Review for SolarMax Technology

07/08/2014
Anonymous 92337, CA

Our Solar install experience

The short of it is Dan Cooley (my point of contact) went the extra mile for me, and SolarMax got the job done& done well, and we love it!<br />In the longer version: There were some obstacles that had to be overcome. The first one was that I was not willing to put up a solar system on my 25+ year old roof. I was expecting to replace it in the next 6 months but as the best laid plans of mice and men so to speak I was not able to get that done after about 8 months. Dan call to touch base and find out where I was on the project and I told him I was not able to get the roof done yet, he suggested SolarMax could roll the roof into the financing (I am purchasing not leasing). I said deal!<br />Next obstacle was: I wanted a large system that would cover all my power usage, SCE inspected my Electrical panel and said #1 your panel does not have a sticker on it with it's max rating so they must assume it is maxed at 100watts and that is not big enough. #2 therefore your system will require a larger panel be installed BUT #3 a larger panel will require trenching my power feed line up from its main junction and putting it in a conduit because it is not currently! Well that was out cause they are talking 10's of thousands of dollars for just that! I assumed we were done and I could not have solar power. Dan said he was sure the electrical panel could handle more than that and set out to prove it. He scoured my neighborhood until he found an Electrical panel with the sticker showing it's rating and was able to prove to SEC that my panel was large enough and did not need replacing. Thanks Dan for going the extra TWO Miles!<br />Next issue was: I was worried about shading because the neighbor next to me is two story house and has a chimney who's shadow sweeps a large section of my roof through the day. After working with their engineer we came up with #1 micro inverters and #2 a layout that will work! <br />Next little issue was SolarMax does not do roofing directly so it is of course outsourced. Unfortunately the first roofer sent out was not up to par in my estimation. It only took one call to Dan Coolie expressing my concerns which he took back to SolarMax and that roofer was let go and another roofer was sent. That company did a great job was very professional and the roof looks great, but I will leave them un-named here. All this took some time so the system did not go up on quite the schedule that was originally laid out but it was happening. <br />Next little thing was they ran out of the original panel we were scheduled to get so they bumped us up to the next larger panel at no extra charge. But because we were already getting about as large of a system we could get we would likely lose a few panels to stay within the system max. As it turned out they still passed it so we were very pleased with that! <br />Now the install of the system! The installers showed up on time and were a great group, they did not mind my poking around and watching, asking questions and taking pictures of the whole installation! I liked everything I was seeing and very impressed as to the process. This includes one of my biggest concerns which was leakage where they penetrate the roof for the panel mounts. The way they do it, it will NOT leak! By the way one of the key components in the system are the micro inverters and the ones they use are “The Name Brand” in inverters!<br />When we got permission to operate we found that there was a problem with a group of panels but they were out soon enough to get that fixed (it was just some fittings that needed attention)<br />So it's all up and been running for 6 months now and it is producing as expected! Yes I recommend Dan Cooley and SolarMax Tech.