Sunrun Reviews

I did the math. I chose leasing because my monthly bill will be set for a while, and small increases would take a while to beat the overall cost of not having solar. Consider the fact that some utility companies will give you a credit for any solar you send back to them. Choose what is best for you, not based on others' horrible experiences found all over the internet. I look for logical and clear reviews and pay attention to the positive and negative ones that seem reasonable. I also dig deeper into the company and understand the best I can if they have had issues in the past, what are they doing now? That's all part of being an informed consumer.

After I met with my sales rep, everything moved faster than they or I ever expected. The only delay was with the utility company and them trying to send me a final document to be signed electronically. It sat for 2 weeks before I knew it was an issue. This was not a SunRun issue; this was with the utility company. Although my sales rep was straightforward that it could take 4-6 weeks to be approved by the Utility company, I figured this into the delay. Everything moved quickly as soon as the document was signed and the utility company finalized and approved it. I was contacted yesterday, 5/13, to make an appointment for installation; there was an opening for today. The crew arrived at 8:00 a.m. and left by 2:30 p.m. Installation was complete on 5/14. The lead installer was terrific, friendly, communicated well, and often right up to the end.

I have ZERO complaints up until this point! I have read so many horrible reviews for this company, but we all need to consider that, like any large company, there will be many factors regarding good/excellent and bad/average customer service. Bad things happen; what seems reasonable to one person may be unreasonable to another. Until now, every person I have been in contact with has been professional, helpful, friendly, and open to any questions or concerns.

If you are considering Sunrun, I suggest first finding reviews from your local area. These are the people you will be working with the most. Assess everything step by step, including every person you come into contact with and your experience with them, right up to the installers. If your install team makes you uncomfortable, talk to your sales rep before you let them put anything on your roof. If your sales rep cares it will show, if they don't you will know. My sales rep was texting me soon after the install contact reached out, but they couldn't reach me - they were in sync, and I got a call back quickly from the install lead. Now time will tell. But for now I am giving FIVE STARS!

I'm trying to get more heaters in here so that I can keep my gas furnace from running. I got a couple more space heaters coming and I'm gonna run those throughout the house. I just leave the gas furnace set low enough so that it stays off most of the time, but if it gets so cold and the heater can’t keep up, it will kick on periodically for a little bit. That was the main objective. I want to get rid of the high price of the $400 or $500 a month for the Ameren bill. The initial interactions with Sunrun representatives were positive. However, there was some confusion regarding an energy company switch I needed to make on my end. I thought Sunrun would handle the arrangements but found out later that I was not credited for the electricity my panels produced before I canceled with the previous energy company.

Since the installation, my understanding was that the system would store excess energy produced on sunny days and use it during less sunny periods. However, there's been a bit of frustration because I haven't seen the financial benefits I anticipated, and my monthly payments increased from $138 to $150. Although I'm satisfied with the installation team's work, some aspects of the communication and expectations around the benefits were not as clear. Overall, I'd rate my experience with Sunrun a 4 out of 5. There were some things that were vaguely discussed. You had to make a decision fast. They were going around through the neighborhood and I had to act on it quickly to do it. I would recommend Sunrun for their service and installation to anyone who asks, but advise them to clarify all terms and understand the process thoroughly before proceeding.

Nick told me, "The cost of living is gonna go up, your payment's gonna go up, but only this percent. Now, JCP&L can raise you this." He said, "We will raise you 2% every so often. JCP&L will raise you 3% to 5%." Sunrun put a new roof on my house as well. My roof went through a tornado and it was really bad. I told Nick, "I can't afford a new roof right now. I don't know what I'm gonna do." He said, "You go with Sunrun and we'll put a new roof on your house." I couldn't say no to him. It was impossible. It's been roughly about a year and a half since the system was installed, and I don't have an electric bill anymore. I pay Sunrun the same bill every month and I don't have any problem. Plus, Nick is the head salesman. I have his personal number, and he said I could call him any time.

Other than that, the biggest benefit of going solar is you're paying upfront for a system that is going to last at least 12 years at zero cost down the line. With the rising prices of energy, it mathematically makes sense to do it. If you're going to sell your home in the next couple of years, I would not suggest it because you don't get the value out of it on a resale. But the loan that I took out to get the solar is annually less than what I would pay for electricity. So it pays for itself in that sense. Aside from that, through the Tesla App, I can look at my daily usage and tracking of the system. I have a backup battery, so it makes it very nice to be able to adjust the way the battery is used as well as the amount of residual capacity that I'm able to tap into every day. Then monthly, PG&E provides an extensive report.

On the other hand, a number of my neighbors have also installed solar panels and they have their batteries stored in a garage. How other companies could install batteries inside the garage in my neighborhood and Sunrun could not is something that still is a question for me. When they said that the city is not allowing installing batteries inside the garage, I took that. This may make sense because it may be a safety issue. Maybe it's a fire issue because battery is something loaded with all kinds of energy storage and sometimes, batteries can heat up and explode and be a higher fire hazard. Maybe that is the case. And I was making up reasons to convince myself that what Sunrun is telling me is making sense.

But as I saw the others installing batteries inside their garages, I thought about how sincere Sunrun’s feedback was and how solid the reasoning for that was. You can be cynical and say that at that time, Sunrun did not have enough batteries in their stock and they just wanted to just weasel out. Or installing a battery did not make financial sense to someone at that point. And therefore, they just moved my project forward by giving me a bunch of mumbo jumbo. Maybe someday, somebody will help me understand that.

The price of the batteries was approximately $10,000. The cost of everything is going up and will keep going up. Maybe the competition will drive the cost of the battery down. But on the other hand, with all the EVs and the additional need for storage of electrical power, it's very likely that the cost of the battery will go up rather than down. So, even if Sunrun comes back to me and says they’re ready to put a battery inside our garage, I'm gonna be paying a high price for that because of the cost difference between 2023 and hypothetically 2025.

We just have the panels and it's connected to the network and they don't pay a lot for that. So, we are producing energy and sending it to the network for a lower price. And we're getting them for a higher price from the network. We have no storage capacity so, we're at their mercy. When you have storage, it will reduce the dependence on the higher-cost electrical power that you're receiving from them. But overall, Sunrun did well. The product is great and everything seems to be functioning well. I hope it will be functioning the same in the future, at least for some time. I have the app and I don't do that regularly but once in a while, I go to it. In Southern California, we have months of May and June overcast. So, we don't have a whole lot of sunshine until later on in the day, and that piqued my curiosity to see if the system is producing or not. I go to it and when I do, I see how much we're producing, which is good and it is all I need.

Our solar installation involved about 10 panels and was completed swiftly, taking no more than two to three days. For now, we haven't added any panels, but we're contemplating it since we have a pool and recently got a Honda Prelude. We're still receiving energy credits, but with the addition of the electric vehicle, it'll be interesting to see how much that draws. They're pulling from the battery and I don't know how much of an extra burden it'll be on the system. We're gonna monitor our electricity usage, and then we'll talk to the experts.

I wholeheartedly recommend Sunrun and have already suggested them to friends. On a one to five-star scale, I'd definitely give them a five. The cost might not have been cheap, but the longevity and quality of the system feel worth it. Overall, I'm very content with my choice.

The change is noticeable and Sunrun has been great throughout this journey. They have consistently done a fantastic job, and I'm genuinely pleased with their service. I’d recommend Sunrun to others.

Based on my experience, I would definitely recommend Sunrun to friends or family—if they can get it, they should. Having known others with similar systems assured me that it would be a money saver, and my expectations have been met consistently over the 8 years since I've had the panels installed. Overall, I'm very pleased with Sunrun's performance and service.