Review for Direct Energy Solar (formerly Astrum)

05/23/2015
Anonymous

Seeing a sunny day in a whole new way

Seeing a sunny day in a whole new way<br /><br />That was the slogan emblazoned on the side of the small fleet of trucks and vans that rolled up to our home last year to begin installing 37 solar panels on our roof. Now, exactly one year later, I feel I have enough data and personal involvement to tell you about our experience and what we learned.<br /><br />We'd been thinking about ‘going solar' for a few years but, like many others, had procrastinated because it was a big investment and we could never seem to convince ourselves that we had done quite enough research. My thinking was that the decision to spend this money, or invest it, if you prefer, was equivalent to the decision to buy a car. The average residential solar installation in the U.S. has been running between $25,000 and $35,000 for the past three years, so the comparison to buying a new car seemed about right to me. However, and this is a big however, imagine that the United States government was willing to chip in 30% toward the cost of your new car, and the New York State government was offering an additional $5,000? Both were the case, and that got my attention.<br /><br />So began our due diligence. When people buy a car, they generally have a preference for a particular manufacturer. They may also know and trust a local dealer and have a good idea of what product features they prefer. They probably also have a basic understanding of the purchase options and finance details, should they choose to take out a car loan.<br /><br />Not so with solar. The questions for a first and likely last time solar buyer abound: Who makes these panels? What kind of warranty do they carry? How will I know if they are performing properly? What maintenance must be done? Who services these things? How do they install them on my house? Who sells them? Who comes to my home for one to three days to drill holes in my roof and put wires and cables in the attic? How do I connect to Central Hudson? Why does the Town of New Paltz need to be involved and will they increase my taxes if I make this improvement to my home? How much will all this cost? How can I be sure I'll be getting a good price? If you are not discouraged by these questions, read on because my wife and I found that simple, straightforward answers were readily available. <br /><br />We found it useful to break our research down into three basic areas: Product, Provider and Price. It took only a few hours on the internet to learn about solar panels in general and to get a handle on what we would actually be purchasing and paying for. The simplest, clearest description of the Product and what it is you will actually be buying can be found on the Live Science website (http://www.livescience.com/41747-best-solar-panels.html)/ Basically you must first learn about the product manufacturers, and this site helps with that issue. In the old days you probably would have gone to your parents for advice but it's not as easy as that with solar panels because your mom and dad have probably never purchased any. When I grew up, families ‘believed' in a car company. My dad only bought General Motors products so you won't be surprised to learn that the first car I ever purchased was a 1963 Chevrolet. Since solar panel manufacturers are not familiar household names like those of car companies, we need sources such as Live Science to help us identify a quality product. <br /><br />Moving on to Provider, we were amazed at the wide variability in the quality and integrity of companies that would be more than happy to send someone to climb up on your roof and install a solar system. Having already done so much research on the product, however, made the selection of a vendor much easier. We started out with a list of six companies, and found that they varied from the sublime to the ridiculous in terms of the effort they invested in learning about our home site, electricity usage and financial situation. Our extensive research on the product meant that we actually ended up knowing more about solar panels than the sales representatives of three of the six potential providers we initially contacted. <br /><br />We first met the provider we eventually settled on at a community street fair in Westfield, New Jersey, so don't worry as much about how you first hear of the company as how well its representative communicates with you, listens to you and provides clear, easy to understand answers to all your questions. The provider we chose required, yes required, that we have a technician visit our home to survey our roof to determine if it would provide a good base for a solar installation, where the wires would run, and measure the actual hours of sunlight on the available roof surfaces, taking into account any tree shade. Other potential vendors were happy to send us a complete contract for signature, having never even talked to us personally. <br /><br />Although choosing a provider is critical, it turns out really not to be that difficult. As with the purchase of a car, it boils down to a question of trust. In addition to being impressed with the information he had gathered on our house and property, when we learned from the provider we chose that any employee who entered the living area of our home would be required to wear booties, my wife was ready to sign on the dotted line.<br /><br />Determining the best Price was the final step in our decision-making process. By that time we knew that trusting the product and the provider would be reason enough to pay a little more, if absolutely necessary, in order to feel confident that we were making the right choice. In this regard, we found the website of the “Union of Concerned Scientists” (http://blog.ucsusa.org/cost-of-ins$25, talling-solar-panels-635) most helpful. As solar vendors make their sales pitch, forget all the mumbo jumbo about the equivalent of sticker price. It is as meaningless as the sticker price on a new car. Who cares what discounts a car dealer gets? All the customer really cares about is how much he or she is going to end up paying for the car, so the simplest number to use as far as I'm concerned is “cost per solar panel”.<br /><br />To the bottom line<br /><br />Installation of the equipment and wiring for the 37 solar panels began in early April 2014, and the system was totally up and running by April 30, at a cost of $24,976. We reported this amount on Form 5695 of our 2014 federal tax return and received a Residential Energy Efficient Property credit of $7,493. The Solar Energy System Equipment credit provided by New York State was $5,000. This resulted in a net cost for our solar project of $12,483, or $337 per solar panel.<br /><br />Our solar provider estimated that our panels would produce close to 10,000 kilowatt (kWh) hours per year. The actual production from April 30, 2014 through April 30, 2015 was 9,184 kWh. Considering the rough winter we just had, we are satisfied customers. However I will say that the other side of “seeing a sunny day…” is “seeing a rainy, cloudy or snow-covered roof day in a whole new way.”<br /><br />Please don't tell me you purchased your panels for less. That would really ruin an already cloudy day.