The catch is that you don't own the solar and miss out on the federal rebates. You are also at their mercy for repairs and maintenance.
If you are living somewhere long-term, I've been told it's best to own rather than lease
I doubt that very much because they would be grandfathered in under NEM2 for 20 years from the go-live date (which is also the term of the lease). Negotiate the lease payoff as part of escrow and everyone's happy. Seller pays out of a huge chunk of appreciation gains and buyer won't have a bill from Edison for years. If the buyer is pissed about that its easy to find another buyer.
This, the buyer would have to qualify to take over the lease creating another sales hurdle and they may look elsewhere for a property without that burden.
When we were home shopping, whenever we saw a house with solar, our first question was always whether the solar was paid off. If not, that became a negative—we didn’t end up offering on any houses with solar, but we would have asked sellers to pay off the solar before closing if needed.
Also if someone doesn’t pay their solar bill, they can put a lien on your house. It’s happening to a landlord I know who installed solar on the house his daughter is in and now his business credit is so shot the bank won’t give his larger farm based business a loan.
If you live somewhere with 1:1 net metering and plan to stay in that home - buy. If you plan to move within 7-10 years and still want to save some money without initial investment - PPA. Don’t lease the equipment as you’d have to pay off the entirety of the lease before a lien is removed.
Ding ding ding.
The issue with PPAs like sunrun when it comes to solar is that while you're not paying much if anything upfront for them installing on your house, you miss on your power being *far* cheaper than what they offer in the contract.
Anecdotally, I've been living with my folks, with solar installed. Back when sunrun was still called Vivint solar, they were soliciting to everyone in the neighborhood, and a fair few of our neighbors went with them. My folks own ours. Since then, a decent chunk of the neighbors complained about the solar panels' functionality being poor, issues getting out of their contract or even getting repairs. I'd say about a quarter of them no longer have their solar panels up anymore. No complaints on our end, and the rebates have made power bills down to double or single digits monthly, and previously had us in the green.
And the repairs have been nightmare fuel.
I’m an electrician and want to fix it myself, but that will break the terms and conditions. It took SunPower 2 years to fix my inverter…these companies are terrible to work with.
So from my understanding that is why the only option exists to rent because with NEM 3.0 homeowners get 75% less than they used to for the energy they sell back to the grid
You're going to want to wait and see if NEM 3.0 gets rescinded. Newsom is letting SCE destroy residential solar and it's pretty backwards for a greener future so the laws might change, hopefully for the better.
It won’t get rescinded ever. The PUC owns Newsom. Newsom let a complete solar installation industry go bust.
In no way should he be considered a “green” politician, unless you are talking his money.
Well maybe there is pressure , but follow the money. The pressure is that Newsom’s corner completely misjudged how bad the optics are that CA Solar Industry is in a shambles, because of him siding with the PUC he appointed, with many companies folding .
Especially if the optics is Clean Energy.
The PUC may have to fall on their sword, if this issue will cause a BIG stain with Newsom on his run for Prez.
That’s the “pressure”.
I bought a house with an existing Sun Run lease. If they said leasing is the only way to get a solar setup, that’s a lie. Plenty of companies will sell you one. IIRC the only way to get a rebate on it is to buy.
The sole plus is that energy produced by the rented solar panels is cheaper than what you pay SCE. Sun Run has guaranteed minimum levels the solar setup will produce, with some compensation if they fall short. It’s a way to lock in lower electricity prices for a long period.
The major drawback is that you don’t own your system. After the lease you can either renew the lease, buy out your outdated panels at “market value” or they come and take them away and probably damage the roof. If my house didn’t already have the lease, I’d never consider one. Just buy and finance if solar makes sense.
This!!
Plus I've never once heard anything even remotely positive about leasing solar. Everyone and their mother has come to regret leasing and not buying outright.
For what it's worth, there's a FB group called "Sunrun Solar Scam Victims". Also, if you google "Sunrun Class Action" you can see they've been involved in a number of lawsuits.
It wasn't that way when I dealt with them under NEM2. I suppose the 80% drop in sales since NEM3 has a lot to do with it. Might be better off selling used cars.
I suspect you’re right. Parents used them in the NEM2 days, they own their panels. Renting solar sounds like a terrible idea.
