Even though I'm not a tree hugger, the math has really started to work in favor of rooftop solar and electric vehicles, so I made the jump into both before the end of the tax year. I got proposals from four local solar installers for our house. Most of them were some sales dog-and-pony shows with pretty pictures showing you that installing your system will take 1.2 cars off the road for 25 years, but glossing over the hard facts you really should know before plunking down cash on PV install.
I'm an engineer and like to nerd out on price per kilowatt installed, kWh per year, breakeven time, and return on investment, among other things. I had a TON of questions and back and forth with every company for close to a month. I also did a lot of research on forums such as Solar Panel Talk.
I went with Brighten Solar for these reason:
1) Price. Brighten had the best proposal in dollars per kilowatt. I normally wouldn't just go with the lowest bid without everything else looking good, which is why the points below are important too.
2) Communication. Jeremy was very easy to get hold of over phone, text or email. He also answered all of my questions fully and without bother. Don't let his French accent throw you off at first!
3) Knowledge. Since Jeremy is an engineer he was able to answer in technical terms instead of sales talk. He warned against a few things other installers wanted to do, like installing in a location that would have shadows during part of the year. He also was one of the only installers to find a way to use our existing 100A panel without a costly upgrade to a new panel.
4) Materials. Brighten proposed top of the line LG panels with Enphase microinverters, whereas other proposals were going with cheaper panels and inverters.
5) Craftsmanship. I spoke to three of the referrals Brighten listed, and looked at some photos and the installs were fairly clean. I made it known I wanted a clean install because I've seen some fugly installs. Sure enough it was a clean install with very little conduit.
We had our system permitted, installed, signed off by SCE, and fully producing power in less than 4 weeks. I was pretty happy about that and would fully recommend Brighten to anyone considering rooftop solar.... read more
Type: Residential Electric
Reviewed: 12/20/2016
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