Sunlight Solar Energy, Inc. (Portland)

A warning to anyone considering using Sunlight Solar Energy of Bend Oregon. I had a small system installed on my home in Colorado TWO years ago; a location they no longer service. They installed the system on my roof which was 18 years old, and not in the correct condition ( of which I was unaware) to accept panels as the roof was not well ventilated because of short cuts in the building process. The damage was obvious to every single roofing contractor that came to look at it. I could not detect the damage because the pitch of the roof is extreme. After calling several other reputable solar companies, they all made clear it is an industry standard to not install a roof older than 10 years and all companies advise homeowners to have the roof checked first before installing panels. Never once did Ryan Campbell the installer speak to me about the condition of the roof, which had many years worth of damage. His goal was to get the panels up, take my money and disappear. And disappear they did. Ryan's number disconnected, and the Colorado website page for Sunlight has one digit off so that you can't reach anyone that way either. I did however find a way to contact Paul, the president of the company, and ask for help in getting the panels de-installed and reinstalled after the roof gets replaced (on my dime) given they did not discuss the roof with me prior to install. He first agreed to help me by finding a solar company to take the panels down ( a cherry picker is required because it it so steep $$$$$$) and then refused to help at all a few days later. As someone who runs a small business, I am disgusted. I would never treat a customer this way. As a homeowner, and a professor of environmental sociology who professes the value of solar, I am enraged. This company is awful. Steer as far clear of them as you can. There are other companies deserving of your business.

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Sunlight were outstanding from start to end. I work in the renewable energy business so I was a savvy and probably more demanding and higher maintenance customer than average. They went out of their way to make sure I got the best price and service. They also produced the most conservative estimate of the three bids while in my opinion providing the most effective and likely highest performance combination of layout, panels, and inverter. Yes, a lower a the competition estimate of annual yield is a good sign from a solar installer. It means they are not seeking to win your business by over promising and then under-delivering once the check has cleared. Remember you installer doesn't control the solar resource - a higher estimate might mean they're using better panels but it might also mean they're just trying to look better than the other bids. I asked for apples to apples assessments with the same equipment in order to control for this. So far my system has out performed the Sunlight estimates every month and Sunlight has got all my tax paperwork done ready to claim my rebates in the spring. There were a few minor hiccups along the way, like the meter taking more space inside than I expected and a problem that manifested itself during inspection but in all cases Sunlight employees took responsibility and rectified the problems without me having to do any more than say, hey I don't like it there, or can you fix the inspection problem as quickly as possible. The answer was always of course you are the customer and we want you to be happy. I recommend without any hesitation. I'd also like to add that if you are on the fence about going solar, just do it. Trust me, with the current Oregon incentives the economics work. The only reasons not to go solar are that you have trees shading your roof or you don't know about it. If you're reading this you have only shading as an excuse.

We had several panels black out in the 1.5 years since install. Our old contractor would come out fix the panels, only to have one die a short time later. During our pre-Sunlight Solar days, our panel array was fully functioning 60% of the time. Finally, the micro-inverter manufacturer became tired of reinstalling one or two inverters at a time and decided to ship out 12 new micro-inverters. Since our original installers (Livelight) had gone belly-up, Sunlight Solar stepped in and reinstalled everything. I found out from a Sunlight Solar employee that the original installer had installed all the micro-inverters upside down causing the panels to sit directly on them making the seals crack! The Sunlight Solar crew were very professional. They do need to work on their clean-up, though.

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Company never contacted us.

Regretably, the solar resource measurements revealed insufficient sunlight was available to qualify for the energy credit. Prior to these final measurements, I was prepared to enter into a contract for a 3.0 KW system. I worked with Chance Currington from Sunlight Solar Energy. He was very knowledgable and spent a good deal of time trying to design a system that would qualify, discussing options, preparing estimates, and answering my questions. The estimates looked reasonable and were lower than those from the other two contractors I was working with. I appreciated Chance's energy and professionalism, and was sorry it didn't work out favorably for me and Sunlight Solar Energy.

They were clean, professional and pleasant. The whole crew was top notch and the crew leader was Chance. They do come out before to make sure it would work before they would even install the system. They supplied some software so I can see what I am generating month to month for our usage. I still have some energy generating on a cloudy rainy day. I would highly recommend them.

First, let me say that Sunlight Solar Energy went above and beyond in making sure that we were able to add a second PV system. We had limited space for the solar panels, limited solar resource and were up against tight deadlines. Chance Currington, the system designer from Sunlight met with us several times to work out a configuration that met our requirements given the panels that were available and still maximized use of the available solar resource. As I found out, this was not a trivial exercise but Chance did a great job in making our system happen. Chance also made sure that we met the requirements for state tax incentives which were in the process of changing while we were designing the system. Chance made sure that the application was processed in time for us to get the best incentive - even though we had to change the design several times because panels became unavailable. Chance worked with the Energy Trust in a similar fashion. Our system was unusual because half of the system qualified for full incentive and the remainder qualified for less than the full incentive. This was unusual but he worked the issues with the Energy Trust. Chance also made sure our system was installed before code changes would have reduced the size of our already small system. The installation itself went extremely well. The installers were very professional. I made a couple of special requests which again were above and beyond the call and the installers happily honored those requests. And the panels and wiring look great! (I have seen other systems installed by another company that didn't look so good.) Queena, at the office, did an excellent job in making sure the paperwork was submitted properly. Again, because of our unusual system, this required more than the usual attention to detail. In closing, I want to say I had almost given up on this system in dealing with another company. The other company basically said to forget it. Chance and Sunlight Solar came in and made it happen! I couldn't be more pleased. (Note: the cost above is after incentives - the dollar amount is somewhat more because not all of our panels qualified for a full Energy Trust and Oregon State tax incentives which I understood going into this.)