Roy Webb, a recent retiree living in southern California, is looking more closely at his electric bills these days.
“Living in southern California and having no control over SDG&E (they plan a rate hike of 10+% in September) and with the recent shutdown of the San Onofre nuclear power station, I can only imagine we’re going to continue to see rates increase,” Roy explained. “To help control my cost of living, I decided to investigate solar. Years ago, the initial deterrent to going solar was price. However, over the past several years the costs have come down and there are different options available now, including solar leasing and federal tax rebates, that make solar more affordable.”
“I started investigating installers and received six bids. One thing I learned, after some research, was to stay away from inexpensive, cheaply made panels,” he stated. “They may cost less initially, but quality and long-term reliability were of significant concern to me, since I plan to rely on this solar electric system for decades to come.”
“I insisted on Kyocera solar panels – there will be no low-quality panels on my roof!”
Roy established his criteria for installers as follows:
- Must have been in the solar business for more than 10 years
- References were a major factor. (Roy called four or five of the references and visited customer sites as well.)
- Must offer modules from various manufacturers
- Module manufacturer needed to be well-established and stand behind their products (recently, several solar manufacturers have stopped making modules.)
- Must have a warranty on the modules and system output for a 20- to 25-year duration.
- Avoid companies that offer a computer or baseball tickets as a bonus when you sign up with them. (Roy checked web reviews and the Better Business Bureau, too.)
After reviewing six bids and staying true to his criteria, Roy chose Sullivan Solar, located in San Diego, to install his rooftop solar electric system.
“Sullivan Solar was very competitive and had excellent references,” Roy said. “They supported my choice to use Kyocera modules and from salesperson to project manager to installers were all professional and communicated well throughout the process.”
Why did Roy choose Kyocera panels?
“Quality,” he said. “Kyocera will stand behind their products – and is committed to producing high-quality products with outstanding reliability.”
Roy’s rooftop, grid-tied system is 7.35 kilowatts in size. The 30 Kyocera 245GX panels were installed and producing clean energy from the sun within eight weeks of signing the contract with Sullivan Solar.
“The entire process far exceeded my expectations,” Roy noted. “The solar power generated by this system will replace a minimum of 80% of my electricity needs.”
Now Roy is watching his electric meter go in reverse. With net metering, he only gets an electric bill once a year from SDG&E. His system features live monitoring so he can see how much clean, renewable electricity the system is producing on an hourly, daily, or monthly basis.
“In summary, I’m very happy with how the procurement process went and my system performance is beyond what I expected,” Roy stated. “Kyocera solar is the way to go!”