![]() It was the only one of the three that recommended the removal of trees though. The third company offered an identically sized system to the first with similar promises. It also had no Automatic Transfer Switch and so would not have backed up the entire home in an outage with a battery that would’ve struggled anyway due to its limited size when compared to the home’s needs. This would’ve supplied roughly 53% of the home’s needs. The second company offered an 8kW system and a 9kWh battery that they promised would supply between 80% and 90% of the home’s needs. In reality, it would’ve supplied maybe 37% and would not have backed up the entire home in grid outages. Of the three companies who visited, one promised our homeowners that a 5.6kW system with a battery smaller than 7kWh and no Automatic Transfer Switch would supply up to 60% of their needs. The home would also need several trees removed before it could be considered a truly good candidate for solar. In order to meet the needs of the home, the homeowners would need a 15kW system with an 18kWh battery and an Automatic Transfer Switch in order to fully supply the home during power outages. We had already done a full work-up on this home and the regular energy usage of its owners. While conducting research for our company, we had three major companies come into a home that did not have solar in order to give us estimates. So, how do these companies then get around the problem caused by higher prices created by the bloated profit margins and the financing cap placed by their financiers? They over-promise what the smaller systems are capable of. ![]() After this set amount, they will either refuse to loan any more or they will increase the financing rate the company is forced to pay. The problem is that most financing companies have a cap of somewhere between $65,000 and $100,000 dollars on the financing rates they offer these companies. This is taken directly out of the costs of the system when the company sends the solar company the money. Financing companies charge a solar company a set rate to finance their customers. Second, they have financing limits to worry about. This is especially true when you can so easily research what total costs should be. First, people just won’t pay the price of the larger systems at these rates. That explains why they are charging more, but why would they then try to sell smaller systems? Well, a couple reasons explain this. This means they are paying the same costs, or often even less, for their products as us and then over-charging in order to increase their profit-margin (the money the company gets to keep after all expenses have been paid). They use the same, or as we’ll talk about in a later post, often lesser quality products than Your Home Solar. ![]() Do they charge these higher rates because they use better products? Simply put, no. Using a 5kW system as my reference, this takes the average price of their fully installed systems including storage from the national average of between $36,000 and $40,000 to an astounding range between $51,200 and $60,000. Many of these large companies regularly charge prices between $6.20 and $8.00. It’s about profit margins and financing.ĭependent upon your source, the average nation-wide price per watt for installed solar is between $3.20 and $4.00 before adding in storage. I mean, why would a company purposefully sell less than what is needed? Wouldn’t they naturally want to sell more? At first, you’d think, “yes, of course they would!” The answer to this question is a bit deeper into the business model though. It would seem as though this would be counterproductive. As part of this goal, I will be writing a blog within our website to bring to light as many of these practices as possible so that customers can make the informed decision to get their own Your Home Solar system, lock in their energy costs, and backup their home in the case of emergencies or grid-failure. Bringing professional, affordable solar to our area are major reasons I formed Your Home Solar. ![]() It is a failure of the company to operate in a way that is respectful of their customers and representative of a lack of integrity. However, in my time working in the solar industry, I have discovered that there are many tactics employed by the large companies to manipulate and coerce customers into overpaying for systems that are inadequate to meet their needs. And, it has the potential to change the foreseeable future in power production. It reduces dependence on an antiquated grid system while backing up homes from the ever-more present grid failures from natural and man-made disasters. It allows customers to lock in their energy costs for the foreseeable future. Solar power is truly a wonderful technology.
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