Review for NuWatt Energy

Office location: 400 Tradecenter Dr, Woburn MA, 01801

08/25/2023
Simon East Greenwich, RI

Run Far Away!

I had an excellent experience with NuWatt right up until the ink was barely dry on the contract. I will detail the issues that I experienced, and continue to experience. I will also preface the whole thing with the fact that, at least in Rhode Island, NuWatt subcontract everything even though they claim "our installers" and "our electricians" during the sales process. It was only after the contract was signed that I discovered this. You have been warned! The contract for the project was signed on 8th July, 2022. Immediately after signing the contract, I reiterated to Adan (my sales rep) in email (having previously mentioned this in phone calls) that while my address is in East Greenwich (quote) "...we pay taxes to the city of Warwick, and therefore the permits will need to be filed with Warwick and not East Greenwich". The response was "I will put it in the notes... it won't be the first time we have to deal with it". This is important to note for later. From 15th July when Josue introduced himself as my project manager until 12th August, I heard nothing at all from NuWatt. I eventually texted Adan on 12th August to see if there was any movement with the REF grant and was told that an approval letter was expected shortly. Nothing then until 27th August when I checked in with Adan again. I was told that there had been a lot of REF applications but that something was expected soon. Nothing then until 15th September when I checked in with Adan again. I was told that they were (quote) "asking for some stuff" for the REF grant but that NuWatt would probably know something by the end of the month. Nothing then until 12th October when Adan informed me that (quote) "...we're just waiting for the permit to be approved so that we can schedule you for installation" and requesting that I initiate the first payment with Umass5, which I did. Umass5 sent payment out on 17th October. Nothing then until 1st November when I asked what was happening with the permits. I was told by Adan that they still hadn't been approved. I asked him to get back to me with any application numbers etc so that I could go and chase City Hall. Remarkably, 4 hours later, he let me know that they had been approved. On 8th November I was informed by Adan that installation was scheduled for 16th November. This was only after I asked for an update. On 15th November I texted Adan to make sure that the installation was going ahead the next day. Again, with remarkable timing, Adan had "...just got word that it looks like your installation is being pushed back to the 30th". I guarantee that if I hadn't messaged to make sure the installation was still on track, I would have been sat home the next morning waiting for a crew that never arrived. The installation actually happened on 28th November, and I have nothing but good things to say about the installation crew. Their work was excellent. I asked the electrician if he could confirm which municipality the permits had been pulled from, but he wasn't able to check. This seemed odd. On 12th December I received an update from Adan that (quote) "...there was an administrative issue with your permit, something to do with your address, which we're working to fix now". I asked Adan and Josue if the issue was that the permits had been requested from East Greenwich rather than Warwick. Josue eventually replied on 14th December and admitted that they had been pulled from East Greenwich despite the fact that I had stated on multiple occasions that they needed to be pulled from Warwick. I won't bore you with the rest of the details, but Aiman Alawa (the owner of NuWatt) got involved and assured me that this was just a blip, that it wasn't the way NuWatt usually do business, blah blah blah. I wish that was true. In April of this year one of the panels started to only produce 2/3rds the power of its neighbors. I noticed in May and notified NuWatt. On 1st June 2023 they sent out an electrcian to look at the panel, and subsequent to that informed me that Enphase had asked them to wait 24 hours and check again. I informed them on 5th June 2023 that nothing had changed, and they stated "Let us check this with EnPhase and Panasonic for further clarification and we will get back to you." Since that date, more than 2 months ago, there has been no information at all from NuWatt. The panel in question has been completely dead (zero output) since 13th August 2023. They no longer reply to emails about the problem. I am currently in the process of filing a non-responsive installer claim with Panasonic, and requesting that they assign a competent and responsive installer to diagnose and fix the problem. In short, run far, far away from NuWatt if you value your time and sanity.