Photon Brothers

Don't pay the balance until ALL work is complete.

I made a mistake when I signed the contract for my panels by agreeing to pay the full price as soon as the panels were finished being installed. I was told several times “Our work is done” and you have to pay us in full. But here’s the problem: their work is not done. At least here in Boulder, CO. Photon needs to pass inspection (with an employee present) and then apply and be accepted into the utility company’s (Xcel) queue for new meters to accommodate the panels. I agree, it is not difficult to do this. My panels we installed in early May and I paid the bill as required by the contract. Several weeks went by before the inspection, which did not pass. Several more weeks went by while the plans were modified and someone came out to the house and made the required changes. Then several more weeks went by before the next inspection, which required a little more work on Photon’s part before fully passing. Another week passed, and then I started calling Xcel to see if I was on the queue. Turns out they did not fill out the application correctly, so another week was wasted. Oh, and then we had a leak in the roof where Photon forgot to put in a screw and our bedroom ceiling was stained and the carpet wet. They did come quickly to fix the leak, the project manager no longer works there, and they did pay one month’s electric bill because of the delays. The system was turned on September 7 -- 4 months after I paid the bill. I strongly recommend you sign a contract requiring 50% up front, 25% at completion of installation, and 25% when you are in the queue with the electric company and the solar company’s work is actually finished. I paid too early and had no recourse, because they had all my money. And I feel like our project was a low priority for them as soon as the bill was paid.

Save yourself the aggravation

I live in Colorado and cannot recommend using Photon Brothers for your solar panel installation. While I believe they sell quality panels, the installation process was extremely disorganized and frustrating. The plan for arranging panels on our roof was clearly covering vents and too close to a skylight. After several tries at revisions, the co-owner assured me it would work. Turns out it didn't and the design team had to change the plan after all. They rewrote it but didn't tell anyone including the installers and the county. The installers arrived and couldn't implement the plan as written. The system failed county inspection and another in a series of delays ensued. I had to follow up on every single step of the installation process to get any action. Who has time for this? Once the system was approved by the county and the energy company, I sent the second payment. I later discovered 2 problems with the original installation but service requests go into a black hole and there is no response. No one answers the phone.

Photon Brothers are the BEST

I had the pleasure of working with Photon Brothers over the past several months and had a tremendous experience. Starting in sales, my rep Ryan Montgomery was extremely professional, knowledgable, and easy going. He told me my system would be on my roof my August... they had it done in MAY! SHABANG!! My onboarding rep- Andrew- was easy to get a hold of and very responsive. Top notch communication from start to finish. He addressed all of my questions and concerns in a very timely manner. The team of guys that came out to install did a great job. They were also great with dogs. That has nothing to do with the job... but I like to see that in a crew. While they didnt have to, they stuck around and helped me download the Tesla App and start tracking all my production! Would 100% recommend Photon Brothers to install your solar. Great team.

Photon Brothers saved me from a bad situation!

Our house went for sale in early 2023. We had a new roof put on the house in April, 2023. Photon Brothers performed the solar panel remove/replace for this project. They did a great, professional job. In May, 5 days before we were to close on the sale of the home, water stains appeared on the ceiling of one of our rooms. We asked Photon Brothers to come out and see if the leak had anything to do with their earlier work on the roof. Christian and Josh arrived within 3 hours. They found no evidence that their solar panel roof penetrations were causing a roof leak. They stayed more than 3 hours beyond that to figure out what was the cause, and they found it! This was hot dirty work in a dark crawl space! We were blown away by Photon Brothers generosity in doing this for us. They pretty much saved the on-time sale of our home for us and the buyers. Obviously, we would reccomend Photon Brothers to anyone considering a solar install!

