NuWatt Energy

Worst experience I've had with any business in my life.

This is the first time I've had a bad enough experience for me to go out and leave a review about what happened. I plan to file complaints with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office. If these issues continue, I may have to reach out to lawyer as well. Quickly covering the two big issues I've specifically had before going into some other general reasons for avoiding this company. 1) The install was promised to take 2-4 months. It actually took 10 months. 2) They installed a faulty system that they promised to fix and still haven't delivered. More detail on number 1: We signed a contract with them in January of 2022. The initial promised timeline for the project was 2-4 months. They missed that deadline. And every time I'd ask them about it, they'd project another 1-2 months before completion. Welp, it wasn't until November of 2022 that we were finally able to turn on the system. So we missed the whole summer and most of fall for power generation. Furthermore, upon turning on the system, it immediately ran into a software issue that took them another month to fix. Something that I absolutely have to highlight from this stage -- There was a point in the middle of that process where the project manager bizarrely tried to tell me that he never promised any timelines and he had no idea where I was getting these from. Which was truly baffling because we had all of that communication in writing. Not only that, but the contract they had me sign had the timelines! I proceeded to reply back highlighting the four times (to that point) where he promised a timeline. His response? No response. Not even a "My mistake, I'm sorry." More detail on number 2: We had our solar panels turned on for less than 6 months before the breaker started tripping anywhere from 3-10 times a week. Every time the breaker trips, we aren't producing energy. No notifications from the app either. I just have to happen to notice that the breaker tripped in order to realize we aren't producing energy. Even worse than that, there are times where the breaker will trip immediately after turning it back on, meaning we can't get our generation going for days. I contacted them about this and they agreed this falls under the warranty of the system, but they never came to fix the issue. This issue started back in early April 2023... it's now January 2024. I've emailed or called 17 times. They have given me absolutely no update and made no attempt to schedule a time with me to send the electrician. Twice they promised timelines that they failed to deliver. They promised to escalate the priority of the issue... well it's been radio silence on their part since then. This is a company that will consistently make promises which they have no intention of keeping. As I've talked to them, I've come to understand their business model is to sell whatever projects it can and just put it on a backlog of todo items that they get to at their own convenience. They don't attempt to contract new electricians as their load goes up. I really wish I had just paid the couple extra bucks for the other companies that I actually have heard good things about.

Unable to Contact as of 12/11/2023

While our system was installed correctly, it is no longer functioning properly and communicating with Eversource, via Enphase. We were told by Enphase that we needed to contact the installer and have tried multiple times to contact them with no success. We need to have this resolved ASAP since we are getting NO credit from Eversource since July 2023. This is completely unacceptable. Do NOT utilize this company.

Run Far Away!

I had an excellent experience with NuWatt right up until the ink was barely dry on the contract. I will detail the issues that I experienced, and continue to experience. I will also preface the whole thing with the fact that, at least in Rhode Island, NuWatt subcontract everything even though they claim "our installers" and "our electricians" during the sales process. It was only after the contract was signed that I discovered this. You have been warned! The contract for the project was signed on 8th July, 2022. Immediately after signing the contract, I reiterated to Adan (my sales rep) in email (having previously mentioned this in phone calls) that while my address is in East Greenwich (quote) "...we pay taxes to the city of Warwick, and therefore the permits will need to be filed with Warwick and not East Greenwich". The response was "I will put it in the notes... it won't be the first time we have to deal with it". This is important to note for later. From 15th July when Josue introduced himself as my project manager until 12th August, I heard nothing at all from NuWatt. I eventually texted Adan on 12th August to see if there was any movement with the REF grant and was told that an approval letter was expected shortly. Nothing then until 27th August when I checked in with Adan again. I was told that there had been a lot of REF applications but that something was expected soon. Nothing then until 15th September when I checked in with Adan again. I was told that they were (quote) "asking for some stuff" for the REF grant but that NuWatt would probably know something by the end of the month. Nothing then until 12th October when Adan informed me that (quote) "...we're just waiting for the permit to be approved so that we can schedule you for installation" and requesting that I initiate the first payment with Umass5, which I did. Umass5 sent payment out on 17th October. Nothing then until 1st November when I asked what was happening with the permits. I was told by Adan that they still hadn't been approved. I asked him to get back to me with any application numbers etc so that I could go and chase City Hall. Remarkably, 4 hours later, he let me know that they had been approved. On 8th November I was informed by Adan that installation was scheduled for 16th November. This was only after I asked for an update. On 15th November I texted Adan to make sure that the installation was going ahead the next day. Again, with remarkable timing, Adan had "...just got word that it looks like your installation is being pushed back to the 30th". I guarantee that if I hadn't messaged to make sure the installation was still on track, I would have been sat home the next morning waiting for a crew that never arrived. The installation actually happened on 28th November, and I have nothing but good things to say about the installation crew. Their work was excellent. I asked the electrician if he could confirm which municipality the permits had been pulled from, but he wasn't able to check. This seemed odd. On 12th December I received an update from Adan that (quote) "...there was an administrative issue with your permit, something to do with your address, which we're working to fix now". I asked Adan and Josue if the issue was that the permits had been requested from East Greenwich rather than Warwick. Josue eventually replied on 14th December and admitted that they had been pulled from East Greenwich despite the fact that I had stated on multiple occasions that they needed to be pulled from Warwick. I won't bore you with the rest of the details, but Aiman Alawa (the owner of NuWatt) got involved and assured me that this was just a blip, that it wasn't the way NuWatt usually do business, blah blah blah. I wish that was true. In April of this year one of the panels started to only produce 2/3rds the power of its neighbors. I noticed in May and notified NuWatt. On 1st June 2023 they sent out an electrcian to look at the panel, and subsequent to that informed me that Enphase had asked them to wait 24 hours and check again. I informed them on 5th June 2023 that nothing had changed, and they stated "Let us check this with EnPhase and Panasonic for further clarification and we will get back to you." Since that date, more than 2 months ago, there has been no information at all from NuWatt. The panel in question has been completely dead (zero output) since 13th August 2023. They no longer reply to emails about the problem. I am currently in the process of filing a non-responsive installer claim with Panasonic, and requesting that they assign a competent and responsive installer to diagnose and fix the problem. In short, run far, far away from NuWatt if you value your time and sanity.