05/29/2018
Anonymous
Last year, my average electric bill was running $380/month and after heating my pool for one month, my gas bill was over $400 (pool heater is the only gas appliance). Needless to say, we were shocked at the cost and started looking into solar options for both the pool and house. <br /><br />We first interviewed a national corporation which was installing solar on some neighbor houses. Although the salesperson was nice, the company only worked with electric panels and did not offer any products for solar heating our pool. Their quote included a standard 40 panels (seemed to be more than we needed) which would only address our electric bill and not our pool heating needs. Furthermore, internet searches revealed a poor national customer service. <br /><br />Doing my due diligence, I received another quote from Christina at Bay Area Solar. She was very knowledgeable, and provided honest guidance about what the most efficient solution would be for us. She asked us questions about our use and needs, as well as our current bills, and delivered a customized solution which included pool solar panels, household electric panels, a solar attic fan and a solar water heater for the home. This solution was designed to get us as close to net zero without producing more solar energy than we needed. Christina explained that excess energy would be bought back by the energy company at pennies on the dollar and was not worth the investment (the national company, however, was promoting excess energy production and tried to upsell us). Christina's quote came in over $10k lower than the competitor and was a full solution for both the house and pool. Furthermore, Bay Area Solar is a local company. As a small business owner, my husband and I felt we would rather support local business than a national corporation.<br /><br />I am thoroughly pleased with our choice to go with Bay Area Solar. I truly appreciate Christina's patience in answering all of our questions and sharing her extensive knowledge about how solar works with the energy companies and the federal rebate options. She did not gloss over anything or try to upsell. I found her to be honest, straight-forward, and easy to work with. The installation was done fairly quickly over a few days and she was onsite to answer questions and ensure everything went as planned. We are now able to easily monitor our solar production through a mobile app. Following the installation, Christina has continued to provide excellent customer service. When a storm caused a power outage, Christina was able to quickly identify that the power to the solar panels needed to be rebooted and walked us through the process so that we would not lose out on solar production. My current electric bills are running around $25/month, a drastic difference from the near $400 bills we were receiving, and that's only because we purchase extra surge protection! My pool now stays at a constant 80 degrees from the solar panels and does not require us to use the gas.<br /><br />I highly recommend Bay Area Solar for anyone looking into solar options in the area. They are rare professionals with pride in what they do and a genuine interest and respect for their customers.