I do not recommend PhotonBrothers

It has been a year since we signed a contract with Photon Brothers to install a solar system. There were a lot of excuses up front about the amount of business they were getting and we allowed for that. They finally finished the design in 2022 and then waited for them to do the installation. That took several months. They finally did the install but had to modify it as the original design had them installing an overhead line to the meter which was a non-starter. They ended up getting approval to instill the meter and disconnect on the building and completed the install. Then they had to do a change to the city permit to reflect the as-built. We were told we had to pay the final payment upon completion of the installation so we agreed to final payment. It has now been several more months with no meter installed, not permit approved and now CORE is cancelling the permit for the meter due to no communication with Photon Brothers. We are beyond frustrated and when we talk to Photon Brothers we just get told they are working on it. It doesn't take months to do an update to a design. obviously they are more interested in getting new business than getting existing customers on the meter. jI would not recommend them and regret ever hiring them to do our solar install. This has been a complete fiasco. Others experience may be different but not everyone gets the same treatment. Buyer beware.

Cannot recommend for solar

My experience with Photon Brothers has been pretty bad. The sales person, Kristion T (redacted for privacy), lied about so many aspects of my project that it has been a uphill battle ever since. Communication between team members and the customer is extremely poor. The timeline given for installation was one day. It has been almost three weeks and they still can't give me a correct timeline for completion. They also told me an electrician was coming to finish. I took off work to be home for that, and he never showed. They never explained why and have still not rescheduled. It is continually up to me to push for answers that never come. It has been one disappointment after another. I was very excited about the idea of solar. I have been completely deflated from this process and wish I could go back in time and not pursue it. If you are definitive on putting solar up, I strongly recommend a different company.

Great experience

We bought a home which had solar panels. I really did not know much about solar and how it works with the power company in our area. I talked with a solar business at the local home show about my situation and out of all the solar companies there only Photon Brothers could help me. They sent Mark out to check my system to verify everything was working properly and he was nice enough to help me set up an app on my phone to monitor my system. I am in need of a new roof and he told me Photon Brothers will remove the panels and replace them once the new roof is installed. Looking forward to working with them again in tear future.

GREAT RESPONSE AND SERVICE FROM PHOTON BROTHERS

The solar company that installed my system went out of business leaving me high and dry without any follow-up information. I contacted at least six other Denver solar companies to get information and what I was supposed to do in this situation, and to get servicing in the future. Only one company returned my call, gave me all the information I needed, and will be doing my servicing in the future. Tom Nix was extremely re-assuring and helpful during this entire process. Thank you Tom and Photon Brothers for your support!

Poor Project Management and Communication

I did not have a good experience with Photon Brothers in San Luis Obispo County with my solar project install. From start to finish, it took 8 months from contract signing to getting interconnection with PG&E. I had signed my contract in May of 2022 and the communication to me with the timeline was to be done around September of 2022. I did not get interconnected with PG&E until January 2023. Communication and project management was poor to say the least, with very little communication about status or delays. Trying to get any information from the project team about status was laborsome and required multiple emails requesting status and long waits to get a response. To this day, I still don't know why Photon Brothers was so delayed on my project. Some of the mismanagement and issues I encountered: - Initial site visit, the tech made note and verbally communicated to me that both the main panel and sub panel needed to be upgraded. I even emailed my project manager, Lillie, to confirm (which she did) that both panels were going to upgraded as I did not hear from Photon Brothers about the plan changes. I come to find out months later that only the main panel upgrade was included in the plans. - In relation, come to find out that the main panel could not be upgraded due to utility proximity issues to the panel and PG&E would not approve the main panel upgrade. Changes had to be made to run from the sub panel and Photon Brothers was trying to get me to not do a change order, even though their contract notes that any changes to the project required a change order. I had to push to get a documented change order which was haphazardly put together. - I was not getting any communication about project status after I approved my project layout in early July as the install timeline was approaching. On August 10, I had emailed to request status of the permits. I was told plans were submitted to the city. Upon contacting the city, they sent me stamped plans, which were magically submitted to the city on August 10, plans were approved two days later. No communication from Photon Brothers about the plans being approved. - On day of installation, project team failed to communicate that their team was not going to show up due to weather. Project manager made the excuse that they did not know it was going to rain, even though every news outlet and weather source had predicted rain. The lack of communication cost me money as I had to make arrangements to find a place to work and send my dogs because power was going to be off at my house. - After installation, I noticed that Tesla charger I had on my project had the connector only for a Tesla vehicle. When I originally spoke to the sales rep, Ryan, about the charger, I asked if the Tesla wall charger was compatible with non-Tesla vehicles, which he said it did. Come to find out, the Tesla wall charger installed would not be compatible with a non-Tesla without an adapter. When brought to Ryan's attention, they did send out an adapter for me. However, as I communicated to Ryan, have I have known that an adapter would be required and the wall charger was not compatible out of the box, I would not have bought the Tesla wall charger from Photon Brothers. I wanted to cancel the project with Photon Brothers, however, the thing that saved the project was a competitor backing their reputation and work. I had called the companies I received bids from to ask if they do project takeovers if I cancelled with Photon Brothers. One in particular actually walked through all the information with me and where I was in the process. They were more than happy to take on the project if I wanted to, however, because of timing and increased pricing, encouraged me to stick with Photon Brothers because they actually do good work, even though their project management is lacking. Some of my friends that recommended Photon Brothers to me had good experiences, I did not. I will not be recommending their business.

