Sunrun

My panels were installed on the 22nd of February last year and the system was actually activated the 26th of March. So it took approximately a month for Commonwealth Edison to get off their butt and approve the connection. From then on, it has worked great. I'm extremely satisfied. I go out and check how much I generate every couple days and just say, “Whoa, wow. Look at this.” Then I check my electric bill and see. There was actually a screw-up on my April bill last year but ComEd overcharged. They disregarded the fact that I had solar panels. They just charged me an electric bill but I got that back.

In my first year, summer was absolutely great. In December, I paid one and a half month’s electric bill. January was a two-month electric bill because we had a lot of cloudy weather and I have the Sunrun cost plus ComEd. So even though I have a lot of panels, they didn’t generate sufficiently through the cloud cover. But I expected that and my summer electric bills more than made up for it. I was between $16 and $18 a month, which is a connectivity fee with Commonwealth Edison. I can’t get away from that.

I was also there during the entire installation and I took pictures. There was a four-man crew and they were extremely efficient. They wasted no effort. There was a first crew that came in and sistered the joist inside the roof because Sunrun demanded that. Their engineering team wanted the additional support. But the four people that were on the roof were installing the plates that go between the shingles. They installed the standoffs to hold the panels up. One did the wiring and one did all the piping. It was a total one-day installation and they installed 26 panels on my roof plus the inverter. They also connected it to the box inside, through the meter standard. Everything was all very professionally done. They were quality people.

They did an extremely good and efficient installation, and it worked immediately. The Village had somebody come out and inspect it. He was going to fail it and I asked why. I happened to work for an electrical contractor at one time and I told him to look at it again. It was connected properly. The Sunrun rep was there too. The person from the Village asked me what I knew about it so I told him. Then he said I was right. Everything was connected exactly the way it was supposed to be.

You're supposed to have one survey of your house, your roof and property, and the first person who came out looked at our house. We were having the panels put on the garage but they didn’t check it so they had to come back out. Then, the second person they sent was new and he messed up at every appointment he had been to that day and he didn’t do everything he was supposed to do. So, they had to send a third person out. I was a little disgruntled about having to have people constantly come back out because we have dogs and it was a hassle. But they gave us a gift card to make up for it, so that was helpful and it made me feel better. So, enrolling wit them wasn’t really hard. It was just the fact that it was only supposed to happen once and it happened three times. Finally, the third person that they sent out did a good job, checked everything and was thorough.

We had a couple of things in our yard that we kinda had built in, like a playground for our kids and things, and where Sunrun wanted to run the lines, the second person who clearly didn’t know what he was talking about, told me that they would have to run it through there. I said that we couldn't tear that up and he said that he didn't know what I could do. So some of that was a little bit upsetting. We've already signed everything. It all worked out but if they were a little more careful of making sure people were either trained, that would be good. But other than that, it wasn’t bad.

We met with Sunrun mid-August and they installed them the first week of December. As of December 26th, the electric company had signed off on us turning them on and we started making electricity right away. This time last year, I would not have been sure if I had made the right choice. I recommend not to start the process where they're gonna turn on in winter because we were paying Sunrun and then we were also paying probably $100 to the electric company. Also, on January and February, it was gloomy and the sun was not really out. So, that caused me to panic a little because it was more than what we were paying with just electric. But now that we've had them through spring, summer and everything, we pay our fee of 117 for the equipment to Sunrun and then, we pay $16 a month to the electric company, which is actually a fee that they add on your bill. So, we're not paying them anything for actual electricity.

At first, when the installers came on installation day, they were gonna have to run it in some really cockeyed way that it was gonna look terrible on the side of our farmhouse. I ended up talking with the installation manager who was overseeing it that day and I told him that I didn’t want that run like that. He said he would think about it and he would see if he could work something else out. It took him 15 minutes and he figured out a way so it’s kinda hidden in the metal pipe through the attic that's not even in my way and it comes out the other side. It’s not ugly on my house. I ended up having to handle the situation and if I would have been a person who would do it however they want, I would have been unsatisfied with how it was installed on my house.

After they left, there was a spot where they put the box in the side of your house or garage. The wire comes down the side of the building and then they put almost like a cap over it, so it's protected and they put it in and then they moved it over a couple of inches. Where they had taken it off, there were little, tiny screw holes in the siding and you couldn’t really see them but then, throughout winter, they got brittle and it busted out a little part of our siding on our garage. I contacted them, and it took a month or so in order to get someone out here. But they made that right too.

You should make sure that going solar works for you. People should ask questions, specifically how they’re gonna run things through because our sales rep was nice and answered a lot of our questions but there were some things that he was kind of quick on. He said he would be here on installation day but then, he never was there on any of the surveys or the installation day because of some personal things going on, which I could understand. But on the other hand, I didn’t know what I was doing. So, it would have been nice if he would have been there.

The design of the system is perfect. It suits our home and it gives us the energy we need. But I did have a problem and I did my due diligence. We had no electricity over half the house. The washer, dryer, water heater, air conditioning, heater, and Wi-Fi were all out. Sunrun told me that I had to call an electrician to diagnose the problem to verify that it wasn’t the electrical in my house. He didn’t touch any of their equipment but he went through everything. The person on the phone couldn't understand the scope of the problem and how big it was. It couldn’t wait until they could get it checked out here 13 days. We have four adults in this house and two big dogs, and waiting two weeks for them wasn't gonna work.

