03/04/2011
John Kriz
Solar Energy Services, Inc. took the time to understand what my goals were for wanting to install a solar hot water system. After understanding my goals, they recommended a system design that would meet those needs. They also discussed the pros and cons of various system types available, educating me along the way. Costs to install, operate, and maintain were discussed up front and an accurate expectation of system performance was communicated. The system is made up of very high quality components sourced from companies with long commercial history. I have no doubt this system will be very durable and also be supportable for a long time. Each site has its own installation challenges and they also took the time to explain what those were for my site and how they would deal with each one. The system installation was started and completed early. The install crew was clean and careful of the house and property and arrived on time each day. The system works well and the installation is very neat. I would highly recommend SES.<br />The incentive programs are `payback` in nature and in some cases approval is not certain. This greatly increases the difficulty in paying for an install, as all the funds are required up front. The unintended effect of this is limited access to low income households where decreased utility costs would be beneficial and have a positive payoff. Use of SRECs for solar hot water would help to alleviate this barrier and also provide greater incentive for installation of systems that provide high payback. Solar thermal makes much more sense to install rather than PV for most households.