The end of Jan 2023 we started our solar journey out of curiosity while researching a re-roof on our house. When we learned about the April 14th NEM 2.0 deadline--panic ensued. City of Santa Monica's Dept of Sustainability directed me to EnergySage which got me 7 ballpark quotes including Cali Energy.
Here's how Cali Energy beat out the other ballparks then 3 final quotes:
- By providing the unique advantage that no one else could/would give: An on-site survey/tech visit to assess and measure our roof.
- This gave us the comfort level to accept a final quote and sign a binding contact knowing there was a certain accuracy superior to the other three final quotes (which gave quotes based on satellite images).
- They had a "no-pressure, we're just here to give you the info you need" sales attitude. (Thank you Alex and Diana!)
- I was a solar-noob on a scary-tight deadline. I learned a lot and fast. Sometimes I emailed Cali Energy 3x a day. They were always kind and patient.
- They were willing to fast-track and rearrange their normal process to get our application into SCE before the NEM deadline.
- I did a deep dive across multiple sites of their reviews-all stellar.
- They included consumption monitoring as a part of the install instead of a hidden extra charge.
- Even though they'd never done work in our city and knowing its reputation for strict construction regulation, they were willing to get a city business license just to do our project.
- They gave us more for our target price of around $3.5/kw
Once we awarded the job, 9 calendar days later we received our very impressive Roof Mount Plans. A few days later it was submitted to the city and SCE for Interconnection Request. ONE MONTH BEFORE NEM DEADLINE! While we waited for SCE's go ahead, we got our new roof put on, took a little construction vacation, then scheduled the solar. We had 3 non-consecutive days of install. The crews were nice and hard-working. (Each day was a different set and size Large, XL or Small, depending on speciality that day.) In fact, they kept working so long we had to make them stop for fear the city inspectors would come down on us all :).
Last week we got our first electricity bill. It was thrilling (delivery charges only $12.38) and disappointing (Nonbypassable charges: $22.03). I've posted an image of the consumption monitoring on our first full day of solar.
It was a very good day when Cali Energy decided they would quote our project. Lucky, lucky us.
Susan A.