Occidental Power

Run away from this business. Fast. We have paid them close to $25,000 for a battery backup. After 5 months on the job, the battery fails on several levels: it fails to provide the backup power during a power outage, it fails to come back on after a power outage - it took an engineer a whole week just to get it operational again. Since then, the battery went offline at least 6 times. When the battery does come online after a power out, it trips our GFCI, indicating improper wiring. To date, it did not pass inspection by the city! The owner refuses to take any responsibility, and unfortunately, it looks like we will need to be in a legal battle with him. Again, run.

Run away from this business. Fast. We have paid them close to $25,000 for a battery backup. After 5 months on the job, the battery fails on several levels: it fails to provide the backup power during a power outage, it fails to come back on after a power outage - it took an engineer a whole week just to get it operational again. Since then, the battery went offline at least 6 times. When the battery does come online after a power out, it trips our GFCI, indicating improper wiring. To date, it did not pass inspection by the city! The owner refuses to take any responsibility, and unfortunately, it looks like we will need to be in a legal battle with him. Again, run.

Run away from this business. Fast. We have paid them close to $25,000 for a battery backup. After 5 months on the job, the battery fails on several levels: it fails to provide the backup power during a power outage, it fails to come back on after a power outage - it took an engineer a whole week just to get it operational again. Since then, the battery went offline at least 6 times. When the battery does come online after a power out, it trips our GFCI, indicating improper wiring. To date, it did not pass inspection by the city! The owner refuses to take any responsibility, and unfortunately, it looks like we will need to be in a legal battle with him. Again, run.

I received a few bids from various solar companies, and oh man, I've always regretted choosing Occidental. They are really unprofessional and they don't , in my experience, offer a price point that can't be bested by companies that will do a far better job (I know this because I recommended other bidders on my job to friends and they found these other companies to be entirely professional and of higher quality). I would stay far away from Occidental. The project install was a total debacle. They had a crappy electrical contractor that worked with them. They did crappy, crappy work leaving wires dangling; even one of their own technicians saw the work and exclaimed that it was horrible. What's worse was the cost of that contractor was an add-on, undisclosed until right at install time. They had switched project plans without discussing matters and then called me the day of install and asked me where I wanted to put the massive inverter for the project. They hadn't told me there was an inverter to install, since the earlier project plans had panel-by-panel inverters. So I'm at work having to make a decision remotely about where to put a piece of equipment (that is an eyesore) without any notice. There was zero project management. I had wanted to monitor my solar output directly, but again, it wasn't until install day that they told me I'd had to have Cat-V cable run to the system. I should have known they were either flaky or lazy or just unprofessional or both. It doesn't surprise me that other posters aren't having their warranties honored. Now I can say honestly that the system itself on top of the roof has seemed to operate well, so I guess it's not a total loss. But it all could have been so much better. Stay away from them.

I received a few bids from various solar companies, and oh man, I've always regretted choosing Occidental. They are really unprofessional and they don't , in my experience, offer a price point that can't be bested by companies that will do a far better job (I know this because I recommended other bidders on my job to friends and they found these other companies to be entirely professional and of higher quality). I would stay far away from Occidental. The project install was a total debacle. They had a crappy electrical contractor that worked with them. They did crappy, crappy work leaving wires dangling; even one of their own technicians saw the work and exclaimed that it was horrible. What's worse was the cost of that contractor was an add-on, undisclosed until right at install time. They had switched project plans without discussing matters and then called me the day of install and asked me where I wanted to put the massive inverter for the project. They hadn't told me there was an inverter to install, since the earlier project plans had panel-by-panel inverters. So I'm at work having to make a decision remotely about where to put a piece of equipment (that is an eyesore) without any notice. There was zero project management. I had wanted to monitor my solar output directly, but again, it wasn't until install day that they told me I'd had to have Cat-V cable run to the system. I should have known they were either flaky or lazy or just unprofessional or both. It doesn't surprise me that other posters aren't having their warranties honored. Now I can say honestly that the system itself on top of the roof has seemed to operate well, so I guess it's not a total loss. But it all could have been so much better. Stay away from them.

I received a few bids from various solar companies, and oh man, I've always regretted choosing Occidental. They are really unprofessional and they don't , in my experience, offer a price point that can't be bested by companies that will do a far better job (I know this because I recommended other bidders on my job to friends and they found these other companies to be entirely professional and of higher quality). I would stay far away from Occidental. The project install was a total debacle. They had a crappy electrical contractor that worked with them. They did crappy, crappy work leaving wires dangling; even one of their own technicians saw the work and exclaimed that it was horrible. What's worse was the cost of that contractor was an add-on, undisclosed until right at install time. They had switched project plans without discussing matters and then called me the day of install and asked me where I wanted to put the massive inverter for the project. They hadn't told me there was an inverter to install, since the earlier project plans had panel-by-panel inverters. So I'm at work having to make a decision remotely about where to put a piece of equipment (that is an eyesore) without any notice. There was zero project management. I had wanted to monitor my solar output directly, but again, it wasn't until install day that they told me I'd had to have Cat-V cable run to the system. I should have known they were either flaky or lazy or just unprofessional or both. It doesn't surprise me that other posters aren't having their warranties honored. Now I can say honestly that the system itself on top of the roof has seemed to operate well, so I guess it's not a total loss. But it all could have been so much better. Stay away from them.

I was lucky to meet Occidental Power. My wish is that they install a PV system on every home in San Francisco. I hate Enron Corp. and all their Energy-Back-Door-Deals that bankrupted the State of Calif and led to an actor being our Governor.

I was lucky to meet Occidental Power. My wish is that they install a PV system on every home in San Francisco. I hate Enron Corp. and all their Energy-Back-Door-Deals that bankrupted the State of Calif and led to an actor being our Governor.

I was lucky to meet Occidental Power. My wish is that they install a PV system on every home in San Francisco. I hate Enron Corp. and all their Energy-Back-Door-Deals that bankrupted the State of Calif and led to an actor being our Governor.