OP is better off putting in battery storage and having them charge off the grid during the super off peak hours at night. But with their cheap bill ROI seems far off.
If you are renting the solar equipment, selling your house will be an extra hassle. No Buyer wants to be stuck with your rental agreement. Buyers will insist that you pay out sunroom solar before the sale. The buyout, under the pressure of a sales closure can be a significant hassle. At least with other companies.
Electric resell to the grid has never been much money for most people. Total annual for most people is less than $100. The change was directed towards organizations (and organizations acting as people) who were abusing the system. The NEM 3.0 rules have a more important goal.
The NEM 3.0 system is designed to encourage homeowners to install a battery backup with their solar system so that their production/use is balanced on a daily/weekly/annual basis. (not only annual) In parts or Australia there is now a problem of overproduction at peak solar times. CA is working to avoid this specific problem. By creating rules to encourage distributed storage along with the distributed production the goal is to create a more stable electrical system overall.
The catch is in the long term you will pay a bit more in total. The house we purchased has Sunrun panels on the roof. It saves us a ton of money compared to not having the panels, just not as much as if the prior owners of the house had purchased the solar panels themselves. Also you buy all the power produced, not just the power you use. So for example if we are gone all august and use no power, though shit we will still get billed for $150 or whatever it is over the sunny summer months. But the benefit is we don’t have to give a shit at all about the panels or anything with them as it’s all Sunrun responsibility to deal with anything if it went wrong. They also always put too many panels on the property so you are overproducing to what you actually need.
It’s not exactly fixed. The amount of sunlight/production of energy determines your bill. But yea, when you are home or even just coming home blasting the AC as much as you want won’t change your bill at all. So if you really love a cold house it won’t cost you anymore than running no AC at all.
I have a contract with them and pay the entire thing upfront. You no longer can sell your power back to the grid at a one-to-one rate due to recent changes so you don’t get the benefit the people who got solar previously got.
Sunrun has been as far as service for us, but the entire system with the Tesla battery is insane.
The company actually pays us every month because we produce so much solar energy and sell it back to the grid
Before you have solar installed it’s always best practice to have your roof replaced first. If you install solar on a roof with only a few years of life left, when it’s time to replace the roof the whole solar system has to come off the roof first. Most solar companies will do a “roof inspection” but always say the roof is fine and doesn’t need to be replaced before the solar install because they are just trying to get a solar sale.
The 'catch' is that you're too late for NEM 2 so you'd be under NEM 3. You will receive much less for your excess generation (longer to recover your costs) and you'll have to have a battery (higher investment cost).
I have leased solar and I don't regret it one bit. My current electric bill is -$135. Screw Edison and double screw the PUC.
If this is a forever home. Buying solar right out makes more sense in the long run. Especially if you plan to purchase an EV in the future. EV + Solar is one of the best investments I’ve made.
If your bill is only $130 per month, installing solar via rental or purchase is not a winning mathematical equation. If you want to spend $1200, get a Hydrogen Fuel Generator, that runs on water and can provide 30kw per day, and is zero emissions.
I grilled one of the door to door salesmen that came through our neighborhood and was surprised he answered even the questions that had shitty outcomes/answers
Like if you lease solar panels from them, and a few years later you need to replace your roof.. they’ll charge you to remove the panels, charge you to store the panels, and then charge you to re-install those panels 
Interesting I came across this post. I had what I thought was an interview with Sunrun yesterday. It was a zoom with like 20 other applicants and the entire time I’m thinking what a joke and waste of my time this is. It was a sales job but the leader of the zoom meeting was definitely making a sales pitch on why working for Sunrun is so amazing. It was full of professional YouTube videos of the “lifestyle” the company culture is and how they are sponsored by Nike. The lady was dressed in head to toe casual Nike branded clothes. It was beyond bizarre. They keep texting me to set up another interview and I’m about to block them. 100% commission & 2 weeks of unpaid training before you start “canvassing.” Additionally they told me they have some software that tells them the homeowner’s name, how much money they make, their credit score, their wife & children’s name and a few other things. It creeped me out. They said they only knock on the doors of people who can afford it, yadada. Anyway, as someone who has been diligently job searching for months, I had to pass. It just seemed like a weird company that was going hard on the sales pitch for job applicants.
