Simply Solar

I have a simply solar installation in the Mission in San Francisco. They were truly excellent at getting my initial install completed and getting me in under the NEM2 deadline a few years ago. Since then something like 70% of the optimizers on my panels have failed and large portions of my array have been out of service for some time now meaning I have approaching $2000 of PG&E usage that shouldn’t be there, plus I have to constantly monitor the system for additional failures. It’s clear that there is a design flaw with this product, which has not been acknowledged by either simply solar or the manufacturer. As of right now that seems to be an issue with having the replacement covered under the warranty. I would stay clear until these issues are addressed and rectified.

DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THEM. This company operates in bad faith and will bait-and-switch you. We originally chose them a few years ago because they offered free solar panel removal and reinstallation when we eventually needed a roof replacement. The initial install went fine, but trying to get them to honor their contract now has been a nightmare. They are suddenly demanding a $3,200 fee for the removal. Even their salesperson admitted this fee was not clearly indicated in our main agreement, but is now picking apart vague fine print (outside of our contract) to justify it. We have sent the contract over multiple times and asked them to highlight the language where it specifies this charge. THEY HAVE NOT DONE SO. Furthermore, their customer service is terrible. They are dragging their feet and refusing to coordinate with our roofer, who has been consistently asking for dates to remove the solar. We explicitly told them we have an active roof leak and asked them to prioritize the removal so we could fix our home, but they did not care. Once they finish your initial install, they will abandon you and refuse to give you the time of day. I am reporting them to the Better Business Bureau. If you need a solar installation in the Pleasant Hill area, be very wary and look elsewhere.

Bad faith and will bait-and-switch

DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THEM. This company operates in bad faith and will bait-and-switch you. I WILL BE REPORTING THEM TO BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU TODAY. We originally chose them a few years ago because they offered free solar panel removal and reinstallation when we eventually needed a roof replacement. The initial install went fine, but trying to get them to honor their contract now has been a nightmare. Bait and Switch: They are suddenly demanding a $3,200 fee for the removal. Even their salesperson admitted this fee was not indicated in our main agreement from 2025, but is now picking apart vague fine print (outside of our contract) to justify it. We have sent the contract over multiple times and asked them to highlight the language where it specifies this charge. THEY HAVE NOT DONE SO. Terrible Customer Service: They are dragging their feet and refusing to coordinate with our roofer, who has been consistently asking for dates to remove the solar. Ignored Emergencies: We explicitly told them we have an active roof leak and asked them to prioritize the removal so we could fix our home. They did not care. Once they finish your initial install, they will abandon you and refuse to give you the time of day. I am reporting them to the Better Business Bureau. If you are looking for solar in the Pleasant Hill area, be very wary and look elsewhere.

Two very different experiences. 1. Installation: Great work! I live in Berkeley so permitting is a pain and requires layers of extra work. Simply solar designed, installed and got the system working flawlessly. They were personable, professional and overall great. 2. Post Installation: It's a roll of the dice. I had a panel go down in the first year and they were on it, emailed me about it and it ended up being a micro inverter I believe and it was fixed in two weeks. Now I've had 3 panels down (10 panel system) for about 2 months which they didn't know about. I e-mailed them in December about it and talked to a customer service guy who was nice but non committal. Then he was let go and now another non committal customer service person took the helm. I'm being told I'm weeks out. I'll let you know when it's fixed.

A++++ install - roof and ground mount 3 FranklinWH batteries

Simply Solar just finished a somewhat complicated install: 7.2KW on my roof and 5KW ground mount, tied into a battery system using FranklinWH APower batteries with generator integration and smart circuits. From the initial consultation, throughout the project management portion (design and permitting), all the way through to the 3 day installation, final permitting and PG&E PTO, Simply Solar was 'simply' excellent! They were the middle bid but delivered the most value and service. We couldn't be happier that we picked Simply Solar for our project.

made solar plus battery simple despite PGE complications!

