SolarFlair Energy, Inc.

The original installation process went very smoothly, however,, A few years after the panels were installed, a leak developed at one of the punctures for the panel mounts. we first called back the roofer to see if the leak was not due to the solar mounts, but he confirmed that the leak was indeed right under one of the mounts. SolarFlair came to take a look and applied a product to the interior of the roof which did nothing to stop the leak, they came back and applied roof tar on the outside which again did not stop the leak. this process has been very frustrating for the lack of communication, the slowness and incomplete response to the issue. They've closed out the work each time they've done something before veryifying that the leak has been fixed (it still has not been fixed). The company had taken over 9 months from our inital call, and we still have a leaking roof. we have very little communication from SolarFlair as to what actions they have taken, and what next they could do. it seems clear that part of the roof needs to be replaced to fix the leak.

Long story short: a good to great product; an ulcer-inducing company in terms of process and scheduling. I chose SolarFlair because my city selected them for "Solarize Somerville" and the prices/terms were excellent. SolarFlair got to aggregate many customers in one town, saving them tons of time and money on customer acquisition costs. In return they gave deep discounts on the installation and pricing which made it more do-able for homeowners. Great deal, right? Solar Flair salesman was great! "Everything will be wonderful. Your installation will be completed in plenty of time before bad weather sets in. We have worked many times with metal roofing, we understand how important it is to work closely with the roofers and we will schedule and work cooperatively with them. We know how important it is to finish work on metal roofs before cold/wet weather sets in. There are federal and other deadlines, no worries, we will meet all those in plenty of time." I signed the contract on August 31 and paid my deposit confident that it would be straightforward to get my new roof and solar panels done in a timely way. Instead it was a frustrating, nail-biting, roller coaster ride to get the project done on time with MANY calls and emails having to be made to SolarFlair office. Some of the people in the Solar Flair office were terrific - Tayler, Krystal, and a few others knocked themselves out to help me. But the site assessor (comes to spec out the job, get the info the designers need to design where and how your panels will get installed) was careless. He did not measure or photograph my odd non-standard rafter placement, even when I pointed them out to him as a possible challenge and said "Feel free to measure and take pictures." "Oh, I've seen it all before [in old houses like this], no need" said he. Guess what! 3 months later my "missing rafters" occasioned a big delay because the design for placing the roof brackets had to be redone. WHO COULD HAVE POSSIBLY GUESSED it was important to measure the rafters during the initial pre-design site visit? (Sarcasm alert). Imagine my surprise when this same individual returned to my house when I finally, finally, finally arm-twisted the company into redesigning the installation to fit the rafters as they actually exist, and into finally, finally, finally actually installing the roof brackets when my long-suffering roofer was able to send his guys back just to accommodate Solar Flair. The formerly not-ready-for-primetime site assessor, was now the on-site installation manager guy! I was glad that the roofer's highly trained crewpeople were the ones doing the drilling and flashing, while Mr SolarFlair was inside my attic directing their drills to actually hit the rafters. I went back to work thinking all was well (at long last). Imagine my surprise when it turned out that he departed the job telling me everything was done but he did not actually finish it, and he would not be coming back! Not being a solar professional, I accepted when he said "We are all done here" that that meant he had actually finished the whole bracket installation. The roofers are mostly not English-speaking and they didn't know he wasn't coming back either. Had I known, I would have called SolarFlair and raised heck til the dam' installation was truly finished. The roofers' time is money, too, so they just finished the roof off with a whole section that was missing having its solar brackets installed. Imagine my horror to find out that Mr SolarFlair Can't-be-bothered-Installation Guy was planning, later on, to "instruct" 2 of Solar Flair's many workmen who had never ever worked on this very technical kind of metal roofing, how to open it, flash it, and replace it so they could finish the bracket installation job he did not finish himself! I insisted that they get the instructions not from Mr. I-can't-be-bothered, but from my very conscientious and highly trained metal roofing company owner. My roof has warranties that can be voided by improper installation from people who do not know what they are doing. And this seemed like a set-up for a spectacular fail thanks to Mr.I-cant'-be-bothered from SolarFlair. More time went by... more anxiety and drama because every time there would be a weather delay, SolarFlair instead of bumping me from Monday to Tuesday, they would say "The next time we can come back is a week from Thursday." NO!! Bump your customers in order! As weather and other delays got worse, on a metal roof the cold and wet is far more problematic than ordinary asphalt roof (really its only major drawback). SolarFlair had promised me they would get my job done well before the bad weather... and we were now into December. Also the tax benefits and SRECs benefits had strict deadlines. I worked my way up the phone food-chain to the SolarFlair Vice President trying to get them to just finish my job before we missed all the deadlines. When he balked, I went to Somerville City Hall. The Office for Sustainability, who had awarded SolarFlair the citywide solarization contract, made some calls and magically Solar Flair adjusted their installation crew's assignments. It wrecked my Christmas because I had to stay home instead of visiting my family out of state. Any day SolarFlair might or might not show up! And they had to! It was right down to the wire. SolarFlair finally finished the installation on December 31, 2016, the very last day to meet the tax deadline. They got it online in early January, the very last few days in time for meeting the SRECs deadline. Then we had a several-weeks discussion going on because the City didn't think all the inspections have been signed off on, and Solar Flair thinks they were. We finally got that resolved. The process was hair raising, stressful, disturbing, and ulcer-producing. I fault the company for that. It takes a number of people working incompetently to achieve this level of miscommunication and bad scheduling. Good stuff is really good. The actual Solar Flair personnel doing the work on my house (except Mr. I-can't-be-bothered) were all wonderful and nice, very personable and polite. They all appeared to care about their work. Some of the people in the office were really dedicated and hardworking also. The final installation appears beautiful. I paid extra for made-in-USA black panels that will produce more per panel, and look excellent compared to the more common cheaper made-abroad blue panels. I am happy with my choice of panels. Electricity production started the instant my utility company approved having the system turned on. Our electric bill for January was 50% the usage of the prior year; February was just 5% of the prior year; and March, we had a $48 CREDIT instead of our usual March bill of $55 to $78. Reasons to smile. As the days get longer and the sun is closer overhead, production should continue to improve. Long story short? Great product. Terrible process. I was told that most people in my town got good product and a fairly reasonable process. However, I was talking to a friend in a distant town, that also picked SolarFlair to solarize their community, and learned their entire town suffered through the exact set of communication/scheduling/blaming everyone else/lack of responsibility that mirrored my experience. Caveat emptor. I hear that some other Massachusetts-based solar companies provide a great product AND a good, no-ulcer installation experience.