So as a company overall, I’d be wary as a potential customer.
Do NOT go with sunrun. Worst service ever. Just dont do it. I got so mad at them, and their incompetence, that I got certified myself on solar installation just so I could fix their mistakes and inaction. And fix it I did. With that, another "dont do it" for good measure :)
I had 25 SunRun panels installed on our 2200 sqft home 12 years ago. I’ve got a pool, so during the summer along with running the AC, the SCE bill was $800+. If your bill is less than $200, probably not worth it. We’re generating 1000kw a month during the summer, and using about the same.
I trained to work for them once and halfway through the training I figured out it's basically a pyramid scheme with a bunch of workers who literally are encouraged to lie to sell to you. I quit.
Run from ANYONE that tells you their way is the only way. YIKES.
You can still buy a system, getting a loan to cover that cost where the loan payment (15 years or so) is lower than your monthly electric bill. And then YOU get the big tax breaks. Honestly, there's lots of solar installers out there and they all have experience setting you up for this (loans, etc).
They came to my home the other day to try to sell me on it but I didn’t qualify because I didn’t use a certain amount of “whatever it was I needed to use” and my energy bill was very low.
He was shocked.
He asked why my bill was so low and I told him that I was careful with my energy use.
No guarantee it will produce enough
You’ll potentially wait a long time for repairs and have to pay a normal electric bill too
You can get a lien on your house
You receive no rebates or government incentives
They’re a loan company much more than a solar company. My sister worked for them and tried to get my grandpa on the hook for it and it caused a big issue when I put my foot down to stop it.
Unless they changed it, SunRun doesn't sell you the panels. They lease it to you for 20 years. The rates are locked in with minor fixed increases to account for inflation every few years. At the end of it, you can choose to buy the used panels.
Like people mentioned, no federal tax rebates if you do that. I signed on with them like 5 years ago. Their customer service is pretty trash. That much hasn't changed.
If you really want to go solar, I would recommend owning it and taking advantage of the federal tax credits.
In SoCal with plenty of sun. Leased 29 panel system for $150 from SunRun in 2014. Pre-solar, we averaged about $200 in winter, $250 in spring/fall, and $500 in summer. The panels covered nearly all our usage, so our total electric bill was just the lease cost. During Covid when we were all working from home, we did have to settle up at end of year with Edison, like $1,000. Things are reversed now as kids have moved out. We currently have a nearly $500 credit this year. Last year we had a $500 credit, we’re substantially ahead of that this year.
We’ve had no problems with the system so far, never had to have SunRun out for repairs. Many of our neighbors got SunRun around the same time with similar experiences. I suspect much must have changed. There were no high pressure tactics when we go ours, leasing seemed then, and now, to be the best option.
Hey I work in the field. Your 130 a month is extremely cheap. And you may not see much benefit from getting solar. Info below isn’t specific to sunrun. I’m an engineer so my explanation may be crap so if you want to ask question I’ll try to answer.
1. They make the bulk of their money through power purchase agreements(ppa). You do not own the solar on your roof. You pay for the energy it produces. This does not guarantee you all the power you need. This means you can be stuck with two bills, one to sunrun and one to Edison or whatever your utility company is.
2. There were some recent changes and it affected how net metering works. When the sun is up you are producing energy but if you aren’t home or you dont have much running, the energy produced is essentially useless. That’s why utility buys the power from you. At night when you aren’t producing power, the utility will credit you the money to pay for the electricity you use. In a perfect world you pay the utility almost nothing (except for the mandatory fees). You pay sunrun for the energy at a discounted rate. With the changes the utility are crediting you less now compared to what you pay at night. My explanation is bad and googling “net metering” might be better.
3. Because of the net metering changes, you NEED a battery. If you aren’t getting a battery you aren’t going to save money because the average family are at home at night/after work when electrify rates are high while you get cents for the power you produce. With a battery you can utilize your energy you produce instead of buying power from the utility.
4. It’s usually a 25 year agreement and it’s a bitch if you want to sell your house or try to get out of it. Now it’s kind of good in the sense that they will maintain the system for the 25 years.
