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Where to get solar from?
- Thread starter stonefocus
- Start date
There’s the Energy Forum on here you should check out and post to. A number of customers I’ve seen posting are from Fremont. If you want power during an outage you’ll also want to consider battery back up like the PowerWall.
Tesla Energy
ucmndd
Well-Known Member
Tesla only sells direct now (for solar panels that is, powerwalls can be purchased from third party installers).
Nobody will beat them on price (by a potentially large margin), but the trade-off is cookie-cutter design and hands-off customer service. If you're ok with that, they provide great value.
Nobody will beat them on price (by a potentially large margin), but the trade-off is cookie-cutter design and hands-off customer service. If you're ok with that, they provide great value.
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boriszima
Member
Wrong forum. But if i had waited long enough, I would have went with Tesla. as mentioned, less expensive, quality hardware, and top notch warranty on paper. Of course it is cheaper because you have to take photos, paperworks, etc with the city (from what i read).
Hi all,
I purchased a home and want to get a solar (Area is Fremont, CA)
Simple question, where should I get a solar from?
Order directly from Tesla? or from third party company who provide Tesla solar?
Also, can I finance solar system through Tesla or other providers?
Please share your experience. Any comment would be super helpful.
I purchased a home and want to get a solar (Area is Fremont, CA)
Simple question, where should I get a solar from?
Order directly from Tesla? or from third party company who provide Tesla solar?
Also, can I finance solar system through Tesla or other providers?
Please share your experience. Any comment would be super helpful.
"Where you should get solar from" depends on what your goals are with your install, and your knowledge around what you might want. Tesla will have the cheapest price, but in general you will need to manage the project somewhat like a general contractor.
You didnt put any specific information here ("where should I get solar from" is a bit like "what car should I buy?", without any qualifying information), so it appears to me that you are at the information gathering stage. You dont appear to be at the "ordering" stage as of yet, but maybe you already have all the information you need?
There are companies that offer solar / PV loans, but you need to look into what those repayment schedules and such look like.
thanks for your advice.
I totally get that and I am information gathering stage.
Could you help me find what kinds of questions should I ask myself?
And could you elaborate more on "manage the project somewhat like a general contractor"?
thanks again!
1. Why do I want to install solar? What am I hoping to gain out of it?
2. What age is the roof on my home? Do I need a new roof before I start thinking about solar?
3.I just moved into this home, do I have a solid idea on what my electrical usage will be in this home month to month for a 12 month period, through summer and winter. Can I make a good guess?
4. Am I considering an electric car (or another one) or things like a pool (if I dont have one) or a hot tub (if I dont already have one)
5. do I enjoy chasing things down and following up with people I hire to do things for me, or do I expect a "white glove" type of approach where I pay money and someone walks me through every step of the process, answering all my questions as I go?
6. Assuming I want the "someone showing me every step of the process as I go" customer service (who wouldnt) am I prepared to pay more for it (maybe substantially more)?
7. Does my home have a roof that tesla will even install on, or do I have some material on my roof that is not supported by them, necessitating a specialty third party installer who will likely work with my special roof (and charge me for it)
There are more, but that should get you started.
EDIT: Someone else posted on these boards (which I absolutely agree with, so am stealing their statement) that people need to look at purchasing solar like a construction project on their home. Its not like buying a car. Its like re doing your kitchen or something.
Think of all the questions you might ask a contractor if you were re doing your kitchen. Layout, appliances, how long is the install going to take, permits, etc. All the same on a solar install. or solar with batteries, except the appliances are the solar panels and / or optimizers , microinverters / inverters etc.
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By manage the project I am pretty sure j means that Tesla is a volume installer. If something gets hung up they will get to it eventually, but don't expect them to check with the city and saying where are our permits. Telsa will just call you and say "we have not got the permits we cannot install you next week". You may have to call the city.county and see what the hangup is. Then relay to Tesla that the city says they never got their permit application.
That is, be ready to advocate and intervene. I am type AAAA when it comes to this stuff, so it does not effect me. But if you just want to sit back, you may or may not get things done in the fastest manner.
That is, be ready to advocate and intervene. I am type AAAA when it comes to this stuff, so it does not effect me. But if you just want to sit back, you may or may not get things done in the fastest manner.
Oh yeah, I didnt answer the OP on what I ment by "manage the project like a general contractor". That was a bit of hyperbole on my part, for sure, but what you are saying is an example of what I was talking about.
OP, what I ment by "manage the project like a general contractor" is that you will have someone in a call center who will be assigned to you, but YOU will be the "boots on the ground at your home" If you dont really care about install time, and choose tesla, they will get to things eventually. They are handling so much volume, its difficult for them to hand hold anyone.
You need to have specific questions, like "I would like to know what the warranty is on Panel XYZ that you install". You need to understand what your needs are for electricity. You should know what roofing type you have on your roof, and its current life expectancy.
Tesla tries not to come on site to do site walk throughs... they will have you take pictures and use satellite imagery. They will come on site if something flags they should, but they are driving costs down by removing much of the handholding people who are doing a construction project would expect.
On the other hand, people who have done all their research themselves, know what size system they should be getting for their usage, and can point to what they are after / what they want (and dont have issues sometimes prodding tesla along) can get a great price for a PV system that is hard for anyone else to touch.
