Reviews by Joseph24

Boston Solar

Job Metrics:

Crew rating Overall (0-10): The crew was GREAT!!! 10+. I would like to let Crew One; Eduardo, Raul, Dave, & Larry that I want to Thank them once again for doing a GREAT JOB. A special thanks to Dave for helping me cut-out a small section of 2 vinyl post I was working on (replacing my back stairs) with his special power tool for cutting material that my saw would have made a jagged and messy edge.


Crew Clean-Up: The crew did a fairly good job cleaning up, however they did miss some minor stuff (a couple of small lengths of aluminum rail & some job related debris and I also found 2 roofing nails on the driveway, which could have caused a flat tire, so a final check would have found the debris, but I had no problem with it.

Crew on Time: The crew was early Wednesday, and on-time Thursday.

Crew walkthrough (did they go over install process): The crew did go over the install and explained everything they were going to do and how they planned to do it and they were very responsive to the questions I had.

Notes/Comments:

First of all I would like to thank Chris Buchanan, who my wife & I first met at the Willie Nelson concert in August, at the Bank of America Pavilion in Boston, he was manning the Boston Solar booth. At the time, my wife & I were considering leasing Solar panels from my nephew who works for a competitor (only leases solar panels) of Boston Solar. My wife saw the Polaris electric bicycle that was being raffled-off and we struck up a conversation with Chris regarding buying Solar Panels verse leasing them and we both filled out the raffle for the bike. Chris got me interested in buying Solar Panels verse leasing them, so I started researching the benefits of buying them verse leasing them and who was the best Company to buy the system from.

I came across Energy Sage during my research and they set me up with 4 Solar Companies to get quotes from. We did interviews with 3 of the Companies, including Boston Solar. Josh Baker came to our home and explained everything about buying verse leasing solar panels and had graphics which detailed the cost benefits of buying Solar over the long run verse leasing them, which included the projected savings over a 20 year period. He also explained that Boston Solar used the most efficient Solar Panels on the market and I liked the fact that they were made in the USA. Although Boston Solar was the highest quote, my research indicated it was most cost efficient over the long-term (20+ years) to buy the best quality Solar Panels on the market with the highest energy efficiency (21% verse 14-15%).

All the work that the Crew did was excellent and was done in a very professional manner. I was concerned about the pitch of my roof (around 45 degrees) and the safety of the Crew that worked on the roof which is about 20 feet up to the gutters and about 35 or more feet to the peak of the roof. They used harnesses which made me feel better, but I was still nervous for them, thankfully they are professionals and know exactly what they are doing. You could not pay me enough money to go on that roof. The Crew completed their work in 2 days including mounting the brackets on the roof and mounting the panels onto the brackets. The electricians mounted the electrical panels on the outside of the house and the electrical wiring up to the gutter level and through the roof where they mounted the receptacle for plugging in the solar panels. Everything was neatly done.

As part of the changeover to solar power, it was determined that we would need to change-out and increase the breaker capacity of our 100 AMP electrical panel because the current panel was maxed-out (additional $1,500 and with the 30% Federal tax credit, the actual cost to us was $1,050). We inquired about upgrading our capacity to a 200 AMP panel and were told it would be an additional $1,000 and with the 30% Federal tax credit, the actual cost to us was $700, which was a no-brainer. Rob & PJ did an excellent job and replaced the panel with all new circuit breakers and new exterior wiring (including new grounding wire) and connections up to the main feed line from National Grid.
All the breakers were re-labeled as they were before the change-over and all the work was done in a neat manner. They did a great job cleaning up after the change-out was completed.

We also had Boston Solar install blown-in insulation to the remaining half of our house that was not insulated several weeks prior to having the solar panels installed. We did this through the Mass-Save Program, which pays up to $2,000 toward insulating your home (our house total cost for the insulation was around $3,200, of which $1,200 was our out-of-pocket cost). Once again the Boston Solar Crew did an excellent job. As it turned out they did not have to insulate as much of the house as they thought, because Mass-Save mistakenly included a part of the house that was already insulated. I was basically given a credit of about $625 so my out-of-pocket cost was about $575. They could of just kept the cost the same as the original quote and I would never have known the difference. I really appreciated the Boston Solar crews honesty, they saved me about $625.

Overall I highly recommend Boston Solar for whatever work needs to be done. Oh, did I mention that my wife won the Polaris electric bicycle?

Joseph Comeau
Lynn, MA... read more

Type: Residential Electric

Reviewed: 11/25/2015