unknown

This was a scary purchase for me, since solar electric systems are pretty complex (so I wanted to make sure to get somebody who knew what they're doing, rather than learning on my house) but are also pretty new (so I couldn't just get recommendations from neighbors). I signed up with SolarFlair through a town-wide program, figuring the town sponsorship provided some assurance. The installation went very smoothly, in part because SolarFlair seemed to do very detailed design work in advance and in part because the installation crew was very capable of figuring out the remaining issues. Their workmanship exceeded expectations -- their wiring was some of the neatest I've ever seen, and when they had to make holes in walls they patched things up so cleanly I could barely tell they'd been there. I was worried about roof leaks, but they sealed things very well, and we didn't have any problems through the horrible New England snow and ice storms of 2015. The documentation binder they provided with the system was terrific, and they took care of all the registrations I needed to qualify for various credits. The system has been up and running for a year and a half now, and it has been producing more than SolarFlair estimated, which has been a pleasant surprise. On a couple of occasions I've contacted them with follow-up questions and they've been responsive. Bottom line: This was a scary project, but it turned out to be surprisingly painless and the results have exceeded expectations. SolarFlair made everything easy for me as the homeowner, they did quality work, and the system has been performing great. They deserve a clear "A" in my book.

unknown

It was really expensive but their technicians are very knowledgeable.

unknown

They made the process of choosing and getting installed a large solar installation extremely effortless and enjoyable! I would recommend them highly.

The company was the most professional of the three that I contacted. One of the three I contacted, however, would not do the job because of the trees that were blocking the sunlight. Solarflair did not have a problem with the trees, but did let me know it would be my responsibility to have them cut down. What they did not tell me (and fortunately the tree people did!) was that it is not legal to cut down the trees without a permit. Solarflair had me deal with the town conservation commission (even though Solarflair had dealt with them on at least one prior job), who let me know that it was extremely unlikely that I would get a permit to cut the trees. Solarflair subsequently cancelled the job. However, after cancelling the project, they did bill me $1,340 for the 27 hours of time that they had logged until that point. The 'F' for price is because the only thing I got for the $1,340 was the answer that the project was not viable, yet I did all the work to find that out. And, they could have gotten enough information with a 10 minute phone call to let me know that it would potentially be a problem (letting me decide whether or not to pay to find out more). As a homeowner, I had no idea that I would need a wetlands permit to get the PV system installed; as PV installers, they really should know that! They knew the trees had to be cut, they knew there was water back there. That said, if the conservation commission had OK'd the project (or if they had accepted responsibility for the snafu, and not billed me), I have a feeling that I would have given Solarflair all A's. Everyone I spoke to was very professional, and they seem very competent.

They did a very good job. They were very neat and clean. The quality of their work was very good. Everything turned out wonderfully.