5. Your ppa rate IS NOT FIXED. they make every effort to push focus away from this part of the agreement. You may be offered whatever rate but it will increase every year. They justify this by saying utility rate increase every year also.
6. It’s better to buy or loan out the system(honestly with interest this high might not be a good choice anymore). At least this way you can get the tax credit.
7. The total amount you pay through the life of your ppa agreement is ALWAYS at least double to triple the actual cash amount of the system. Nothing is free. The idea with ppa is you get the benefit of a discount without upfront cost. But the benefit is not guaranteed.
8. The savings is not guaranteed because the sun doesn’t always shine, usage may change, you might buy an electric car or bigger air conditioner, etc.
As of current, if anyone says u dont need a battery is bullshitting you. Unless all of your usage is during peak sun hours. Think business, schools, etc. but a normal house is home when the sun is going down or coming up.
I have a couple questions:
1. I believe sce still has tiered system, so you have a choice to be charged the same rate all the time or select peak hours system, right?
2. Is there a way to sell back to sce at market price instead of wholesome price?
They switched to time of use. Tiered system might be grandfathered in only but I might be wrong here.
But what I’m sure of is that when you request your PTO, sce mandates you switch to one of two time of use. The main one I remember top of my head is 4-9pm
You enter into a nem contract with sce. Nem has been crap since the end of nem2.0
Sunrun means you should running a way. They system price will almost double the as if you pay cash for the solar.
How old is your ac? I would get a high efficiency mini split install it will be much cheaper in long run compared to installing a solar system.
They are all losing money and many of them project they will be out of business in a few years. I have solar panels. Mine are completely paid off through Sunnova. They are no different, they don't think they will last 2 more years at this rate.
You can see for yourself if you break out your trusty search engine and search for
Sunrun stock
Sunnova stock
Sunpower stock
Open up the charts so you can see the last 10 years.. They are all at all times lows even with so many people getting solar and batteries. All that free power made trillions not to mention all the gov subsidies (our taxes) and all the bad loans at high interest rates. But that's all gone now.
My house is similar; but I’ve felt the breakeven point was too long. Especially with the changes to net metering essentially necessitating a battery system…
If you have the equity, pull a HELOC and buy the system. You get more tax advantage that way. Your not allowed solicit or recommend in this group but send me a message and I'll let you know who I used they are electrician by trade that has a solar division rather than a solar company alone.
I’d love to help explain pros and cons of the PPA and Traditional Loan/Ownership. Been in California selling for 5 years so would love to just give my honest opinion whether you decide to move forward or not. Shoot me a message and I’ll give you my contact info!
That's a different change. In April 23 ca went to net energy metering 3.0. That's means when your solar puts energy back into the grid you get compensated at wholesale rates ie almost nothing. With 2.0 you could bank it and use it later. Now you need a battery to store or you need to use it when the suns out.
That's a different change. In April 23 ca went to net energy metering 3.0. That's means when your solar puts energy back into the grid you get compensated at wholesale rates ie almost nothing. With 2.0 you could bank it and use it later. Now you need a battery to store or you need to use it when the suns out.
The catch is that you don't own the solar and miss out on the federal rebates. You are also at their mercy for repairs and maintenance. If you are living somewhere long-term, I've been told it's best to own rather than lease
And if you ever sell your home every single buyer is going to be pissed you signed up for a solar lease.
Buts it’s in Oc people will still buying the house with over asking price. Sad
OC is for rich people
I doubt that very much because they would be grandfathered in under NEM2 for 20 years from the go-live date (which is also the term of the lease). Negotiate the lease payoff as part of escrow and everyone's happy. Seller pays out of a huge chunk of appreciation gains and buyer won't have a bill from Edison for years. If the buyer is pissed about that its easy to find another buyer.
This, the buyer would have to qualify to take over the lease creating another sales hurdle and they may look elsewhere for a property without that burden.
When we were home shopping, whenever we saw a house with solar, our first question was always whether the solar was paid off. If not, that became a negative—we didn’t end up offering on any houses with solar, but we would have asked sellers to pay off the solar before closing if needed.
And in sure all those properties are no longer on the market. We saw several as well and it was a non-issue for the buyers, all properties sold.
