Kasselman Solar

Not so smooth install, a year and half later roof leaking

Spent a lot of time planning where equipment locations were to be installed. Come install the solar box was installed completely off the plan in a different location. The wiring was sloppy at best. They fixed the wiring but box stayed where they installed it. Just looked in my attic for a different reason noticed the conduit location that the solar wiring comes inside through is now leaking. Correspondence has been sent to Kasselman with no response.

Good product - Bad communication

The Good - Had panels installed in 2016 and was very happy. Greatly reduced my electric bill, looked great and worked as they should. Loved the individual inverters and the fact the connections ran through the roof rather then down the side of the house. The $32 K price tag was not the cheapest of the companies I got quotes from, but I liked the product and they were reputable. The Bad - When installing the panels I informed the salesman I would need to replace my roof in 5-10 years. He said no problem, happens all the time - for $500 they would remove, store & replace the panels after the roof was installed. When the time came to replace my roof, Kasselman said this should have had that written in my contract and it would actually cost me $2000 to have them removed, store them on my property and replaced. I already had my roofers scheduled, so it was either use Kasselman or forfeit the remainder of my warrantee. The Ugly -Terrible service! first they left all the mounting hardware in the middle of my yard 3 days before Easter. Screws, bolts, wirecaps all thrown around for me to pick up so my dogs could use the yard safely. They would make appointments to reinstall the panels then not show up. It took a letter to the company president to finally get a crew to come and install my panels and then - THEY PUT THEM IN THE WRONG SPOT! We live in a log cabin so aesthetics were a big factor in the panels we chose. when they replaced the panels instead of centering them like they were, they placed them in the far left corner making the house look lop sided. They offered to fix it but the thought of having a few hundred extra holes in my brand new $20K roof talked me out of that. It is obvious to me the profit margin was not great enough for them to take my project seriously.

Poor communication. Misleading

I was really disappointed with the communication. The person that worked on my project mislead me 1x. That was not necessary. He had me believe we was at one step when we wasn’t. I realized I was mislead because he told me a different story a few days later. Things weren’t being done in a respectable time frame. I had to continuously call send emails in order to get things moving. We were stuck on roof weight load for more then a month. It seemed like things was not being done until I called for the 1st 2months. When I called Thats when I would find out information was needed. That was mind blowing to me. I was in disbelief that a company knows info was needed and would not contact me. I felt like Kassleman did not want my business. I was frustrated I ask to cancel this project twice. Then he would give info and move things along. After my solar was installed I found out my system will never achieve its max output because inverter is oversized. When the inspector came he wrote down I had a 5k system. My paper work says I have a 6k system. Customer should not be given that type poor communication. Especially when the customer is being as helpful as they can be. I got whatever info needed they day I was informed. My excitement I had for going solar was ruined. I’m satisfied now that it’s actually completed. Kassleman solar should communicate better.

meh.

meh. The positive, Customer Service was great, always quick responses. Install, when it happened, was quick. The negative, lack of communication. Suggestion for Kasselman, create a page for customer to visit to see project status and updates. Was not expecting 3 months to complete project and still unclear whether this will qualify for the 2020 tax credits. Here's hoping! All for a very expensive, and thus far, poorly working east facing solar system. Real world results, underwhelming. If your roof is east facing, think again before installing solar. The 7.125 kWp system they installed for me will well below the 6,946 kWh/year (+ or - 10%) quoted in my Solar Proposal. The last 30 days saw 45 kWh produced...or on a cloudy day like today 885 wH...not even enough to cover running a single small space heater for the day. Granted the summer months should see better results but at this rate 45 kWh x 12 months = 540 kWh...well shy of the 6,946 kWh/year (+ or = 10%) pitched. Lastly. If using their financing connections there may be additional charges for NSEA and VSECU accounts/memberships as well as costs to the utility company for power generated prior to net meter install. If I had it to do again, I would have stayed with DIY.