Paradise Energy Solutions

Positives. Fred McNeal (sales consultant) was my first contact with Paradise Energy Solutions. I've been considering Solar for are home for several years and could not get responses from any solar companies. Hence, I contacted Fred and he immediately reply for us to meet. Fred is very informative and made several trips to the home and we were comfortable deciding to go with Paradise proposal. The start of construction of the system did come with some hic cups. The installation of the metal uprights went well except for one upright went off plum. After the assembly of the frame for the array solar panels it was apparent there would be large dip in a section of the array, and I express a concern this would cause some stress in this area of panels and ask how this could be corrected. I asked if this one cross frame could be raised up to level up this section by drilling holes in upright to correct the dip. At first it was a maybe. This is where I want to mention Troy a installer from the Towanda, PA office. I do not know his last name. Troy worked out a solution that day to correct the dip, so the array was level throughout. Troy was always positive throughout the construction. A great person, professional and always answer questions I would ask. Troy went above and beyond. Also, I want to mention Bryan. Again, I do not know the last name. My understanding Bryan is from the New York office. Bryan was great installer, very friendly and easy to talk too. Troy and Bryan were two main installers. There were other installers for one day to help pull wire and it was great to have them on the site and they were also very professional. Negative. Daniel Trimm(Project Manager). My first interaction with Dan was going over the construction site. Dan walked through and discussed the location of array. In that conversation we talked about laying the conduit and the route to the house. I asked what type of equipment would be use for the trench. Dan said most likely use a trencher and he would be the operator as Paradise has no one else. The second visit by Dan was for the final to say they have been approved to proceed with construction and marked out the location. Again, I asked what type or equipment will be used for the trench to the home and Dan said it would be subcontracted out. Again, I ask what type of equipment will be used and Dan said an excavator. What size bucket would be used and did not answer me well. So, I said would it be a 12” bucket and he said yes. What the sub-contractor used was very large excavator with a 24” wide bucket. A 24 “trench to install a 1 1/4'” conduit. I lost my temper on Dan that day of construction. His arrogance was not welcome in regards the impact this was going to cause me a larger than expected area to clean-up and a expense of topsoil which will be around $1,000 to $1500 dollars, not including grass seed and mulch. All this will depend on how much settling takes place. If a trencher or small excavator with a 12” bucket was used, the clean -up would be easier, the settling would be manageable and the expense much lower. Dan visited the site a couple more times and we did not interact much. Troy and Bryan finished the installation and the next time I saw Dan was a early morning one day. He did not come to house to say he was there. I saw him at the array and on his phone. That day I received an Email from Crystal Bentley (NY Process Manager) for final payment. I then return an Email to Crystal was someone going to review the system with me and show me how to do the monitoring. Crystal replied back Dan would be contacting me for that. Later in the day I received an Email saying he sent me link for connecting for monitoring. This was very disappointing that no one was going to walk us through how to set-up for monitoring and how to understand the monitoring and review the system with us and say it was in operation. Again, for me Dan’s arrogance was very unwarranted. One more negative. On the first visit with Dan for the site he presented an sign off for Srec credits so Paradise could manage and sell the credits. This was new to us and never previously discuss before. This is where Fred McNeal should have given us more insight on the credits and handling of credits. The proposal shows possible yearly credits but did not talk about Paradise managing the credits with 6% or $4.00 minimum fee. Also, the agreement does not say if Paradise will sell credits every year and how will I know how many credits have been earned in a year. I sent an Email to Fred McNeal regarding the sign off asked him to contact me for more understanding and his reply was short and said you can sell the credits on your own. This is true if I clearly understood all this. At this time, I signed off for Paradise to manage the credits for two years. My point of this, the proposal should show this impact with Paradise selling the credits more education on credits. Bottomline Paradise is great choice for Solar system installation. There are other installers, but Paradise is very professional and will stand behind the work.

Home Installation

Paradise Energy Solutions was good at keeping me in the loop during the entire process. There were significant sourcing issues that they had to deal with but they affected me not at all. After the initial proposal the type of panels had to change and required two more panels to maintain the same size system but this did not increase the price to me at all which was nice. I got a competing quote for an equivalently sized system that was roughly 50% more expensive so I have some indication that Paradise Energy Solutions is at least competitive and probably a good value for the money.

Very professional team

After receiving site visits and quotes from other providers, I settled on Paradise based on their reputation and competitive pricing for installation. I was happy with the installation process and felt I was kept apprised of work plans and involved in decision making. Only regret was that installation occurred later in the fall so I missed out on this year's summer sun!