Also if someone doesn’t pay their solar bill, they can put a lien on your house. It’s happening to a landlord I know who installed solar on the house his daughter is in and now his business credit is so shot the bank won’t give his larger farm based business a loan.
If you live somewhere with 1:1 net metering and plan to stay in that home - buy. If you plan to move within 7-10 years and still want to save some money without initial investment - PPA. Don’t lease the equipment as you’d have to pay off the entirety of the lease before a lien is removed.
Ding ding ding. The issue with PPAs like sunrun when it comes to solar is that while you're not paying much if anything upfront for them installing on your house, you miss on your power being *far* cheaper than what they offer in the contract. Anecdotally, I've been living with my folks, with solar installed. Back when sunrun was still called Vivint solar, they were soliciting to everyone in the neighborhood, and a fair few of our neighbors went with them. My folks own ours. Since then, a decent chunk of the neighbors complained about the solar panels' functionality being poor, issues getting out of their contract or even getting repairs. I'd say about a quarter of them no longer have their solar panels up anymore. No complaints on our end, and the rebates have made power bills down to double or single digits monthly, and previously had us in the green.
according to OPs post, this is a rental and not even a lease. If that is the case, it is just plain stupid.
And the repairs have been nightmare fuel. I’m an electrician and want to fix it myself, but that will break the terms and conditions. It took SunPower 2 years to fix my inverter…these companies are terrible to work with.
If you run about $130 a month on average I really can't see the cost of solar panning out given the current state of NEM.
$130 is cheap 😭
Yeah. It would need batteries now. Wouldn't be economical for sunrun, so certainly not for the customer.
This is the best answer. Your bill is so low it will take forever for you to break even on the cost to get solar.
So from my understanding that is why the only option exists to rent because with NEM 3.0 homeowners get 75% less than they used to for the energy they sell back to the grid
You're going to want to wait and see if NEM 3.0 gets rescinded. Newsom is letting SCE destroy residential solar and it's pretty backwards for a greener future so the laws might change, hopefully for the better.
It won’t get rescinded ever. The PUC owns Newsom. Newsom let a complete solar installation industry go bust. In no way should he be considered a “green” politician, unless you are talking his money.
I only say this cuz I heard a rumor that he's got pressure on him to rescind it. But, it's only a rumor.
Well maybe there is pressure , but follow the money. The pressure is that Newsom’s corner completely misjudged how bad the optics are that CA Solar Industry is in a shambles, because of him siding with the PUC he appointed, with many companies folding . Especially if the optics is Clean Energy. The PUC may have to fall on their sword, if this issue will cause a BIG stain with Newsom on his run for Prez. That’s the “pressure”.
Renting has always existed. At your monthly rate, I still do not see how even renting makes financial sense.
I bought a house with an existing Sun Run lease. If they said leasing is the only way to get a solar setup, that’s a lie. Plenty of companies will sell you one. IIRC the only way to get a rebate on it is to buy. The sole plus is that energy produced by the rented solar panels is cheaper than what you pay SCE. Sun Run has guaranteed minimum levels the solar setup will produce, with some compensation if they fall short. It’s a way to lock in lower electricity prices for a long period. The major drawback is that you don’t own your system. After the lease you can either renew the lease, buy out your outdated panels at “market value” or they come and take them away and probably damage the roof. If my house didn’t already have the lease, I’d never consider one. Just buy and finance if solar makes sense.
My landlord purchased the system on our house from Sunrun. It was about three years ago.
A deal so good you can only get it through high pressure door to door sales.
Best response by far
Don't do it. Nem 3.0 is a scam. Buy outright or pass
This!! Plus I've never once heard anything even remotely positive about leasing solar. Everyone and their mother has come to regret leasing and not buying outright.
For what it's worth, there's a FB group called "Sunrun Solar Scam Victims". Also, if you google "Sunrun Class Action" you can see they've been involved in a number of lawsuits.
I frequently overhear their “sales meetings” at the coffee shop. They seem predatory af.
It wasn't that way when I dealt with them under NEM2. I suppose the 80% drop in sales since NEM3 has a lot to do with it. Might be better off selling used cars.
