Review for New England Clean Energy

10/15/2014
Anonymous Bolton, MA

The kind of company you want to do business with!

I 'shopped' for my solar for well over a year. It started with one of those solar lease companies that somehow got my Email address. When I heard that the solar could be installed for virtually nothing the skeptic in me came out and I began my own research.<br /><br />First, don't do the lease. Either buy or borrow to get your solar. The lease programs will not save you nearly as much and will be a hassle if you need to sell your home. The loans are a great alternative and there are some that pretty much cover you for what you pay monthly now. However, the best route is to buy. This is the route we went.<br /><br />I work with computers and have a degree in electrical engineering, so the technical side of the project was of great interest to me. I did my own research, so when I started to get quotes, I knew what I was looking at.<br /><br />Then came the meetings with the various companies that do the installations. Now, a single salesman isn't the entire company, but when the sales person is pushy and full of himself, you wonder how many sales he makes. When Roy from NECE came, his approach was anything but pushy. He took careful measurements of our roof, of the way the sun hits the roof, of various trees, and plugged it all into a computer program that quickly allowed him to show us exactly what kind of performance we might expect.<br /><br />Given our situation, we had two choices. Our first was to just cover our electrical needs and the second was to build out the array to provide some extra capacity. With two young boys and a potential future need to eliminate the oil heating, we opted for the larger system. Since we were still under the magic 10,000 watt level, the added cost was not nearly as much as you might think.<br /><br />We had other quotes. Most of them were actually less money. Most were not much less, but one was significantly less. The low ball was going to use equipment I was going to have to replace in under 10 years. Most of the other lower cost vendors were not using state of the art designs. The higher cost vendors all wanted to set me up for a lease and I wonder if their pricing was a way to try to enforce a theory that buying would not save all that much.<br /><br />In any case, when the quotes were in and I knew what I was looking at, NECE was a clearly superior company. The sales person knew the equipment he was selling and was not afraid to hand me specification sheets and answer some questions. Yes, he could not answer them all, but was very quick to get back to me with the answers.<br /><br />Technology moves fast and the use of micro inverters was the way to go in late 2013, but by mid 2014, power optimizers that drive high voltage DC to the inverter was the new technology. And NECE had it - nobody else did. Their solution had built-in monitoring, the other guys needed to add a piece to do that. I had a choice of panels. 'Standard' ones that were lower cost, or "premium" ones that were more efficient, but 25% more money. We looked at both scenarios and although we could put up a smaller array with the more efficient panels, it was going to cost more. The extra cost didn't really buy us anything, so we passed on that. But for a site that didn't have the space for more panels, the option does make more sense. I don't recall any other company offering that kind of choice. In fact, even the NECE 'standard' panel was more efficient than some of the panels being offered by other companies. I guess you can quote lower prices when you use cheap Chinese equipment.<br /><br />We had our roof replaced at roughly the same time and our roofer and NECE worked together so that the solar mounts were properly mounted, flashed and the roof worked with them. Both companies did a great job keeping each other informed.<br /><br />The NECE crew is young and energetic. I showed them what I wanted and they spent about an hour with me discussing how to run wires and where to install equipment. My original location for the inverter didn't meet code, so we found an alternate one that frankly works even better. (The inverter does make some noise, so don't put it in a living area) <br /><br />My biggest fear was ugly wire runs. Our house meets modern fire safety, so there isn't any central wire chase from the basement to the attic. This makes any such runs very difficult. The crew worked hard and only needed to cut a small piece out of the garage ceiling to drill a hole for their conduit. The hole was patched up and with a little mud and paint was made virtually invisible. Every other place they were able to snake the flex-conduit inside the walls. <br /><br />The wire runs in the attic are neat and tidy. The wires run in my electrical box are neat and tidy. All the wires in the new panel board where the inverter, meter, and other equipment sits is all very neat and tidy. They made the effort to run, and arrange everything so that it looks great.<br /><br />All the electrical equipment was tagged with nice neat red signs that clearly explain that the pieces are a solar power source. The meters indicate that they are fed by two power sources and where the location of the other meter is. (the main meter on the house was swapped with a special one that registers power flowing in both directions and we have a certified production meter next to the inverter that measures what we produce)<br /><br />The panels on the roof are evenly spaced and perfectly aligned. The wires behind them are run neatly and have no loops or droops that might catch on ice or leaves. They are mounted so as to still allow the gutters to function. They did apologize that the very tops of the panels might be visible from the front of the house. Maybe, but you really need to look for it. This is the kind of attention to detail that I saw in everything. From using a level when installing the equipment to running extra cable for neat lines rather than going the shortest path, the eye to craftsmanship shows.<br /><br />The men who were doing the wiring were all electricians and knew their stuff. They answered questions and made sure I understood everything that was being done. <br /><br />Our roof is metal and gets very slick when wet. On a day they were to do some roof work and it rained, they decided that the conditions were too hazardous to work and postponed to a better day. I had no problem with this at all, but they made sure I was OK with the slip in schedule and were very clear why it had to happen and what was being done to reschedule. The crew leader, Mike, had my cell phone and even when he was swinging by to drop off a box of flashing, he called to let me know that they were visiting the site. One day of the installation I could not be home, but I had no issues with the crew working there unsupervised. You get a feel for the people in your home and these were very welcome.<br /><br />The office staff that handled the paperwork, the various state filings, and all the rest wee on top of it all the whole way. I was told it might be up to three weeks from the finish of the project until we could go live. Instead, it was hardly a week. The whole project was like that. Expectations were clearly set on how long a particular state/utility process might take and always the approval was complete in less time. I much prefer this than be told 'about a week" only to be still waiting and wondering what was going on.<br /><br />Once everything was in place and tested, NECE made an appointment so that both my wife and I were available so that we could be shown exactly what the system did and how it operated. This did not take long, but it was a very methodical presentation that made sure there was nothing forgotten. Everything from snow safety (large panel arrays will release all their snow in one heavy dump for example) to what might be needed 10 or 15 years down the road was discussed. Our warranty was clearly explained (basically, they stand behind everything for 20 years and some pieces as long as 25 years) <br /><br />About a week after we went live, NECE set up and delivered the on-line monitoring. Using this website or app, I can easily get a picture of the performance of the system at any time. It also maintains statistics and compares production over time. The system also monitors itself and reports on the status of each component. From the specific panel on the roof to the output of the inverter going to the grid, everything is reported and monitored. Any fault would be clearly indicated.<br /><br />The crews were professional, friendly, and obviously love their jobs. They take pride in their work and the results show. If the system functions as well for the next 25 years as the crew did installing it, I will never have a thing to complain about. The best part? If it doesn't work, they will be back to fix it at no charge. You don't make that kind of promise unless you know the quality was there to start. And this isn't a national company with workers coming from who knows where. All these people are a part of the local community. These are quite literally my neighbors.<br /><br />I've had some questions from time to time and simply sent an Email to one or more of the employees. The question was always quickly responded to. <br /><br />From the moment I arranged to meet with a sales person to just the other day I asked a question, every part of this experience was great. They have been paid in full, but the service has not changed. <br /><br />If I had to nit pick something, the only thing I can think of is that I did find a few of the metal clips that are used to attach the panels to the rack system in the garden behind the house when I cleaned it out for the winter. That's it. 3 little black aluminum clips that were dropped into a crowded garden. Considering they had to install 156 of them, I'm not complaining. And seriously, that is the only thing I can think of that wasn't done perfectly. <br /><br />Do yourself a favor and have NECE come and quote you first - you'll be judging everyone else on their benchmark.

Sales process
Price charged as quoted
On schedule
Installation quality
After sales support