Excellent customer care!

Kind and knowledgeable people who take the extra time to make sure everything is in proper working condition.

Solar Edge Inverter installation by Photon Brothers

stellar energy contractors went out of business and I was worried because I needed a new inverter installed. I met Eric at DIA, he had photon brother hat or shirt on ( do not remember). I explained my situation to Eric and he offered to help, I would not be able to fix this anytime soon if I had not met Eric and the team. Thank you all. Eric - Director of Project Management William Iles Project Manager Mark - technician Nate - Service Manager who scheduled my appointment Tom - Service Coordinator

Best service ever!

Service was great! Mark was on time and kept me informed at every step of the procedure. He got the system back online in half the estimated time. Though Photon Bros. didn't install the original system, they are my choice for any future additions or repairs. After all the work was done they called to see if I had any other questions. I highly recommend them. Fred

Exceptional people, great experience.

Photon Brothers is always amazing, professional and knowledgeable. They employ the very best people and Mark, Tom, Nate and Myka are no exception. They are all so pleasant, easy to communicate with and exceptional at their jobs. I am so grateful that I met Kris Tallent at that home show years ago and chose Photon Brothers as my installer for a great product with an excellent warranty!

Honestly everything went great! I had a lot of questions and Sam helped with deep knowledge, several phone calls and a variety of quotes on the front end. We also got quotes from several companies and the pricing was very competitive. In conjunction with good reviews for customer service, the combination was a good choice for us. After we decided on a system Alexis did a fantastic job of handling the install and permitting. It all went smoothly and we didn’t need to do much. System is powered and generating as we expected. Awesome! Great experience and we would highly recommend Photon Bros. Thank you!

Lighting Damage

Let me start by saying that Lighting and Solar don't mixes. But I'm very thankful I found Photon Brothers. they came on time and was able to take a look at my system and get some parts of it work right then. they also told me what they need to do to get my whole solar system back up and running. Now they done Yet So I will let you know how it goes. it's been great so far. Thanks Ken

Excellent service, start to finish and beyond!

We had absolutely no issues start to finish. All of our questions were answered, and everything was complete as scheduled. The system looks good on our roof. We recently had a panel that was not working. We simply made a call & a service tech came out promptly and fixed the issue. Mark, Nate & Tom were knowledgeable and helpful. We highly recommend Photon Brothers!

Thank you Photon Brothers

My wife and I spent a lot of time researching solar energy companies and are very happy we went with Photon Brothers. After getting several quotes and reading through a ton of reviews we went with Photon Brothers because they have a stellar reputation, great price per kW installed, and they are a local small business. They installed panels for us in March and we have had zero problems with our system. The panels look great and modern, and the monitoring app is really easy to use.   We recently wanted to reconfigure our system a little to have our monitoring data be transmitted through LAN instead of cell data almost 6 months after our installation was completed and they were very responsive and extremely helpful getting this done for us. Specifically, it was Nate, a Service Manager, who coordinated the logistics and did a great job ensuring we were happy with the service, and Mike, the technician that came to our home showed up on time, was very nice, polite and professional and went above and beyond making the wiring on the outside of the house he had to work with look nice and tidy.   I also have to mention Amanda who was great to work with throughout the project and our main point of contact, and John Johnson who we worked with early on during the proposal phase who was very knowledgeable, also great to work with, and helped us spec out the best solar system for our needs.   All in all, Photon Brothers is a great company all around that has exceeded our expectations at all stages of getting our solar installed and we always recommend them whenever we hear someone talking about getting solar.  

