Sun Solar-OC - Anaheim, California

Manfred Lehmann

Best in Class
In 2009 I had installed in my neighborhood the first solar voltaic system – 36 panels – 6.3 kW. Works well and cost fully recovered. Through some lifestyle changes, I started to use more AC, leading me to plan on adding an additional solar voltaic system. I invited 8 contractors for proposals. Because, these older lower efficiency panels are facing south, which is the roof’s prime real estate, I described to the contractors that we should relocate 18 old panels to the west and east facing roofs, in order to make room for the new higher efficiency panels oriented towards the south. With this added requirement four contractors did not want to proceed.
One contractor stood out: Sun Power by Sun Solar. During the first telephone discussion on the project, Nathan Jones, their Solar Educator offered that he would like to come visit my place and have a hands-on first look. A few days later he arrived together with Aaron Dabbs, Sales Manager. We climbed on the roof and we discussed on how to best implement the project. Aaron was genuinely interested to pursue an optimum approach. Before signing any contract, I always make it a point to visit the office of the contractor. In looking at the performance of the system, expected quality of its implementation, impression from office visit and that they have climbed on my roof, minimizing any misunderstandings, Sun Power by Sun Solar was the clear winner. We concluded to add 14 Equinox panels for 5.67kW. The combined systems now provide a 12kW system size.
Three days after I signed the contract, Shawn came to our house taking detailed measurements, necessary for documenting the project. A few days later, they had submitted the project to the town’s engineering department for their review and approval. At the same time, I submitted the project to the Gated Community Home Owners Association. The city approved the project within 4 weeks, the Home Owners Association took 6 weeks. Now the project was going full steam ahead. Now it is 8 weeks after Shawn took the detailed measurement, and a team of four came to the house to relocate 18 of the existing solar voltaic panels. I climbed onto the roof of the two-story house. It was such a pleasure to see how they worked, taking good care of just everything. Relocation was finished after 3 ½ days.
Ten days later, the new Equinox panels had arrived at the Sun Solar warehouse and they came for the final installation. Because they had already installed the racking, supporting the panels, before, this final installation was finished within the same day and both systems generated electricity and feeding immediately into the grid.
The installation comes with a Home Monitoring system which is designed to measure the production of the Sun Power solar panels. In order to also measure the production of my old 2009 system and to combine the performance measurements into a combined result, Aaron Dabbs, the Sales Manager and General Manager of the Anaheim office came personally to my house and connected the wiring to achieve the desired result.
Now, we are at the final step to receive the ‘Permission to Operate’ from Southern California Edison. Desiree did an exceedingly excellent job with the submission process; again, my project needed to combine permission for the combined old and new installation.
My rating for Sun Power by Sun Solar through their Anaheim branch office receives my highest best rating. I would go higher, but 5 stars is the top available.
Manfred Lehmann

Good Light

Very poor scheduling and responsiveness to issues. I had a battery Installed about 2 years ago. 2 months go the battery stopped working. Opened a case with Sunpower, they shipped replacement equipment to these guys (who were my installers) and they have been sitting on the equipment for almost 2 months, never calling me back, never emailing me. I've called them multiple times to get an appointment, and only today. After calling them did they give me a day to fix my battery. I reported the issue Feb 10. and they are only coming to fix it until March 27th. This entire time, I've had no battery backup / system. Why did I bother with a battery system if it goes down so often, and they won't come out and fix it. 76 days to give me a day when they will come try to fix it.

Ryan Kirkland

Snake Oil. I bought my house from the previous owners who invested in the Sun Power Solar System. I inherited this garbage. My System currently produces 6-8 Kwh a day, and my home uses between 30 and 66 KWH a day. How can you spec a system this under powered? To make matters worse, I pay about $138 a month to save under $200 a month on my electric bill. How does help me? It only helps Sunpower.

On top of that, they have the worse customer service in history. It's almost impossible to get someone on the phone. Your wait time continually gets longer per the voice prompt. Call started with a 10 minute hold time, and 20 minutes in, its telling me I now have a 40 minute hold time. Infuriating!

