03/27/2014
Anonymous
We engaged New England Clean Energy to do our solar installation because they had a reputation for the highest quality installations in our area. We were not disappointed; New England Clean Energy installed our 9 kW system under some of the most challenging circumstances I can imagine. The result is a solar power system that came in on budget and schedule and has exceeded our high expectations.<br /><br />We signed our contract in October, but had to complete our planned roof and skylight replacement prior to them beginning work (our roof and skylights were past their expected life, so it made no sense to put panels up until those were replaced). The result was an installation during one of the coldest Decembers on record; Further, they had to wait for our roof to shed the early snow that arrived between the time they installed the rails and the panels. The result was that NECE had installers up on our roof in 12 degree temperatures and frigid winds, but they made it happen; the installation was completed the weekend before Christmas.<br /><br />Through all of this, the NECE team was always cheerfully re-planning the project and keeping us informed of what was happening next and when it was going to happen. The plan they gave us before beginning gave us a realistic timeline, and despite all the crazy weather, we completed the project on schedule. They helped us finance the project more favorably than we expected and worked through issues with our utility who has some of the strictest rebate certification standards in the area and resolved every detail to our satisfaction. The resulting installation is both functional and beautiful; I now give tours of the professionally laid out inverter and monitoring board they installed in our basement.<br /><br />Now that we have had the system online for a while, we now know that the SunPower panels outperform their specifications, especially in our extra cold New England winter this year. Our 9 kW system has been generating between 9.2 and 9.5 kW peaks during the month of March. Further, because of the high power outputs of these panels, we're seeing that result with only 27 panels. which allows for a very attractive layout, despite the 10 skylights breaking up the roof.<br /><br />We started this project with high expectations for our installer, but New England Clean Energy exceeded all of them. We recommend them without reservation to everyone in our area.