08/20/2016
Anonymous
We selected Petersen Dean after meeting with 4 other companies. It took a while to learn why Petersen Dean was the best option but do take advantage of the sales presentations to educate yourself.<br /><br />One of my lessons learned is that no two solar system proposals will be alike and so I needed a formula to standardize the proposed solar system cost. I needed something like a price per pound. What I came up with was ... Price per Target kW = (Proposed Cost - Tax Credits - Coupons) * (Target kW / Proposed kW). In my case, i targeted a 7.15 kW system because I got proposals from 7.15 kW - 10.08 kW. Using the 7.15 kW as a standard, I was able to eliminate 2 that were just too expensive as the standardized prices varied from $18k to $26k.<br /><br />The other three proposals varied in standardized prices from $18k to $20k but the financing ranged from 3% to 7%. Although the most expensive of the three, Petersen Dean sealed the deal with the best financing terms that no one else could meet.<br /><br />Regarding the system components, Petersen Dean offered the best with SolarWorld and Enphase. I learned that most solar panels and accompanying components have really low failure rates. Yet I felt that I'd rather have a veteran roofing and solar company like Petersen Dean at my side when something did eventually fail instead of a newer Solar company that contracts to local installers. Also, I learned that Solar companies sometimes contract Petersen Dean to be their local installer.<br /><br />Overall, my only gripe is that installing solar took 6 months from the sales visit on 9/9 to permission to operate on 3/4. But most of the waiting was due to the holidays and my HOA. Once we got the HOA written approval, it took only 1 month from financing on 2/5 to submit for permit on 2/9 to permit on 2/13 to installation on 2/23 to inspection on 2/29 and finally permission to operate on 3/4.<br /><br />Finally, I'd like to say that everyone working for Petersen Dean has been very professional, very responsive, knowledgeable, and trustworthy.