Simply Solar offered me the best value for my money from over 10 firms I got bids from and got my solar panels and battery on to my single-family home in less than two days flat. They also came up with a creative solution to solve a challenge posed by my legacy 2005 main panel whose upward-opening door was only 1" away from the PG&E meter when fully opened. PG&E just imposed a new rule that it wants a 3" distance, which could have been a problem. I have no idea how Simply Solar pulled this off, but they got PG&E to agree to timely install the gateway between the solar battery and my main panel to ensure the city inspectors would sign off on the implementation despite my main panel being close to the meter, and it worked. David Frank, the account executive, did a great job of making efficient use of my time when we were discussing what size system to install. He listened attentively and actively and answered my many detailed questions. He has many years of experience and an encyclopedic knowledge of home solar installations. I chose Simply Solar over all the other firms I got bids from because they (1) have a large number of online Yelp and Better Business Reviews, and (2) their average review rating is extremely high, and (3) they offered me the best value for my money out of all the firms I got bids from. When it came time for installation, Simply Solar did not disappoint. Andrew and his team showed up on time and got the solar panels on the roof and the batteries on the wall in less than two days flat and left the worksite spotless. Andrew showed up again on the day the city inspectors came by to inspect the system. Once we had permission from them to turn the system on, he took me through installing the app on my phone and made sure I knew how to use it to monitor the system's performance. I've now enjoyed three days with 99% of my home's power generated by the solar system and am looking forward to decades of saving money. Wish I'd done this decades ago! The best time to install a solar system is 20 years ago. The second best time is now. I would use Simply Solar to install a solar system on my home again in a heartbeat and give them my highest recommendation for knowledgeable staff, high-touch responsive service in person, by phone, by email, and by text, setting expectations accurately, and executing as promised. Because I want everyone else to put solar systems on their home to reduce the severity of climate change, I created a deck explaining how and why I chose the system size and components that I did and why I chose Simply Solar over the competition. You can read the deck at https://bit.ly/GoSolar2025 . I also chose to give in-person seminars in my community and and a Zoom seminar online. You can watch the YouTube recording of the online seminar at https://youtu.be/g1rR6LynENI . Go solar right away and make Simply Solar your choice to do it!

Better value, better service, from a local business! We had a little trouble with our design at first, but the actual owner stepped in and made some suggestions and got everything on track. The installation went very well. Only a slight problem, but Simply Solar stood behind their promise and made it right. We absolutely love our system. Jake Giovanni, Jose, Marcos, Sam, Esgar, Tim they worked on our house like it was theirs.

As an architect and general contractor working on high-end design-build projects, I’m always looking for reliable, high-quality companies to work with. Two years ago, we decided to explore solar energy for our home in Mill Valley, built in 1982. Our house was significantly underpowered, and we wanted to avoid the major expense and disruption of upgrading the service panel. After a lot of research, including discussions with our neighbor, who had done a deep dive into solar options, we decided to go with Simply Solar to design and install our system—and it has been a game changer. Since installation, our electric bills have dropped dramatically from an average of $270 per month to zero. The system has worked seamlessly and has exceeded our expectations. Three months ago, we added a hot tub, which requires a 50-amp service and draws about 32 amps. Even with the new demand on our system, our second electric bill was just $10! I anticipate that winter months with less sunlight may raise the bill slightly, so I plan to add a few additional panels to compensate for the extra load, and next year, I’ll be installing a battery backup system to make sure we’re fully covered. Simply Solar has been a fantastic partner throughout the entire process. They are organized, communicative, and truly professional. We couldn’t be happier with how our system is performing, and we strongly recommend Simply Solar to anyone looking to make the switch to solar.

Don’t do it!!!!!

Simply put - sounded great up front, but now we pay about three times as much for electricity. We pay about $300.00 a month for the panels. We get paid usually less than $10.00 a month for the electricity they produce. We also pay a higher electric bill than we did before of over $200.00 a month. Shame on us for wanting to do something good for the environment!

Battery Installation Review

Jesse and Craig, who came to my home to install a new solar battery system, linking it to my existing solar panels, arrived on time. They were friendly, knowledgeable, professional, and efficient. They listened to my requests, followed through, and were very easy to work with.

Don't do it!

