AKEENA SOLAR

Excellent except work was delayed for unknown reason, almost lost time of use with PGand E

We have a solar system that is 12 years old. When PGand E recently installed our and quot;smart meterand quot; one of the inverters stopped working. (the inverter converts the electricity from the solar panels to AC current for use in the house) The company that originally installed our system is no longer in business so we called Akeena Solar, now called Westinghouse Solar. The receptionist was very helpful and connected us with their service technician, Frank. Frank spent about 30 minutes guiding us through a possible fix for the problem; that fix did not solve the problem so he gave us the telephone number of the manufacturer who could mail us the appropriate part. And, Frank sent an email with instructions on how to install the part when it arrived. There was no charge for the call. If we need a new inverter we will probably call this company.

I ended up not buying systems from them as I went with another contractor. I had an estimate from them and at that time the options in terms of what they could do for us, price wise and number of panels was not matching our needs. They are high pressured and part of their sales was phenomenal which I appreciated but afterward they got pushy. I will probably look for another estimate from them if needed.

They were very efficient, prompt and finished the work on schedule. I did not have any problem with their work so far. They were a little expensive. The experience with the salesman and the person who came to install was positive. However, the experience with the project manager was not very good.

We got our solar panels. Hopefully they will serve us well, and live up to their value estimates. However, to do again, we would have gone with our in reality lower quote, Solar City.

I contacted Akeena early 12/07. The system was finally up and running in 9/08 and does not produce the levels I was led to believe it would. The first, minor, problem was that I had to intervene in the conduit layout design to keep it from restricting the rain run off a flat roof. The first major problem was that only after I had purchased the components and they were delivered did I learn that the installers thought my roof was not in shape for solar. This was after I had raised the issue with the salesman and was told "No Problem." Their recommended course of action was to have me replace just the roof under the panels. No roofer would touch the idea, and it appeared in hindsight it was just a move to preserve the deal. I opted to replace the roof even thought it had a few good years left. We lost a lot of time unsuccessfully trying to find a roofer who would do just part of the roof, then the time and expense of actually replacing the entire roof. On 5/19 the system was finally installed and the City signed off. PGand E has 30 working days to inspect the system after they receive the paperwork from Akeena. I could never determine from Akeena when the clock should start. Lots of finger pointing between the two organizations. Well after 30 days PGand E started raising the issue of a dog in our backyard. We would put him in if they would call, but they don't make calls for systems under 10KW! The A/C disconnect switch was inappropriately put inside the fence and needed to be moved outside. I prevailed when I made it clear that you could reach over the gate and turn it off. PGand E relented and hooked us up on 7/16. On 7/20 I called to tell Akeena that I was only getting 1/3 of my production. Many technical people came out and scratched their heads. On 8/1 they changed my inverter, but they couldn't convince me that the new one was right. Turns out it wasn't, and I hassled them until they came out with a third inverter on 9/3. On 9/10 they had the gall to send me a "Market Research" survey disguised as a Customer Satisfaction Survey. It took about a week for the system to get to it's stable operating level, short of the production level specified, so my pay back time is longer than promised. They either have a performance level/expectations setting problem or a payback model problem. The project management was non existent or incompetent. I had to do it all myself. I finally was able to talk to the CEO who took very little responsibility for my problems.

The representative was punctual, very knowledgeable, thorough and professional and his presentation was excellent. He was able to compute and provide me a quote before leaving the premises which I thought was excellent, a feat none of the 3 other firms bidding on this project was able to match. Akeena's system price was among the lowest (around $22k before discounts, rebates and credits) and it was a tough call on my part, but I chose not to use Akeena mainly because their smallest system consists of 16 panels and I was aiming for an even smaller one consisting of 10 panels.

I had a very mixed experience with Akeena. On the plus side, their installers did a good job and I have nothing but praise for the quality of the system installed. Also they handled processing of both the California Solar Initiative rebate (so I wasn't out the money during the application period) and the PGand E application itself and those went smoothly. Unfortunately there were three big problems: 1) Akeena estimated 3835 kwh/year worth of generation for my 3 kw system (10.5 kwh/day) which seemed like an appropriate number given that we use about 5500 kwh/year worth of power. But so far, after three months, the system has averaged 18 kwh/day or 6570 kwh/year which means they were off by a factor of almost two in their power estimate. And yes it will generate less power during the winter months but not half as much. This means I should have saved several thousand dollars and gone with a 12-panel 2kw system instead. They should have known better. 2) All of their initial pay-back estimates were based on the PGand E E-7 rate plan which expired before they installed my array. Instead I ended up on the less desirable E-6 schedule. Given how oversized my array ended up being, this isn't the problem that it should be but expectations were not set correctly as they should have known that E-7 was about to go away. 3) Finally, my contract with Akeena included a 200A upgrade for my electrical panel, needed to tie in the new inverter into the system. When it came time for their subcontractor to do the work, Akeena called me to tell me that there was a problem because the subcontractor wanted more money for my job than Akeena had factored into my signed contract. Akeena initially asked me to pay the difference and this took several calls to resolve; they eventually found a different subcontractor to do the work and agreed to eat the remaining cost difference. Very unprofessional even if eventually they did do the only legally and ethically appropriate thing. In summary, while I think you could safely use Akeena given the high quality of their installers (assuming you completely rely on your own power generation estimates), I think you could do better. This was in real contrast to my roofer (Los Gatos Roofing) who exceeded expectations in every respect just prior to this work.

They did a fantastic job. It looks better than I had anticipated. After I got the approval from the Home owners association, Akeena came through and got the work done in about two weeks. The actual construction was done in two days. The job ended up being much better than I thought it would. I would highly recommend them. They are a good company. They charged what the contract said.

Akeena has very professional and knowledgeable people. What an awesome presentation they give. We hired them for their reputation and the reports on Angie's List. We were not disappointed at all. They take care of a lot of the paperwork for permits and rebates as well. We highly recommend them! The cost we listed is about what we paid out of pocket minus the rebates.

I had a couple of solar companies come out for proposals. The Akeena guy that came out was very courteous and knowledgeable. The quote from Akeena was a little higher than the others, but they would knock off $2500 if accepted their that day, which brought their quote down to a little better than the other companies. Normally, I don't like that kind of sales technique, but the price was better and they had a short lead time, whereas the other companies had lead times of a few months (solar panels are in quite high demand these days). Also, they submit all the government paperwork and handled the state rebate, immediately crediting my bill so that I didn't have to wait for the state rebate. The installers showed up at the scheduled time. They were professional and performed the installation without any problems. Installation took 2 days. After installation, you need the city and PGand E to perform inspections. Akeena took care of all the paperwork. Inspections passed and I'm now running.

Akeena (and all other PV installers I talked to) lacked somewhat on customer education. Scheduling was easy. Installation was pretty good quality. Panels were originally oriented improperly, so my system didn't produce as much power as was quoted. They tilted the panels and now system produces as quoted. With the exception of one person, everyone I met was friendly and professional. I would do business with Chuck (the salesman) again. But, because of that one person in management, I personally would hesitate to do business with them (if he still worked there).

IT WAS OUR DESIRE TO GET THE BEST DEAL POSSIBLE IN HELPING US TO ACHIEVE OUR GOAL OF SELF-SUFFICIENCY AT OUR HOME. THAT IS WHY WE CHOOSE AKEENA SOLAR TO SIT DOWN AND HELP US MAP OUT A DESIGN FOR, INSTALL AND USE (SET UP) OUR SOLAR PANELS.