Major players in the residential market vs. local installers - which is better?

[rsilvers]

I would just go by who I thought would do a better job, regardless of their company size, and not factor in if they are national or not.

[Jacksonv]

Hey guys, here's my interest: I have no intention to DIY solar for my place. I will go with a company.

My main question is in the subject line. Tell me your thoughts on the benefits of going with a national company or a local installer.

Also, what criteria are most important for you when considering solar?

Hey Gwelty,

I'd say that it all depends on where you're located.

Some of the downfalls of a national company are: They deal at scale, meaning there isn't always the customer experience that--well--that there should be quite frankly. Also, there isn't a customer connection, it's a more commercial environment, you don't generally receive the same treatment you would from a local installer.

Now, some of the cons with mom&pop shops are that they: Might not always have the experience (have heard horror stories of borderline mal-practice), and it may not be as professional.

That being said, I prefer the local companies generally. I'm out of Jacksonville and went with solar company in Jacksonville a local company that I'd heard advertising on the radio. They did a fine job, quoted me lower than the big boys did, and the service was fine. Overall, they probably weren't as timely as say a national brand would've been most likely, but at the end of the day, I'm willing to sacrifice that to give some locals the business.

MOD NOTE. Please do not attach any links to other solar companies.

[stellarbrooks]

Go with the local guys. If you look at SolarReviews.com of both reputable local companies and big box national companies, you'll find that the big guys have overwhelmingly worse reviews. The big guns seem to just do crappy installs, so if you're looking to get your roof punctured then go with them.

[Rade]

We went with Generac. Several of my neighbors have had the "door-knocker" solar companies slap systems on their roofs. One did that "we want to lease your roof and send you a check each month", two others financed the installations. The first one with the leased roof option, her panels stopped working after a couple weeks (this was in April), and she has been dealing with a lot of finger-pointing about who is responsible for problem determination on the panels and inverter. Last I heard, it's still offline. Of the other two, one has had a similar experience, but at least got the issues resolved after a period of time following a round-robin of phone calls. Both of them have the aluminum pipes running all over the roof line.

In early 2022, we shopped around before making a decision; talked with several regional / local installers. Looked at various bids. Watched every YouTube video on the various products (Generac, Tesla, etc.). Took all of the above into consideration and came to the conclusion that we're too old to want to deal with grass-roots problem determination, so we went with Generac. One company, Generac's logo is on everything. Panels, inverter and batteries. The installation went well; REALLY nicely installed. Panels tight to the roof, no God-awful wiring pipes running all over the place. No third-party anything. We have had a couple of issues, but one phone call or text to our regional rep and the problems were resolved. One required a tech visit, the others were resolved OTA. System seems to be working fine. We're in our 4th month.

What also really impressed us was our regional rep. We knew beginning of 2022 that we wanted to get solar installed. Met with the various reps, but needed to put the project on hold while we had an addition built on our home. The addition linked a garage to the main house, and we wanted to use the garage roof and house roof for panels. Of the reps, the local Generac rep returned our calls. He coordinated information between our building contractor and the Generac electrician so that we were able to pre-wire the addition with the cable runs for the garage solar. They really went above and beyond. Very pleased with the service from the local rep and with the installation.

[Calsun]

Either way you are going to want to have a local dealer doing the installation and providing any warranty work. The panels are likely to outlive you but inverters seldom make it more than 10 years. Most important is the choice of inverter in terms of its features and capabilities. Solis for example provides wifi and a smartphone app whereas with Sunpower they resell inverters with RS485 which dates back to the 1980's.