Excelant service.

It is not an easy thing to find a solar service provider when your installer goes out of business. I was so happy when I found Photon Brothers. They took such good care of me. I certainly would recommend them to anybody needing solar repair.

Happier Every Day

Photon Brothers is one of the best companies I have ever hired. Everything about my project went perfectly, except installation was delayed twice, once by over a foot of snow and the other by below zero degree temperatures with winds. Because these dates were moved up from our initial installation date, the installation actually occurred as originally scheduled. See my full review on Google Review under Tom Brooks.

Incredible experience

Photon Bros. provided a stress free installation. The entire team from the quote process with Melissa to the-consulting installation with Addison and his group were professional, everyone involved patiently listened to any and all concerns and inspired confidence at every step. The timelines were met, and the build was extremely fast but quality was never compromised and the finished product looks and works amazingly.

Very happy indeed

I joined a local solar co-op, and the team chose Photon Brothers as the installer based on a fair amount of research by some energetic people. I can't imagine being any happier with the results. Almost everything went perfectly smoothly, and the one hiccough we did experience (the supplier didn't deliver the inverter when they had promised) was handled smoothly and efficiently, and everything was back on track two days later. I know just enough about electrical and electronic engineering to be dangerous, and therefore knew enough to ask irritating questions that normal folks would either not think to ask or the better educated would already know the answers to. As a result I asked a ton of questions, but all of them were answered promptly, helpfully, and with a smile. I'm now a little less dangerous :) Our project team, Eric and Krista, and the site workers who came here were all very friendly, helpful, accommodating, and again, I couldn't ask for more. We even got lucky with the power company who got our new meter installed and signed off in about two days, instead of the expected four to six weeks. Now our electricity meter is running backwards and we're very happy.

Krista Turnage and Eric Hopf of Photon Brothers were amazing!!

Krista was our sales rep and Eric was our project manager. They were amazing throughout the whole process. The communication, patience with our questions and general efficiency were top notch. I highly recommend Photon Brothers!! It took us less than two months to get from agreement to a working xcel meter. We are loving watching our solar production on the app and couldn't be happier with the reasonable cost and process in general!

Highly recommend Photon Brothers for home solar!

I cannot say enough good things about my experience with Photon Brothers. Krista was very easy to work with. The information she provided was clear and easy to understand and helped me make the right decision for my home solar configuration. Eric did a great job managing the installation and permitting process. The team has been easy to get a hold of and responsive throughout. The installers were friendly and efficient and clearly loved their work. The panels look great and I can't wait to start saving money and powering my home with clean electricity once Xcel powers on my system in the next week!

Great Company for Solar/PV Projects

I highly recommend this company. They are the real deal and their prices are very competitive. The project was completed in an amazingly short time. Their employees take great pride in their work, are very friendly, and take full ownership of projects from agreement-signing to project completion. I had some initial issues with cell communication with the Solaredge monitoring platform, but Photon Brothers changed out the inverter cellular card and is observing the monitoring.

Outstanding Solar Installation and Service

I purchased a new solar system from Photon Brothers which was installed in November, 2019. I selected Photon Brothers after careful review of five proposals from highly-rated installers in the Denver area. With careful analysis of the proposals to ensure apples-to-apples comparisons, I found Photon Brothers to be the best. It had the solar panels I preferred, the best design and placement of the panels, and the lowest cost. The installation was clean and attractive. Sam, Jerry and Tim, our installers, found ways to avoid externally visible conduit and ran all lines within the walls. Finally, the service was excellent. Our system had some start-up issues, mostly due to the heavy snowfall in November. Photon handled the issues with no hassles. After two months, I am still learning more by tracking the production meter, net meter and solaredge data. So far, production numbers seem to be on track to deliver what was projected in the proposal. Overall, we had a very positive experience with Photon Brothers.