When the sales rep was at the house we went over specif things, my wife and I had very detailed questions and we have now found every answer they have was a lie, some of this information was even on there flash cards. Issue 1: We are looking to sell our house in the next few years so we asked in great detail about the process, we were concerned about the difficulty in transitioning this to a new owner. She flat out said when you sell, the minute the power is transfered to a new owner the monthly payment would automatically transfer, no credit check involved for the new owner, we Lahey find out not only is this a lie but a lean is attached to our property and we must pay the loan in full when we sell, and were advised solar has no return on investment. Issue 2: we had to have documentation resent 4 times before we would sign listing both my wife and myself on the loan. We didn't find out that did NOT happen until after the loan was finalized and there was nothing they could do. They put it souly in my name and I didn't even have a job. Issue 3: we asked specific questions about the tax credit as they said the entire $15,000 refund has to be applied to the loan to keep our payments at the payment we agreed to. We were told you come your taxes and will get the full amount based on the $58,000 they are charging. We now find out its a non refundable tax credit, and it will only pay us back for what we owe, and we never owe in, especially not $15,000, we make no where near the money that would take and we were very detailed about how much money we make, we only have one income, and always get a return. Now we are looking at $100 a month higher payment if we can't fork out $15000 which obviously we can't which is making our bill higher than it ever was before going solar. Issue 3: We were advised that duke will credit us 1 kwh for every 1 kwh we produce. They said our power bill would be for a connection fee only. We also have whole house protection, so our power bill should be under $40 a month. Again a lie, we are producing far more than we are using and are still getting $110 plus power bills, making our new payments almost twice what they are befor solar. Issue 4: We are now facing severe financial issues due to a massive increase in electric cost and have no recourse but to sell and loose over $60,000 in profit making it so we can't sell and pay cash, we will now be stuck taking out another mortgage which we never intended to do In summary: We were sold on a bunch of lies.

Simply Great

Excellent team of installers. They did clean and fast work. The sales team took the time to understand what we wanted and then made it happen. My only regret is not doing it sooner!

Only company that could do the job

Simply solar was professional, streamlined, quick, communicative and very responsive. I looked at 5 companies for my job and no one could really come close to what Simply Solar was offering. I have a clay tile roof that is from the 1940s. Some companies flat out turned down the job, other companies said I had to hire a roofing company on my own to put the panel brackets in. Simply Solar was the only company that could do everything themselves in house and on top of that they have a very solid warranty on any leaks or damage to the roof. I’m very happy I went with Simply Solar as they seem to have the experience and capabilities to do more complex jobs quickly and smoothly. Very easy to work with them as well.

Couldn't have been be better

I thoroughly enjoyed the process of going solar with Simply Solar. And I'm very happy with the results. David F walked me through all of my options and explained the process and timeline. Ally was our day to day coordinator and a pleasure to work with. And to be honest, the installation crew was fantastic: it took a day and a half, and they were on time and very thorough. A really nice team. And my electric bill is gone!

Excellent service, product, and great staff

I received 4 estimates prior to making a decision to go with Simply Solar. Our install was completed in April 2022 and so far we have been very happy with the whole process. In addition to having solar installed we also had Simply Solar upgrade our electric panel for which we also got several bids. We were very happy with the staff we interacted with from our sales person (very low pressure and highly informative), the initial sales staff that fielded our call, the project coordinator and the installation staff and electricians. The sales person took the time to educate us on the products they use and provided us with detailed information so we could follow up with doing our own research on how the components they use stack up against the competition. So far we have ZERO regrets. I'm always cautious about having holes in the roof, but after meeting the installers and speaking the the crew chief, I'm pretty confident that we won't be seeing any leaks due their installation. The staff that did the electric panel upgrade even came back and painted the framing they put in around the new panel, which we were told would be our responsibility. Gotta love the attention to detail!!

Great Sales, Installation and Support

These folks are professional, efficient and low-pressure during my research and planning phases. The installation went smoothly and a minor monitoring issue with one panel was resolved quickly during the busy summer season. I found that EMails for support didn;t work well, so I started calling their production department. They couple of calls were pleasant and they took care of my questions and one issue to my satisfaction. Good folks.

Horrible incompetent office staff

Simply solar installed 16 panels on my roof. Had a leak that damaged my ceiling in. My 10 year old daughters room. Called sales rep who addressed the leak right away but it was getting my ceiling repaired where the nightmare began. Delt with Sara in the office. Had to call her week after week to get my ceiling repaired. Black mold and all. Everytime I call her she acted confused about my needs. Had to remind her week after week. Took over a month to get the ceiling repaired. She does not answer her emails or return a phone call. I literally had to call her after no response for a week after a week. That happened four times. Now I'm dealing with getting my ceiling repainted and again no response back from my email after a week and once again no returned phone calls. Horrible!!! Horrrible!!! The sales rep was good though. That's the only good thing I have to say. Unacceptable office behavior.

They were honest and not pushy when selling me my solar.

They were honest and not pushy when selling me my solar. Then they were quick and took care of everything between the sale and installation so that I didn't have to worry. The installation went great, and then between the panel outside and the app, I can always see how much energy and money I'm saving! I'd recommend them to anyone for their honesty and professionalism.