Reviews by Nathan Knowles

ION Solar

Being a first time solar buyer I wish I knew what I know now back when I was making the decision to purchase a solar system. I have done a lot more research into solar systems, research I should've done before deciding to make the purchase. I felt pressured into making a decision after the initial sales pitch and all of the information they presented made it sound like going solar was going to save me a TON of money. With all the colorful graphs and charts they presented and boilerplate sales pitch I fell for it like a lot of other people. One thing I wish I knew was that the total output of the system being sold to me is the theoretical output, not the actual output, which was the biggest deciding factor for me. I bought a solar system to save money. Not for warm fuzzy feelings about being "green" (look up how dirty the manufacturing process is for making solar panels, some panels require more energy to MAKE than they will produce in their lifetime!). My system is made up of 295 W panels which in the real world only output about 250 W. That's 15% less than what I was sold on and I am seeing that 15% loss in the "cost savings" the solar system is providing me. Another thing I wish ION solar would have done is to give me the draft system design documents before installing anything. They said that they would but I never received them until after the system was installed. At which point it is to late to change your mind. Another thing ION solar did wrong was to install too small of an inverter. The inverter installed has a max AC output of 3.8 kW. The system I was sold produces a max of 5.31 kW. Doesn't take a genius to figure out that 3.8 is less than 5.31. Having said all that, ION Solar has been excellent in their customer support. They have responded and answered any and all questions I have had about my system and are going to upgrade my inverter to a larger one at no cost. Bottom line, would I recommend ION Solar? Yes I would. I just caution first time buyers to not be pressured into buying and do some research on your own to make sure you are getting what you think you are getting. If you want to buy a solar system for the warm fuzzies you get for being "green" then by all means do what you need to so you can sleep at night. If you are buying a solar system for saving money, then you might want to do some heavy research first.... read more

Type: Residential Electric

Reviewed: 10/07/2018