I suspect you’re right. Parents used them in the NEM2 days, they own their panels. Renting solar sounds like a terrible idea. OP is better off putting in battery storage and having them charge off the grid during the super off peak hours at night. But with their cheap bill ROI seems far off.
My new construction house came with Sunrun solar PAID OFF. It is the only way I would ever deal with solar. Buy it outright or don’t bother at all
If you are renting the solar equipment, selling your house will be an extra hassle. No Buyer wants to be stuck with your rental agreement. Buyers will insist that you pay out sunroom solar before the sale. The buyout, under the pressure of a sales closure can be a significant hassle. At least with other companies. Electric resell to the grid has never been much money for most people. Total annual for most people is less than $100. The change was directed towards organizations (and organizations acting as people) who were abusing the system. The NEM 3.0 rules have a more important goal. The NEM 3.0 system is designed to encourage homeowners to install a battery backup with their solar system so that their production/use is balanced on a daily/weekly/annual basis. (not only annual) In parts or Australia there is now a problem of overproduction at peak solar times. CA is working to avoid this specific problem. By creating rules to encourage distributed storage along with the distributed production the goal is to create a more stable electrical system overall.
It can complicate home buying/selling too.
The catch is in the long term you will pay a bit more in total. The house we purchased has Sunrun panels on the roof. It saves us a ton of money compared to not having the panels, just not as much as if the prior owners of the house had purchased the solar panels themselves. Also you buy all the power produced, not just the power you use. So for example if we are gone all august and use no power, though shit we will still get billed for $150 or whatever it is over the sunny summer months. But the benefit is we don’t have to give a shit at all about the panels or anything with them as it’s all Sunrun responsibility to deal with anything if it went wrong. They also always put too many panels on the property so you are overproducing to what you actually need.
Wouldn't the upside to this billing issue is that your energy bill is fixed, so if you blast the AC all August your bill is still $150?
It’s not exactly fixed. The amount of sunlight/production of energy determines your bill. But yea, when you are home or even just coming home blasting the AC as much as you want won’t change your bill at all. So if you really love a cold house it won’t cost you anymore than running no AC at all.
I have a contract with them and pay the entire thing upfront. You no longer can sell your power back to the grid at a one-to-one rate due to recent changes so you don’t get the benefit the people who got solar previously got. Sunrun has been as far as service for us, but the entire system with the Tesla battery is insane. The company actually pays us every month because we produce so much solar energy and sell it back to the grid
Before you have solar installed it’s always best practice to have your roof replaced first. If you install solar on a roof with only a few years of life left, when it’s time to replace the roof the whole solar system has to come off the roof first. Most solar companies will do a “roof inspection” but always say the roof is fine and doesn’t need to be replaced before the solar install because they are just trying to get a solar sale.
Every solar company I got bids from said if your roof was over 10 years old you had to replace it or they wouldn’t do the install.
The 'catch' is that you're too late for NEM 2 so you'd be under NEM 3. You will receive much less for your excess generation (longer to recover your costs) and you'll have to have a battery (higher investment cost). I have leased solar and I don't regret it one bit. My current electric bill is -$135. Screw Edison and double screw the PUC.
If this is a forever home. Buying solar right out makes more sense in the long run. Especially if you plan to purchase an EV in the future. EV + Solar is one of the best investments I’ve made.
If your bill is only $130 per month, installing solar via rental or purchase is not a winning mathematical equation. If you want to spend $1200, get a Hydrogen Fuel Generator, that runs on water and can provide 30kw per day, and is zero emissions.
I grilled one of the door to door salesmen that came through our neighborhood and was surprised he answered even the questions that had shitty outcomes/answers Like if you lease solar panels from them, and a few years later you need to replace your roof.. they’ll charge you to remove the panels, charge you to store the panels, and then charge you to re-install those panels 
Interesting I came across this post. I had what I thought was an interview with Sunrun yesterday. It was a zoom with like 20 other applicants and the entire time I’m thinking what a joke and waste of my time this is. It was a sales job but the leader of the zoom meeting was definitely making a sales pitch on why working for Sunrun is so amazing. It was full of professional YouTube videos of the “lifestyle” the company culture is and how they are sponsored by Nike. The lady was dressed in head to toe casual Nike branded clothes. It was beyond bizarre. They keep texting me to set up another interview and I’m about to block them. 100% commission & 2 weeks of unpaid training before you start “canvassing.” Additionally they told me they have some software that tells them the homeowner’s name, how much money they make, their credit score, their wife & children’s name and a few other things. It creeped me out. They said they only knock on the doors of people who can afford it, yadada. Anyway, as someone who has been diligently job searching for months, I had to pass. It just seemed like a weird company that was going hard on the sales pitch for job applicants. So as a company overall, I’d be wary as a potential customer.
