Solaire Energy Systems

I had to fight to get the price I wanted.

The company was very professional and worked with me to get the optimum setup and value. Pricing slightly lower than competitors and delivery of energy in line with quote. I have had no problems with the install or product. Would highly recommend!

It went excellent, there were no problems at all.  Their estimate matched the exact final cost and was very competitive with other companies.  They handled all the permits, inspections and all the connections changes with the power company.   They also were able to get everything installed and completed in our 30 day time frame before the end of the year for tax purposes.  I would highly recommend them.

We've been very happy with them. They completed the insulation in early January of this year and the system has been in operation since then. Everything in total was $44000 and we got 30% rebate in addition to that. We were very pleased with their performance, the customer service was superb, I think everybody that we had contact with all were on top of the project and they kept me informed. There were some minor delays that weren't their fault but the city's when they came to do their inspections.

Very professional. Our sales woman Genavieve gave us information and listened to our concerns. She seemed very well informed and answered all our questionsl. She was sensitive to our concerns regarding the curb appeal of our home and helped us select the perfect panels. There were some challenges for the installers with the wiring etc. because of the layout and design of our home but they were also professionals and did an excellant job. We consider it an investment in our home and would recommend Solaire highly. <br />

They were fantastic. I like their communication, workmanship and professionalism. I can’t come up with anything that they did wrong. Their timeliness on the project is perfect. They were absolutely ahead of schedule. The midrange on their price and for what they did was just absolutely fantastic. They answered every e-mail, they returned every phone call and they were on time for everything.

<br /> Again, my experience was virtually identical to the review from 11/23/2011.  I had to do almost nothing.  Solaire handled all the paperwork.  All I had to do was read and sign what they prepared.  They emailed me forms when I needed to sign them.  I printed them, signed them, scanned them and emailed them back.  They also set up all appointments for inspections and kept me informed as to when they would need me to be at the house. <br /> When the modules arrived from the manufacturer, they called and scheduled an installation date.  I was lucky in that they had a cancellation and they were able to start within a week.  On Monday 6/25, when they showed up, Jake, the foreman, explained what would be happening for the next two days.  In a nutshell, they installed all the panels on Monday and did all the wiring and electrical connections on Tuesday.  The city code inspector came Wednesday and now I'm just waiting for SDG&E to inspect and give their approval to turn on the system. <br /> As a side note, I'd like to explain why I gave a B for Price.  I am very happy with the price I paid because I got the best modules at a pretty good price, the value I got was very good.  But there are cheaper systems out there.  If the category had been Value, I would have given an A, but since it was Price, I had to give a B.

