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| - Hi all. Wanted to give a 6 month update - pros and con's and some good tips. I apologize to folks that sent me messages directly, I didn't realize how yelp messages worked.
First off, getting electrical construction stuff done to your house is very difficult. There are lots of permits and approvals required. Be prepared for a lengthy process of getting plans approved, work scheduled, inspections scheduled and approved etc. It took a while for ours to get done, but it was worth the wait. Our roof has flat cement tiles - easier to walk on and install stuff on, I'm not aware of any damaged tiles, but if your roof has those beautiful curved tiles, I would expect a harder install process as one reviewer can attest. I think that Solar City should send their "crack" team of repair dudes to that guys house to make it right and post new pictures of nice matching tiles.
Pro's: The panels are installed and working like they should. We are satisfied with their performance and we are seeing cost savings every month. I can't tell how much because we were on the monthly average plan, so we still have a positive balance with SRP. Our monthly balanced payment amount was 225-240 per month year round. We are paying less than that every month with the summer rapidly approaching.
I contacted Solar City a few times and got good service every time. Once to ask about the "flip the switch" to activate the panels ( I thought I was supposed to do that but there was one final inspection by SRP and Solar City remaining - they came out, did the inspection and they flipped the switch).
Another time was to express my indignation about a 15 dollar surcharge added to my bill because I did not allow them to withdraw directly from my bank account. I had set up an automatic bill pay yet that wasn't the same thing to them. The 15 dollar surcharge is in the contract, so while I was unhappy about it, I did sign the contract. I found a solution. I have multiple bank accounts (due to relocating to Phoenix) and one is my active account and the other has a small savings and check balance to remain active. Now I send a "payment" to my secondary account and let them take their money from the secondary account. They get their money, I save 15 dollars and my main checking account is isolated from "auto debit" robots.
You are helping reduce the load on the grid during peak times! This helps avoid citywide brownouts because of too much demand and not enough coming from the power plants. SRP will have to shut down one of their big coal plants soon (thanks EPA) and that means more stress on their grid. Anything to reduce that stress is a good thing, and we are going green to boot...
Con's: You have installers up on your roof putting stuff up there. Not every install team is comprised of anal-retentive engineers, so be prepared for the possibility of a bit of stuff left laying around (there is a water bottle that fell onto a lower level that is still there, a couple pieces of scrap that fell from the roof etc). Nothing that was worthy of a complaint call, but just know that construction is messy.
I'm not seeing evidence that SRP is "buying" our excess electricity, they install these new electronic meters, so you can't see the wheel spinning backwards and the numbers count in reverse or anything like that. Our typical bill from SRP has a solar connection fee of about 17 bucks, and a small balance of electricity that we purchase, so maybe there is some magical process that happens.
It will take some time from the day that you sign the agreement to when they go live. Ours went pretty quickly and it was still around 2-3 months from signed deal to generating electricity. A friend's took more like 6 months, but they are generating electricity now too.
Tip: Remember that you signed an agreement to buy the electricity from your panels - use it! It took us a while to get into the mode of running stuff during the daylight hours (dishwasher, laundry, pool pump, and we keep the AC about 4-5 degrees cooler during the day now). Even doing all that stuff during a sunny day, we generate more than we use (but just barely).
Solar City has met every obligation, treated us with respect, and even sent us a referral check as they advertised. Read the contract, understand what you are agreeing to and call them if you have questions - they are decent folks.
Hold your head up! You are helping the environment, helping reduce strain on the grid and saving money on your bills - all good things.
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