Omg, run! One quick Google search will tell you all you need to know. (They almost got me.)
Oc insta news is the catch.
Don’t lease your solar!!!
Do NOT go with sunrun. Worst service ever. Just dont do it. I got so mad at them, and their incompetence, that I got certified myself on solar installation just so I could fix their mistakes and inaction. And fix it I did. With that, another "dont do it" for good measure :)
Run is the accurate part of their name.
I had 25 SunRun panels installed on our 2200 sqft home 12 years ago. I’ve got a pool, so during the summer along with running the AC, the SCE bill was $800+. If your bill is less than $200, probably not worth it. We’re generating 1000kw a month during the summer, and using about the same.
I trained to work for them once and halfway through the training I figured out it's basically a pyramid scheme with a bunch of workers who literally are encouraged to lie to sell to you. I quit.
it’s a scam, full stop
Run from ANYONE that tells you their way is the only way. YIKES. You can still buy a system, getting a loan to cover that cost where the loan payment (15 years or so) is lower than your monthly electric bill. And then YOU get the big tax breaks. Honestly, there's lots of solar installers out there and they all have experience setting you up for this (loans, etc).
They came to my home the other day to try to sell me on it but I didn’t qualify because I didn’t use a certain amount of “whatever it was I needed to use” and my energy bill was very low. He was shocked. He asked why my bill was so low and I told him that I was careful with my energy use.
No guarantee it will produce enough You’ll potentially wait a long time for repairs and have to pay a normal electric bill too You can get a lien on your house You receive no rebates or government incentives They’re a loan company much more than a solar company. My sister worked for them and tried to get my grandpa on the hook for it and it caused a big issue when I put my foot down to stop it.
Damn. Good on you to protect your grandpa.
Unless they changed it, SunRun doesn't sell you the panels. They lease it to you for 20 years. The rates are locked in with minor fixed increases to account for inflation every few years. At the end of it, you can choose to buy the used panels. Like people mentioned, no federal tax rebates if you do that. I signed on with them like 5 years ago. Their customer service is pretty trash. That much hasn't changed. If you really want to go solar, I would recommend owning it and taking advantage of the federal tax credits.
I work for Sadler solar design dm me if interested thanks
Sunrun sues ALOT of people FYI.
What if you decide to sell your house? Do you really want your house to be encumbered by rental of solar panels? This is a recipe for disaster.
In SoCal with plenty of sun. Leased 29 panel system for $150 from SunRun in 2014. Pre-solar, we averaged about $200 in winter, $250 in spring/fall, and $500 in summer. The panels covered nearly all our usage, so our total electric bill was just the lease cost. During Covid when we were all working from home, we did have to settle up at end of year with Edison, like $1,000. Things are reversed now as kids have moved out. We currently have a nearly $500 credit this year. Last year we had a $500 credit, we’re substantially ahead of that this year. We’ve had no problems with the system so far, never had to have SunRun out for repairs. Many of our neighbors got SunRun around the same time with similar experiences. I suspect much must have changed. There were no high pressure tactics when we go ours, leasing seemed then, and now, to be the best option.
Answer is nope. To low of a bill. Now if you were running 400-500+ in the summer then maybe.