In this review, I'll describe Solaire?s job installing our solar-electric system, but I'll also review Solaire's sales presentation that led me to decide to purchase the system. <br /> <br /> My initial contact with Solaire was with Mark, who set up an appointment at our house with a Solaire "energy consultant." Mark asked me to assemble a stack of our electric bills for the past year so that our electricity usage could be audited. <br /> <br /> Min Lee, Solaire's energy consultant, arrived on Sept 30, entered the electric usage data from our utility bills, and performed an energy analysis for our home. Min also explained how San Diego Gas & Electric (SDGE) bills its electric customers. SDGE uses a 4-tier pricing scheme. For single-family homes, like ours, monthly charges are: <br /> <br />      14c per kWh for kWh   0-347 (tier 1) <br />      17c per kWh for kWh 348-451 (tier 2) <br />      31c per kWh for kWh 452-694 (tier 3) <br />      33c per kWh for kWh 695 and above (tier 4) <br /> <br /> From our electric bills, Min determined that our average monthly usage over the past year was 700 kWh, and our maximum monthly usage (during August) was about 1200 kWh. <br /> <br /> Min stated, to be minimally effective, a solar photovoltaic (PV) system should generate enough power to eliminate tier 3 and 4 charges. Some additional savings can be gained by eliminating tier 1 and 2 charges. If the PV system generates more power than the house uses, the excess is fed backwards through the electric meter into the grid for a billing credit. With a sufficiently large PV system, an electric bill can be reduced to just a few dollars per month. Even larger PV systems can result in the electric company paying the homeowner for surplus electricity. <br /> <br /> Min presented two alternative systems to us. One, consisting of nine 230-watt solar panels, would eliminate tier 3 and 4 charges for most of the year, and would cost $14,680 after federal tax credits. A larger, 12-panel system would eliminate tier 2, 3, and 4 charges throughout the year and tier 1 charges for about half the year. The 12-panel system would cost $18,380 after the tax credits. The break-even point -- the time for the system to pay for itself in utility bill savings -- was estimated to be 5-8 years assuming that SDGE continues to raise its rates as it has been doing for the past decade. <br /> <br /> We opted for a12-panel, 2,760-watt PV system, using SunPower SPR-230-WHT solar panels and a SunPower SPR-3000m inverter. The solar panels have an 18.5% efficiency rating and include a 25-year warranty. The inverter comes with a 10-year warranty. <br /> <br /> The total cost of the 12-panel system, installed, inspected, and permitted was $26,752 before energy tax credits and rebates. A $495 California Solar Initiative (CSI) rebate would be provided directly to Solaire, and we would claim a $7,877 federal tax credit on our next year's tax return. We could pay the remaining cost immediately or we could finance it at 0% for one year through an arrangement that Solaire has with EnerBank. At the end of that one year, we could either pay the remaining amount in full or we could refinance the balance. We chose the 0% loan from EnerBank, which we initiated over the phone during Min's visit. <br /> <br /> About a week later, Jeff Fisk arrived from Solaire to survey the roof of our house. Jeff measured and diagrammed our standard, California red tile roof and determined the amount of sunlight that falls on each of the roof's slopes. From the survey, he determined that the best location for the PV panels was on the south-facing roof. Jeff returned to Solarie's offices to draw up the plans for installation and the City permitting process. Jeff estimated that the installation would be able to start in 4-6 weeks, with most of the delay taken by getting the permits and inspections. <br /> <br /> On Monday, Oct 24, Solaire emailed me copies of the solar system component specifications and certifications, along with installation plans that Jeff Fisk had drawn and which would be submitted to the City of San Diego. On Tuesday, Oct 25, Solaire forwarded paperwork to me for completion that would be sent to CSI for a rebate. On Wednesday, Oct 26, SDGE emailed me that Solaire had submitted an application for "net metering" on my behalf. On Thursday, Oct 27, Solaire emailed me stating they had received the permit from the City, and that installation of our system was imminent. A copy of the permit was attached to the email. I called Solaire and scheduled the installation to start on Monday, Oct 31. <br /> <br /> On Friday, Oct 28, SDGE replaced my electric meter with a "net metering" meter. Unlike a regular meter, a net meter measures the flow of electricity both ways: meter-to-house and house-to-meter. The net meter is needed for our PV system to put surplus electricity onto the grid, and to get credit for it. <br /> <br /> On Monday, Oct 31, Jake and Brennyn arrived from Solaire to install our solar-electric system. They said the installation would take four days, with part of the last day dedicated to their training me how to run the system. They did not need to come inside the house, nor did they have to go into the attic: All work would be done from the outside. They explained the installation process to me and answered my questions ? all very polite and very professional. <br /> <br /> Installation proceeded, on schedule, without problems, and consisted -- from what I could tell -- of three major components. First were the twelve solar panels on the roof of the house. Second was the inverter --  two grey boxes mounted outside my house next to the electric meter. Cables, contained within metal conduits, connected the equipment on the roof to the inverter, and the inverter to the circuit-breaker panel and electric meter. As part of their attention to detail, Jake and Brennyn painted the metal conduits to match the color of the stucco on the side of the house. The third component was a small device to plug into an interior electrical outlet in my house and connect to my Internet router. The device reads performance data sent from the inverter over the electrical wires in my house. From there the data is sent to a SunPower monitoring facility. This will alert SunPower to any malfunction in my system, and also lets me monitor the system's performance via the Internet. As the final part of their installation, Jake and Brennyn completely cleaned-up after themselves. Aside from the actual installation, you could not tell that anyone had been working at the house. <br /> <br /> On Monday, Nov 7, Jeff Fisk and Angel, from Solaire, accompanied the City inspector to our house. The inspector found a minor issue, which Solaire fixed, and the system passed City inspection. On Wednesday, Nov 16, Solaire emailed a copy of the City inspection card for my records. They also emailed instructions for registering my system with SunPower, which enabled me to watch my system's performance via the Internet. Finally, on Thursday, Nov 17, SDGE emailed me that my system had passed SDGE?s inspection and could be turned on, which I did on Nov 18. <br /> <br /> So, how well does our solar-electric system perform, and does it live up to Solaire's promises? On a clear day, the SunPower Monitor website shows that our system generates about 9 kWh per day. Once we clear some trees that are casting a shadow on the solar panels (which Solaire warned us about during the initial site survey), the daily rate should get better. Even on cloudy days, the backward-pointing arrow on our electric meter showed that during the day we were satisfying our home?s electric consumption and putting excess energy into the grid. Quantitatively, our electric consumption for Nov 2010 was 577 kWh, which put us solidly in tier 3 of SDGE's pricing structure. At 9 kWh per day (before tree-topping), the PV system will generate 270 kWh this November. This makes our current SDGE usage 577 - 270 = 307 kWh, which