitoring system. I had to call them. After about two weeks of calling and getting the run-around - "it has been sent to the technical group" - they just got it - etc etc etc. they are now going to come out a review the system in another two weeks. A cable service has better performance. I would never ever recommend these guys. Watch out! Beware? Shysters in a green truck!

That took them one day to complete. 2 or 3 installers came out. This company also worked with a roofing company who was working on fixing a leak for me around the same time.

They were so nice and so helpful and were happy to have me watch. They worked hard and did a very good job. Once TEP inspects the system and okays it, they will return to turn it on and make sure everything works.