Anybody have any experience with Sunrun?

[allensylves]

We already have some solar and Sunrun said they cannot put new panels below our existing ones because of regulations saying it would be too near the bottom edge of the roof. It comes with a battery so you do have power if Helco goes off, from 4 specific, separate outlets. The battery has an estimated life span of 10 years and a 10K replacement cost and Sunrun covers that with their 25 year replacement warranty, so it sounds like a great deal, if it will work on your roof.

Allen
Finally in HPP

[Rob Tucker]

They inspected my roof and recommend a 10 panel system saying it will produce 105% of my average elec. based on looking at a year of old bills. I got the contract and just need to read it.

One possible obstacle is it requires a permit. Who knows how the building department will be functioning in the future?

[1voyager1]

We had out PV installed in Nov. 2014, we own it and are grandfathered into the Net Metering program.
So, many of our conditions are different from what you are looking at.

Some of the info concerning ours:

We have an 8KW, 16 panel installation.
We still use power the same as we did before the installation.

We have a minimum charge for being connected to the grid of about $25/mo., going up to $27 + change when the add-ons are attached.
It was $20 or $21 when we first signed up.

Our installation cost about $18,000.
I believe it took us 6 years to pay ourselves back at $200/mo. and recoup the costs.

I do tend to experiment around with our power usage and occasionally drive our usage up.
Our rainy cloudy weather here on the windward side gives us a variable billing from HELCO.
We do get several billings a year that can run into the $40+ a month range while many are at the $27 minimum.
It is much, much better than the $185/mo. bills we were getting before.


When the grid goes down, we have no power.
We've lost power up to 6 days from hurricanes and other wind storms.
We lost power for 3 months when the county had HELCO shut our power off during the eruption, for no actual good reason I might add.

Being off grid could have nullified those times.
We could have cut the cord and still can.
But, I do not want to deal with a battery installation.
I have just recently looked around HELCO's information and our Net Metering agreement and it is transferable to net owners if done correctly.
The do make you and the new owners jump thru some hoops, though.

I might be wrong but, I believe HELCO is still accepting PV installations.
They do tend to try discouraging one by making you jump thru a lot of hoops, though.

This is not about a leased installation, but much is applicable to both.

[1voyager1]

Addendum to my forgoing post:

Having the old Net Metering system not the newer Net Petering Plus, or other, we do get occasional bills, from less than the minimum to as little as nothing because of being given payments for our over production that is distributed to the net.
This is no longer available to homeowners since the Net Metering was stopped.

[KPHawaii]

Wed just had it installed. Took almost a year because of Helco dragging their feet. You can lease it with zero down and monthly payments based on your past usage.

You can lease it up front, which is what we did. You pay the entire amount, it's not cheap, then no payments to them and only what you don't produce and/or store in your batteries, to Helco. They take care of any repairs on these two options.

Or, you can purchase it up front, a little less money, but you have to take care of any repairs and/or replacements.

Without any sun but not completely dark, it still produces and stores power. Yesterday, no sun at all and it still charged our 23 panels 100% and lasted through the night. We have air conditioning too. We're getting better at rationing and using the heavy use items only when the sun is shining brightly.

Hope this helps.

KP
“When your hate is louder than your love, your words have no meaning!”

[Rob Tucker]

I appreciate everyone's first hand experience.

Mahalo