The Wifi device was taken by the previous home owners, and it took 2 weeks, 3 phone calls, and escalating the case to a MANAGER to get someone to come out. They should have sent a tech to inspect everything automatically on change of ownership. Stay far away from this company. Get a company that will actually look out for its customers, and not just themselves.

Sheldon C

UPDATE BELOW:

We are at week 19 - nearly double the time frame initially promised of 8-10 weeks. My relatives spoke highly of SunPower by SunSolar's service, yet that buzz is wearing down - hopefully understandably.

We signed installation contracts around the same time as another family we know in Los Alamitos and my relatives another state. The other family had their SunPower system installed months ago and interconnection approved, albeit from another installer. My relatives also already have their solar system installed, albeit they have a Tesla system. Yet here I am, twiddling my thumbs as a keyboard warrior.

Here is a real timeline for you all.

Late May 2022 - Contract Signed
Mid June 2022 - SunPower by SunSolar inspector comes by for roofing and electrical measurements. Yet a later review of stamped drawing set shows electrical main in wrong location. Wiring going to places they don't need to go. I made SunPower by SunSolar aware of this upon review and sent photos of actual locations.
Late July 2022 - SunPower by SunSolar texts stating equipment should arrive within the next few weeks.
Mid August 2022 - Upon request, SunPower by SunSolar texts no shipping update from SunPower
Late August 2022 - Upon request, SunPower by SunSolar texts initial equipment ETA early September 2022
Early September 2022 - SunPower by SunSolar texts that SunPower pushed back ship date to Late September 2022
Late September 2022 - Upon request, SunPower by SunSolar texts SunPower still showing late September 2022 but no shipment number confirmed.
Early October 2022 - Upon request, SunPower by SunSolar texts SunPower still has not shipped but will reach out to SunPower.
Current - No update.

Waiting... waiting...

Frustrated by incorrect stamped drawing set. Frustrated by unkept timeline. Frustrated by SunPower; unfortunately trickling down to SunPower by SunSolar.

UPDATE:
SunSolar received our panels about a week after writing this review. Their Project Manager apologized for the delay and was able to expedite installation of our panels. Installation went smoothly, though I wish their electrician cleaned up their wire strippings and sheathings better as there was about 2 small handfuls of trash left in our backyard near the electrical main, and in our lawn. We are awaiting inspection and PTO and are looking forward to closing out this contract with them.

Dan Daily

Aaron and his team are very professional and they were a pleasure to work team. He took the time to explain all the options of solar and did an excellent job reviewing my electricity to recommend the number of solar panels needed.

The first year electricity bill showed my home as having credit. To date I still show a credit for usage. I highly recommend Aaron and his team!

Jim Yelvington

It is a very difficult installation to procedures complete because we did a complete tear of and install of a new roof at the same. Sun Power Solar did a great not only installing their product but also in coordinating with the roofing company to complete the job.

It was layered, with the solar company working for a day or two, then the roofing company for a week, then the solar companies and then the roofing company again… But they did an excellent job and we are very happy with the results.

Jeannine Ward

I wanted to share my experience with SunPower by Sun Solar. Unfortunately we purchased our solar system from a company named RCC Solar who went out of business approx 2 years later and so did all the great promises and contractual agreement did too. We began experiencing issues with our system and with the company now out of business we were left to find someone to help us.

We called several companies and on one would help us, until we spoke to Skip with SunPower by Sun Solar. He was so nice, and so helpful, not to mention patiently took the time to give us helpful info over the phone.

Ultimately, he was able to figure out exactly why we were experiencing intermittent outages. He resolved our issue at a very fair price and has continued to monitor our system regularly since. I am so grateful for a company like this, I just wish we found them when purchasing our system.

michael helmick

My job was not a very big one so there was not a lot of money involved. Skip still took the time to come out and diagnose and work with me to get a new inverter through Sunpower under warranty . Skip came out and installed the inverter for a very moderate price. I wanted to thank Skip for his hard work and dedication to me. All my solar needs will now be done through Skip and his business. Thanks again