The system price is decent. The big differentiator though is that I wouldn't have to finance or lease the system and it would be paid off within a year. Our company is part of a barter group where you can pay for services/goods with trade and they actually have a member who does solar and will accept 60% of the job in trade dollars. The remaining 40% would almost be completely covered by the income tax credit.
Seems kind of like a no brainer right? I would love to get the top of the line SunPower stuff but the financial differences are huge. There are some down sides which is why I haven't moved forward with it yet.
First is the company itself. Very very small, almost not trace of them online except for a BBB listing with an "F" rating and 2 complaints from 2011.
They've only done 7 installs from what I've found with another 2 in the process, 4 of the installs were back in 2011 and everything else is in the past 2 months of this year. They are licensed so that's a positive and I actually spoke with someone who had their system installed by them in 2011 and they said everything went fine, haven't had any problems with the system or any leaks. Only negative thing she had to say was that the company is slow to return your calls. There's another install they did about a mile from where I live so I want to stop by there and talk to those people as well.
Second is the equipment, which is why I was asking about how good Centro Solar panels are. Is it good? Good enough? I imagine it's probably along the lines of a Canadian Solar or similar and people seem fine with those.
Third is even though the trade we'd be paying with is already in inventory, it would actually cost us in lost sales so it's not like it's free...of course what we sell it for in trade is more than what our cost internally is so it's still not a bad deal.
They said that the process would go pretty quick, design process done within a week, then submit for permits, which shouldn't take more than a week and then they'd be out to install and finish up within 3 weeks. It would take APS possibly up to another month to turn the system on but actually having it up on the roof would be 3 weeks. Sound reasonable? Payment wise they want 15% down payment, 15% after the design, 60% after the install and 10% when it's turned on. They WILL accept credit card if we pay the 2.8% transaction fee which I'd be ok with to have the security if something doesn't go as promised.
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Business restructuring occurs frequently. Sounds like creditors have had enough with several of their companies but are apparently backing their US operations.
I'd go for it if it's a significantly better deal than using SunPower panels. I assume they offer financing / leasing. What's the savings over the SunPower stuff?
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Centro Solar panels and company?
Anyone have input on Centro Solar panels and company as a whole? I got a quote from someone using these panels and initially they seemed great...Germany company with their US HQ and manufacturing right here in Scottsdale, AZ. Then I heard that the Germany company is filing or already has filed for bankruptcy.
Anyone have experience with them?
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