Namaste is who I went with. Here is how I got there
I got three estimates for the Solar. It’s a 10kW system with 27 panels. You can design for up to 120% of your current use. This was 112% of my current use to meet
- SUNRUN - $32K
- ARE Solar - $29.2K
- Namaste- $30.9K
These were cash based. I may have the finance numbers but saw that the savings going cash was about $3K. You can play that against a finance option vs a Home equity loan if you want to go that route
I am an Electrical Engineer, so I researched the products they were going to use
ARE and Namaste were using the two best panels out there. There are debates which one is better, but they are equivalent in my view. SunRun was using a much lower grade panel at a higher cost.
SUNRUNs Customer service was also poor as the person I was talking to didn’t know much about the product when I asked some detailed questions. They also subcontract out some of their installs. So that concerned me as the installers would not be as vested
My daughter Sarah had Namaste and had great success. Reviews showed them to be the best in the state for quality and customer satisfaction. All employees are shared owners and they don’t subcontract out. One of the reasons it takes longer for them to be able to install
With that I was about to sign on the dotted line with ARE because they were $1500 less. I like the option of having batteries when the power goes out and wanted to be able to last a couple of days in a snow storm on batteries if I had to, so I was discussing 32kW of batteries. That is really expensive and doesn’t provide the payback. It added about $33K to my system no matter who did it. One battery would get you for half a day if you want a lower cost battery
On battery power most things are disabled to conserve power. I wanted something different with everything on battery except the AC, Dryer and Oven. That with two batteries required two inverters instead of one to handle the load
I admit I was wanting something more custom
When I started going over it with ARE we had a disagreement on how Current works relative to voltage. The owner and their lead tech showed lower capability then I did and they wanted to reduce the loads on battery as a result.
Now normally I would trust the expert, but I design and build spacecraft at Lockheed and Solar/Battery power is part of that
So I called Namaste and posed the same question to them without the answer. They came back with the same answer I had calculated
So I let ARE know I wasn’t going with them and signed with Namaste. Their Battery price was about the same as ARE
Lots of info, but I wanted you to know why I chose Namaste; Customer service, do own installs and much better technically for my customization. They know what they are doing
They installed the system in December and we had to wait a month for Xcel to change the meter
Since Jan 22nd when it was turned on (after Xcel) on no snow days we generate more power than we need providing credits to offset future days (like snow days). My batteries power the whole house over night so the only time I actually use the grid is when the panels are covered with snow
I had one issue with a component after install and they quickly came out and replaced it. There is a web page and a phone app where you and they can monitor thee system and how the components are performing. This showed me one panel wasn’t working very well and they quickly diagnosed it was the optimizer which connects the panel to the system and replaced it quickly
This is who I dealt with at Namaste
Anna.perry@namastesolar.com
Direct line: 720-305-4461
Main Line: 303-447-0300