RayK
Active Member
I would recommend the sun
. Okay, enough me being a smart@ss.I installed solar on our house Dec. 2010 using Real Goods Solar (RGS Energy). I believe they have since gone under. Ours is a 3.1kW (AC Power CEC) system and was designed to generate enough electricity to break even over the year. System consists of 20 ET Solar panels which have now been surpassed by more efficient ones. Monitoring of the power generated is done using an Enphase Envoy box. It communicates with the 20 Enphase microinverters via the power line and provides access to the data via the internet (link below).
System was installed a long time before I bought the Model 3 and I have still not setup the HPWC in the garage. We are currently on the E-6 TOU plan from PG&E but that will be going away in a year or two. Reliability has been great after the original 10 microinverters were replaced under warranty after about 3 years.
I would talk to a couple of solar installers and get quotes on what they propose. You should be asked for at least the last year of electrical bills (probably not possible if you just bought the house) to get an idea of your usage. Best orientation for your house would be to have lots of south-facing roof area without any shadows up to about 6pm. You might be given an option to use either a single inverter (converts DC voltage from the panels to AC voltage), sometimes referred as string, or microinverters (usually one for each or a pair of panels). Single inverter design may lose power generation if any single panel gets shaded or goes offline in the string of panels. Microinverters convert DC voltage to AC at the back of each panel (or pair of panels) and if the panel is shaded or fail, you only lose that portion of power that panel generates; the rest keep on trucking. Con for microinverters is that they're more expensive and introduce multiple points of failure in the system. Con for a single inverter is that if it goes, the entire system goes down.
I would NOT recommend leasing a system, unless you are planning not to stay in your house for the long term. Purchasing outright is more expensive (out-of-pocket costs) but I think is more cost effective in the long run. I believe that owning a system will allow YOU to receive all of the tax / rebate benefits, instead of the leasing company. Obviously your own finances and plans will determine what you choose.
ref: Kawakami
Moderator note: The preceding posts in this thread are a combination of threads started in two different forums.
Bruce.
Bruce.
There are great threads in this sub-forum on solar and battery. The good news is that residential solar panels are a fairly mature technology and there are lots of articles on sites like EnergySage and even my favorite (sarcasm) company, PG&E.
The battery portion of a potential installation is a much more recent development and that can make your head spin since the options out there more particular and getting the installation for resiliency is different than an installation to achieve better economics to manage time-of-use rates.
If you do reach out to Tesla to try and save the most bucks, keep in mind they're going to try to apply a cookie cutter approach to you and be less attune to making the system optimized for your individual desires. If you have a very unique your home setup and are and picky about how your investment will play out; you may benefit by going to a local shop that is more likely to give you informed flexibility and optionality.
I have some personal recommendations on what NOT to do though...
1) Don't get a PACE loan; the rates are terrible and the lien it places on your mortgage can be a huge headache. There are much better ways to finance solar and batteries than a PACE loan.
2) Stay away from "subscription" solar or "solar leases". Lots of companies market a product that baits customers away from paying their energy utility for electricity but instead pays the solar lease over some period of time. The economics to do this arrangement usually have very poor effective interest rates, and homeowners can easily run into difficult legal issues that are difficult to un-tangle over time. As much as I dislike PG&E, most solar leases are worse.
3) Since you're in California you could be dealing with the SGIP incentive on energy backup/battery solutions. This is one of the most complicated consumer incentive programs that I've ever encountered. Save yourself a big headache and do not try to unravel this SGIP thing on your own. Companies like the one @Vines works for have done the legwork to figure out the best incentive combinations and can also help submit for the incentive. I've been trying to submit for the "large scale" SGIP on my own over the last month and the CPUC literally denied me saying individual homeowners can't submit on their own anymore even though it clearly says on their site that homeowners should be eligible for self-submission.
The battery portion of a potential installation is a much more recent development and that can make your head spin since the options out there more particular and getting the installation for resiliency is different than an installation to achieve better economics to manage time-of-use rates.
If you do reach out to Tesla to try and save the most bucks, keep in mind they're going to try to apply a cookie cutter approach to you and be less attune to making the system optimized for your individual desires. If you have a very unique your home setup and are and picky about how your investment will play out; you may benefit by going to a local shop that is more likely to give you informed flexibility and optionality.
I have some personal recommendations on what NOT to do though...
1) Don't get a PACE loan; the rates are terrible and the lien it places on your mortgage can be a huge headache. There are much better ways to finance solar and batteries than a PACE loan.
2) Stay away from "subscription" solar or "solar leases". Lots of companies market a product that baits customers away from paying their energy utility for electricity but instead pays the solar lease over some period of time. The economics to do this arrangement usually have very poor effective interest rates, and homeowners can easily run into difficult legal issues that are difficult to un-tangle over time. As much as I dislike PG&E, most solar leases are worse.
3) Since you're in California you could be dealing with the SGIP incentive on energy backup/battery solutions. This is one of the most complicated consumer incentive programs that I've ever encountered. Save yourself a big headache and do not try to unravel this SGIP thing on your own. Companies like the one @Vines works for have done the legwork to figure out the best incentive combinations and can also help submit for the incentive. I've been trying to submit for the "large scale" SGIP on my own over the last month and the CPUC literally denied me saying individual homeowners can't submit on their own anymore even though it clearly says on their site that homeowners should be eligible for self-submission.
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