Comparing 3 Solar Quotes

[dlmb1004]

I have three solar quotes so far (with one more coming tomorrow).

Company 1 (Solar City)
8.5kW system
31 Trina panels
Microinverters
$24K

Company 2
7.8kW system
24 SunPower panels
SunPower microinverters
$36K

Company 3
5.8kW System - this is too small so I just requested a quote for an 8kW system - I'm guessing it will be close to $30K.
22 Kyocera Panels
Solar Edge inverter
$20K

EDIT: I received the 4th quote:

Company 4:
8.0 kW system
32 Renesola Panels
Solar Edge inverter
$24K

What do you guys think?

[Dave1478]

Somethines wrong.. Why is solar city at 24k? That's $2.82 a watt. Company 3 is right in line of what a system should cost at $3.44. What strings are attached with solar city? What equipment? Why so low?

[dlmb1004]

I know. I was quite surprised. This is an outright purchase from Solar City. The proposal says $24,294 for a 8.5 kW system (31 Trina panels) with a 20 year warranty. I have a seperate quote from them for a PPA, which I do not want to do.

[tru2logan]

I am assuming the solar city quote is after the 30% tax credits maybe???

[dlmb1004]

Actually, the $24,294 is before any incentives. The proposal subtracts $7,288 for the Federal Tax Credit, bringing the net cost down to $17,006. I may also qualify for a 25% rebate through my city (if I can get my appraised value down about 30K thousand dollars - I'm working on quotes for that now).

[NYHeel]

I actually saw someone else on a different message board that received a sub $3 a watt quote for a purchase from Solar City. It was in Colorado I believe. What state are you in? Seems weird. I wonder if there's something that isn't included.

[Stopsignhank1]

Yeah, something does not seem right about the Solar City bid. My boss put in a system a little bit smaller than that and is was 37K. But he also did the 30 year payment plan with them. It is a purchase but he is paying for it for 30 years. Maybe this is a cash price? Or there is a catch somewhere.

[J.P.M.]

From what I've seen of their work and from my dealings with them, I wouldn't let SolarCity on my property if they were giving systems away. I don't think I could afford it. Just my opinion.

[dlmb1004]

I actually saw someone else on a different message board that received a sub $3 a watt quote for a purchase from Solar City. It was in Colorado I believe. What state are you in? Seems weird. I wonder if there's something that isn't included.

I am in Texas.

[dlmb1004]

Yeah, something does not seem right about the Solar City bid. My boss put in a system a little bit smaller than that and is was 37K. But he also did the 30 year payment plan with them. It is a purchase but he is paying for it for 30 years. Maybe this is a cash price? Or there is a catch somewhere.

This is their cash purchase price. I have a seperate quote for a PPA from them but I want to purchase solar panels, not pay an inflated price for electricity for 20 years. I don't think there is a catch. I have a few questions pending for their reps.

[dlmb1004]

From what I've seen of their work and from my dealings with them, I wouldn't let SolarCity on my property if they were giving systems away. I don't think I could afford it. Just my opinion.

I've heard this before. Why do they have a bad reputation? Is their equipment bad or their installs? Several neighbors have PPA's through Solar City and they all seem happy. PPA isn't for me, but I'm interested to know why I should stay away from a direct purchase with them - if their quote is so much lower than the others.

[J.P.M.]

I've heard this before. Why do they have a bad reputation? Is their equipment bad or their installs? Several neighbors have PPA's through Solar City and they all seem happy. PPA isn't for me, but I'm interested to know why I should stay away from a direct purchase with them - if their quote is so much lower than the others.

I can't speak for others, but trying to deal with them for 9 installs, one of which was removed after litigation was threatened, led me to the conclusion I posted.

I listed 11 reasons for my opinion and then deleted them as I don't want to get into a flame war with those having less experience in dealing with SolarCity, more than a few of whom I'd guess are SolarCity customers who think I'm calling them bad names or impugning their intelligence. Defending an opinion (mine) that is, to me, a matter of common sense to anyone possessed of an eye and a balloon knot gets old after a while.

I'll sum the 11 reasons up by saying that IMO only, SolarCity is unprofessional in dealing with their customers and others, the quality of their installs is, IMO only lower than many other (good) vendors, and they seem to be IMO only, less honest with their customers than other (good) vendors. Other than that, I'll leave it with my usual take what you want of the above and scrap the rest proviso.

One thing I will say in SolarCity's defense. They claim that a customer can cancel a job right up until installation. That's happened twice that I know of.

[ncs55]

I hate to say it, but you are correct IMO. National solar companies are so big, that little things like design, quality control and customer service is lacking or non existent. And I hear this straight from the customers mouth's when I have to repair a so called top quality install. There are a lot of people that have quality issues with their installations that the National installer just will not address. Sadly most of the customers who need resolution, are dealing with the large or National companies. the smaller companies will usually fix the issue and darn quick as they cannot afford to loose that happy customer referral.

[rsilvers]

Solar City quoted me $6.40 per watt two years ago. I would be shocked if they were under $4.50 per watt now.

[rsilvers]

You may want to ask which ones will run conduit in the attic rather than on your roof. Which ones will relocate plumbing vents, etc.

[ncs55]

Those issues should be addressed in the initial site evaluation. Any good Solar company will see the issues on the roof like venting etc and ask about the preference of how the conduit is run, right up front as these things will affect the cost and or quality of the installation.

[rsilvers]

Out of six quotes, no one asked about my preference on how conduit would be run, and I didn't know to ask until I saw some websites on -ugly solar installs-, but that was after I got the prices. So I really don't know which of the quotes would have been the nice way vs the ugly way. I can say that driving around and seeing solar, the majority of installs have visible conduit, but I can think of two nearby ones that have concealed.

When I picked a company and their install guy came to visit (as opposed to the initial sales visit with a different person), he said (without me mentioning it) that he would run the conduit inside the attic and put junction boxes in the attic and go into the roof below a panel.

I then asked the electrician who came to diagram my generator wiring about roof conduit to see what he thought about it. He said a lot of home-owners do not want them to penetrate the roof to put conduit in the attic, but they do it either way depending on homeowner preference.

Then a measurement team came (two guys took 2.5 hours to measure my roof) and also recorded vent locations.

Today I got the updated proposal with the actual number of modules. I noticed that if a roof vent were moved, one more panel could get on to the end of a string. So I asked that designer guy about moving the roof vent, and he said that they usually don't move them as part of the initial proposal unless the home owner asks for them to be moved, but moving it would be no problem. He updated the design to have an extra panel where the vent was.

[ncs55]

That sounds like a solid company. They did their homework so that they could give you an accurate quote. Most people do not know to ask for this as you have experienced.

[J.P.M.]

You may want to ask which ones will run conduit in the attic rather than on your roof. Which ones will relocate plumbing vents, etc.

I'd make such things part of any request for proposal or part of any contract and see what comes back.