Impact Solar LLC

I had been kicking around the idea of solar for a while and then I walked by a solar sales guy at my local Costco. Got a quote and it ended there. The price was astronomical. plus, I needed a new roof. 8 months goes by time to do the roof no choice now. walked by a different sales guy in Costco same company, slightly better quote but still may make sense. So, I started doing more research. I called 9 different companies and spoke to 9 sales guys. Only one that didn’t sound like they were selling me was Jeff over at Impact Solar. In fact, Impact was recommended by the roofer. I almost had a done deal with another company who was decent and gave me some good things to think about. Also helped that their price for better equipment was WAY less than that Costco company (we all know the one). But after speaking with Jeff and him going into more detail and answering every stupid question I had and giving me even more info about things I didn’t think about I decided to take the next step. Jeff scheduled a site visit (had 4 others done already). Rob showed up, Rob is the owner and walked me through everything during the site visit. He also did things others didn’t. He measured the sun and shading showed me what it looks like, talked me through what he thought would work best and how to go about it. I was amazed at all the little things no one ever bothered to explain that I wouldn’t think to ask. I called back others to ask questions and started getting the feeling that they were fed up with me not moving forward and asking again to explain certain things. That was a big turn off for me. I spoke some more to Jeff asking the same questions and digging deeper. Jeff was always professional always happy to explain and always got an answer for me on technical stuff if he didn’t know. So finally, I felt like I was making the right choice after multiple equipment choices back and forth. I got the QCell Qtron 425 and the Iq8M inverters which I felt was the best combination for what I wanted to achieve. We worked out the final price and I was happy where I was. (Impact happened to also have the best price) They also had a very good payment process and what I mean is that you make 3 payments. 10% down at contract signing (which by the way is 4 or 5 pages not 50) contract is also written in plain language and Jeff worked with me to make some changes so I would be happy with it. 60% due at install (that’s when the panels are on the roof and tested) and the final 30% is due once you get the approval to operate. This keeps the contractor honest and interested to get you to the finish line so they can get paid. Rob told me he wants the customer to feel like the company has skin in the game and something to lose if they don’t finish. Thats amazing in my opinion and keeps them honest. Once I signed the contract and made my initial down payment it was a matter of just waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Did I mention waiting. But not for Impact they got right to work. I had the pleasure of dealing with Michelle who was just as amazing as Jeff. She walked me through the steps we needed to take. First, they sent me paperwork for my Utility application and paperwork for the NJ Application and paperwork for my permits with the township. I spent time waiting for the paperwork to get processed but not for Impact. Every time something moved forward and they can action another step I was contacted within 1 day so they can keep it moving. They also coordinated with the roofers and most importantly they scheduled the roof and solar install in a way that they can run wiring while the roof was up and open so as to hide as much as possible. Once I got all the Oks and the Permits and the approvals in place things moved fast. Roofers were out within a week and Impact was on site to do their piece while the roof was wide open. Rob and team showed up and got right to work. Not only that but because I lost power several weeks before due to a storm, I had impact also run a generator plug for me. Let me tell you they did an amazing job. And the box was installed as if it always belonged there. All the wiring is hidden nothing running across the roof or down the side of the house everything is tucked away or in the rafters. I don’t know how they did it but its is Super Clean. After that they were out for 2 more days to finish the panel install. Rob walked me through the next steps, showed me how everything is supposed to work. Tested the panels and was on his way. (I left the panels on, and watching the old meter spin backwards is very nice). Michelle immediately scheduled all the inspections at the earliest possible date so we can finish everything and I just had to wait for the township to show up and issue approvals. Michelle was on site for the inspections to make sure it goes smoothly. We hit a small snag, but a quick photo that day got everything approved. Next day I picked up the certificate of approval so as not to wait for snail mail and Michelle efficient as always immediately got part 2 of all the applications moving with the Utility and the State and a week later, I was approved to operate. 2 days later they swapped me for a smart meter and here we are a month after. Of course, nothing is perfect and we did have an issue. The new Enphase gateway monitoring clamps were defective. Sean who was behind the scenes almost immediately got one of the techs out here to figure it out and fix the problem. They said the new clamps were good but sometimes they fail and the consumption is not reading correctly. They swapped the clamps and now several weeks later the issue is gone and hasn’t been seen since. While this is a bit of an annoyance to both me and Impact the fault is not with the company at all and the fix was very quick once we saw it happen. However, that was just a wrong reading on consumption. The system was still working properly and the Utility was getting the right date, the Enphase app that I see was getting the wrong date. Not the end of the world and it was fixed quickly. Now I am just waiting for the State which I was warned will take several months to get my SREC number so I can sell the SRECs. Impact and the whole team is amazing, they were thorough, honest, professional and answered all my questions no matter how many times I asked. And when you are buying Solar which cost thousands upon thousands you need to ask questions and be satisfied with the answers. You aren’t buying a phone or a toaster you can replace in a year. This is a 25-year investment. And for me it is a great investment. So far, the daily production on a nice sunny day is above what was expected, on a partially cloudy day, it is what I expected from a sunny day. And when it rains, well I get some production but its raining and no sun out. If this keeps up, I believe I will hit my target numbers for the year. Especially since I have an East facing roof and not a South facing roof. The system price does not include the 30% federal tax credit or any of the SREC I expect 35 Q-Cell QTron 425w Panels iQ8m microinverters expected to get 15+ MW/yr.