StraightUp Solar

BE WARE OF HIDDEN COSTS AND A LACK OF POST-INSTALLATION SERVICE

Straight-up solar is very pushy when it comes to closing the sales deal. They will say anything to get you to sign the papers, and it's nothing short of a predatory loan. First of all, let me be very clear that YOU WILL NOT SAVE ANY MONEY by going to solar -- not a chance for what you have to pay up front. Our system cost $32,517 for a 9.6KW array. Regardless whether you take out a loan or pay up front, even after federal rebates, you still won't break even in at least 10 years. I'm not going to dive into too much details of the financial argument, but just know that they'll say anything to make you believe otherwise. Then, there's the local utility company requirements -- $1 million dollar mandatory liability insurance -- a major hurdle that would significantly affect your ability to sell your house, should you move. This is because whomever inherits your solar panels would have to buy additional insurance as well -- as long as it sits on the roof. On top of this, your accumulated solar power, is reset every quarter to zero! YES, if you collected 1500KW total in the spring and hope to use it in the summer, sorry, you CAN'T. The local utility company resets it after May 31st, wiping out all your gains. None of those were disclosed to us before we signed the paper. I had to find this out from someone in the City Hall. After our panels were installed, it was generating 2/3 of it's capacity for over 45 days! None of their "engineers" could tell us why until the "head engineer" came and found a wire wasn't connected. Lastly, if you decide to go with those guys, you should hope you will NEVER move. As stated above, having panels on your roof affects your ability to sell your home. If you want to take down the panels, they charge you a ridiculous $7,000 for the labor only, NOT INCLUDING POTENTIAL ROOF DAMAGE REPAIRS. Note that the average cost to remove panels in the US is about $1,000 to $2,000 tops. I spoke to someone at another solar company and they were shocked to hear the $7,000 quote. The bottom line is, you need to do a lot of research before you go solar. I learned the lesson the hard way. I am a strong advocate of environmental protection and I sincerely hoped those guys shared the same passion. To my utter dismay, Straight Up does not share this passion. They are NOT in the business to make the world a better place but only to make themselves rich.

Not Careful Enough

The company installed a 9.6 kW PV system for us. We thought we were being careful in not naively accepting their sales pitch promises. Unfortunately, we were not careful enough. The workmanship was good. The on-site workers were pleasant and professional. The office support staff were patient, courteous, and (until the last payment was received) said all the "right" things. The problems were that the representations made did not match reality. We were assured the system was sized properly and the size of the inverters would not limit production. We were told if that was not true, they would replace the inverters. This turned out to false. The company (after getting the final payment) finally admitted the inverters will limit the production, but essentially said 'tough luck'. We emphasized at our first meeting that we did not want to encounter hidden costs in order to achieve the estimated production. They assured us this would not happen. This also turned out to be false. We ended up having to spend over 10% more to achieve their original promises. Without that added expenditure our production was 20% less than the estimate. They also attempted to slip in an accelerated payment schedule when they presented us with the first unexpected change order.