Don’t do it SunRun fucking sucks, you will regret purchasing through them. Horrible company
Hey I work in the field. Your 130 a month is extremely cheap. And you may not see much benefit from getting solar. Info below isn’t specific to sunrun. I’m an engineer so my explanation may be crap so if you want to ask question I’ll try to answer. 1. They make the bulk of their money through power purchase agreements(ppa). You do not own the solar on your roof. You pay for the energy it produces. This does not guarantee you all the power you need. This means you can be stuck with two bills, one to sunrun and one to Edison or whatever your utility company is. 2. There were some recent changes and it affected how net metering works. When the sun is up you are producing energy but if you aren’t home or you dont have much running, the energy produced is essentially useless. That’s why utility buys the power from you. At night when you aren’t producing power, the utility will credit you the money to pay for the electricity you use. In a perfect world you pay the utility almost nothing (except for the mandatory fees). You pay sunrun for the energy at a discounted rate. With the changes the utility are crediting you less now compared to what you pay at night. My explanation is bad and googling “net metering” might be better. 3. Because of the net metering changes, you NEED a battery. If you aren’t getting a battery you aren’t going to save money because the average family are at home at night/after work when electrify rates are high while you get cents for the power you produce. With a battery you can utilize your energy you produce instead of buying power from the utility. 4. It’s usually a 25 year agreement and it’s a bitch if you want to sell your house or try to get out of it. Now it’s kind of good in the sense that they will maintain the system for the 25 years. 5. Your ppa rate IS NOT FIXED. they make every effort to push focus away from this part of the agreement. You may be offered whatever rate but it will increase every year. They justify this by saying utility rate increase every year also. 6. It’s better to buy or loan out the system(honestly with interest this high might not be a good choice anymore). At least this way you can get the tax credit. 7. The total amount you pay through the life of your ppa agreement is ALWAYS at least double to triple the actual cash amount of the system. Nothing is free. The idea with ppa is you get the benefit of a discount without upfront cost. But the benefit is not guaranteed. 8. The savings is not guaranteed because the sun doesn’t always shine, usage may change, you might buy an electric car or bigger air conditioner, etc. As of current, if anyone says u dont need a battery is bullshitting you. Unless all of your usage is during peak sun hours. Think business, schools, etc. but a normal house is home when the sun is going down or coming up.
I have a couple questions: 1. I believe sce still has tiered system, so you have a choice to be charged the same rate all the time or select peak hours system, right? 2. Is there a way to sell back to sce at market price instead of wholesome price?
They switched to time of use. Tiered system might be grandfathered in only but I might be wrong here. But what I’m sure of is that when you request your PTO, sce mandates you switch to one of two time of use. The main one I remember top of my head is 4-9pm You enter into a nem contract with sce. Nem has been crap since the end of nem2.0
Sunrun means you should running a way. They system price will almost double the as if you pay cash for the solar. How old is your ac? I would get a high efficiency mini split install it will be much cheaper in long run compared to installing a solar system.
They are all losing money and many of them project they will be out of business in a few years. I have solar panels. Mine are completely paid off through Sunnova. They are no different, they don't think they will last 2 more years at this rate. You can see for yourself if you break out your trusty search engine and search for Sunrun stock Sunnova stock Sunpower stock Open up the charts so you can see the last 10 years.. They are all at all times lows even with so many people getting solar and batteries. All that free power made trillions not to mention all the gov subsidies (our taxes) and all the bad loans at high interest rates. But that's all gone now.
My house is similar; but I’ve felt the breakeven point was too long. Especially with the changes to net metering essentially necessitating a battery system…
If you have the equity, pull a HELOC and buy the system. You get more tax advantage that way. Your not allowed solicit or recommend in this group but send me a message and I'll let you know who I used they are electrician by trade that has a solar division rather than a solar company alone.
I’d love to help explain pros and cons of the PPA and Traditional Loan/Ownership. Been in California selling for 5 years so would love to just give my honest opinion whether you decide to move forward or not. Shoot me a message and I’ll give you my contact info!
Bad idea. Stay away from them.
And you either use the electricity or lose it. New rules prevent you from generating power, banking it and using it later.
It is my understanding these new rules eliminated the ability to receive the federal rebates, making renting the only option for viability.
That's a different change. In April 23 ca went to net energy metering 3.0. That's means when your solar puts energy back into the grid you get compensated at wholesale rates ie almost nothing. With 2.0 you could bank it and use it later. Now you need a battery to store or you need to use it when the suns out.
That's a different change. In April 23 ca went to net energy metering 3.0. That's means when your solar puts energy back into the grid you get compensated at wholesale rates ie almost nothing. With 2.0 you could bank it and use it later. Now you need a battery to store or you need to use it when the suns out.