12/06/2018
Anonymous
DURHAM, NC
8MSolar was fantastic to work with. I spoke directly to Usman, who owns the company and he gave me a great price, much less than Blue Raven solar was quoting me, for more solar panels. As a result, I decided to go with them. The process was incredibly quick – from signing to installation was about a month, including permitting. I don't think many companies could beat that. They explained everything to me and addressed all of my concerns. I had a 21 panel, 6.5 kilowatt system installed on my roof and run through my attic to the side of the house, and then it connected to the grid with a SolarEdge inverter box and a disconnect on the side of the house. The panels are from Silfab, a Canadian company as opposed to the Chinese-manufactured panels Blue Raven proposed. The installation looks very clean and professional. They were very accommodating regarding payment arrangements on the system – they allowed me to split the cash payment price across a few months in order to lessen the financial burden, which saved me a ton of money as opposed to the alternative the proposed which was solar financing from Admirals Bank. After looking at the costs, I didn't want to pay the financing charges from them. The system has been working for about a week now, and seems to be functioning well. I don't have anything to compare it against, so I will post the data from the SolarEdge monitoring system which uses my internet connection via a Zigbee adapter that plugs into my router and sends the data across the internet (which is really cool by the way and allows remote diagnosis of the system). In the last week, which was partly cloudy and towards the end of the year, I generated 118.28 kWh of electricity (from 11/30/2018 – 12/07/2018) and at around 12 cents per kWh, this is roughly $14 of electricity. I expect it to generate even more electricity during the summer months, but even at that lower winter rate of production, the system will pay for itself within 22 years. Assuming the cost of electricity goes up, and it definitely will when Duke power raises rates due to the coal ash incident, the math will work out more in my favor. Usman gave me his personal number during the installation process, and it was great to chat with him while work was being done on my house. The installation looks great, and I can barely even tell I have solar – it's seamless for me, everything works just like it did before. I don't have to have a backup battery as the installation is done in a way that Duke energy's grid is used to power my house at night. The surplus power I generate during the day is credited towards my account via net metering, so I can tap into it at night. Overall, I'd really recommend 8MSolar, they were genuinely about $9000 less than Blue Raven Solar's quote, and if you decide to go with them based off of my review, you can tell them that I sent you, as I believe they give referral credits. I ever move, I have been told that the system adds more value to the house than I paid for it, and I'd happily go with 8MSolar again. They are local to the Raleigh-Durham area, and all the engineers and installers are in North Carolina.