The electrician talked to Sunrun on the phone. He went through the process that they were telling him to shut it off and turn it back on. Shutting the entire system down and going back on the grid didn’t fix the problem. I had already done that twice. He kept telling them that the problem was in their equipment. It was a long day on the phone with them. There are people that pick up the phone and they’re just going by a book. They’re not really listening to the scope of what is going on in your home. As the homeowner, I did my due diligence to identify the problem with the licensed electrician. If I didn’t know how to get ahold of the tech that came and helped me with my system when it was first set up directly, I would still be sitting here without electricity in my house. Basically, the solution was just locating the inverter switch where the only person that was supposed to go in was a certified technician to flip that switch back on. It was a matter of flipping a switch.

Sunrun is a good company, but they have some internal process things they need to work out and they need to train their internal employees better. In order to get a problem solved, you have to be the squeaky wheel and I’m not one to just sit back and wait for things. Plus, my situation was pretty big. I can’t run on a house without hot water or heat or air conditioning or a lot of things for two weeks because they can’t get a tech to me.

Sunrun is selling these big systems that cost a ton of money and they need to back it up with support. When you have a problem and you have to go through their customer service to get a tech to your house, that’s the downfall. They're supposed to get the right person to you. But they don’t know what they’re doing and they’re not listening to the problem. Their customer service people are not trained and not knowledgeable. If it wasn’t for the sales guy and the tech guy, I probably wouldn’t have been with Sunrun. Also, the equipment, the setup, and how it serves up in our home are wonderful.

The enrollment was a simple process of getting things signed up. They did as much for me and I had to do very little. I’m sort of retarded when it comes to that kind of stuff if it gets technical, but they took me through it pretty much. The gentleman that was coordinating always sent me an email or phone call saying, “We’ll do this,” and then, “Here’s what's next. Here’s what they're gonna do.” And even down to the city inspection, even back to the guys who’ll be there in such and such a date that worked on the roof, they always knew where I was. So, I was truly impressed with the communication. I’ve been a customer service rep or salesperson my whole life, and I know what it’s like to have a good PR with the public, and they had it. They're just good and I made a good choice.

The first bill I got sorta surprised me. It was higher than I thought it would be. It was like $100 and I wasn’t sure why. 125 to 150 was my normal bill. But even if I had the rental of like 79 bucks and then I got a $100 bill, the next month was 50, and then the next five was free. It apparently caught up and I was getting ahead on the energy. And the first bill I got was 17 cents. So, you pretty much had to get it too before and beat the smile off my face. We’re in a season now to where I’m starting to see some bills, even with the contract with Sunrun, but 30, 40, 50 bucks is still below what I was paying so I’m really happy. And anyone I can talk into it, I’ll do. And the nice thing about going solar was getting a credit card with a $350 bonus on it for referring. They haven't turned it on as they haven't got the final inspection, but it’s all done and the lady is quite thrilled. I recommended them to about 20 people and even posted it on Facebook.

I've been producing solar energy for about 11 years. The system provides me with enough electricity. I got a pool in my backyard and a big air conditioner. So during the summertime, May through September, my electric bill would run anywhere from $300 to $400 a month. Now, it’s down to $40 a month. I’m paying actually even less in the winter, ‘cause I use less electricity. I know that you have to buy electricity from some of the other solar companies, which really doesn’t pay off.

The cost of the system was $100 a month for the first year, and then it went up to 103, and now it’s only up to 133. Plus in the next 10 years, I will own my solar system and I like that. It will help me sell my house, if I ever want to. Furthermore, there was not just one plan. They had four different plans that you could work with. We’ve had several hail storms and I chose the Kyocera panels because of the thickness, and the coatings that they have as versus to the Sanyos and to another one. I did a little research and the Kyocera panels came out about three to five points over the Sanyos. The Sanyos would have been cheaper. But mine did not cost me one red cent. The only thing was the 6% per year that your bill could go up with Sunrun to pay for the unit. With all the rebates and stuff that we had back then, I think that was a little high. But it was a non-negotiable back then. I don’t know about now.

We emailed Sunrun in February and let them know of the issues with Trinity. We finally managed to get an appointment for April for the repairs, but then COVID-19 happened, and the appointment got cancelled. In July, we got an appointment with Sunrun to replace our meter, which was malfunctioning, and so I brought up our previous issue with a technician that came out. He took a quick look at our system, verified our previous issue (we are producing approximately 1/4-1/2 the electricity we should be), and called his supervisor. Apparently our case had been closed, even though the issue had never been resolved. The supervisor re-opened the case, and told us to expect a follow up soon. After waiting two weeks with no contact, we called Sunrun at the beginning of August to check on the update. The representative said that our parts were in shipment, and that we should expect a email to create an appointment in two weeks or so.

It has now been eight weeks since that last call/contact, and 12 months since we were first alerted to the problem. I understand that coronavirus caused a great delay, but even without counting those seven months, that means that our problem still has not been fixed for at least five months of regular operating hours. Although every contact I’ve had with Sunrun has been polite and professional, there is no follow up with this company, promises are broken, and any issue will take forever to fix. I would not recommend Sunrun.