
Texas Solar Outfitters
About us
Texas Solar Outfitters is recognized as a Top 250 installer in the U.S. by Solar Power World Magazine. An Authorized SunPower and Sun Edison dealer, all work is carried out by company employees - not sub-contracted. The Company is considered a full service solar engineering, procurement and construction specialist. The team includes NABCEP and UL Certified Installers, a Master Electrician and LEED AP designer. With almost 200 residential installations, in addition to our commercial and government portfolio, Texas Solar Outfitters is truly one the leading installers in the state. After one consultation, in some cases a brief telephone conversation, we can provide enough information to begin choosing the system that is best for your property and your energy needs. Please refer to our website for a full listing of design and consultation services. Voice Star Number: (713) 364-0520
Business highlights
Services we offer
The company designs grid-tied, and hybrid grid systems utilizing solar powered battery backup., off-grid
Amenities
Free Estimates
Yes
Accepted Payment Methods
- CreditCard
Number of Stars | Image of Distribution | Number of Ratings |
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75% | ||
0% | ||
0% | ||
17% | ||
8% |
First of all, I wanted to say that I was able to take advantage of the offer on Angie's List for $1,000 for a $2,000 Credit Toward a Solar Panel Installation since I was getting a 6.6 kW system installed. A very nice coupon!
I started discussing the solar installation with Cal Morton in early August. After collecting the basic information on my house location and providing him with the last 12 months of my electricity use he sent back a proposal for a 21 panel system that should produce 111% of my energy needs for the year. The proposal he sent back was not a 1 pager, it was 14 pages plus 4 pages on the specs for the solar panels and inverter, very detailed! I told him that I was interested in rounding out the system to 24 panels (3 rows of 8) knowing that the solar panels do degrade over time (they provide that math upfront too). He agreed and quickly turned around and provided me with a proposal for 24 panels that was estimated to produce 129% of my energy needs for the year.
I must add the disclaimer that I'm already a very low user of energy. I have a 4 bedroom house and I only used ~7,500 kWh of electricity in the past year. This is why I'm able to have a system installed that has the potential to cover 100% of my energy needs with a Solar Buyback plan from the retail utility company.
After providing a down payment, a couple of their folks came over and made measurements and looked in my attic so that they could get the numbers needed for detailed plans. It took a few weeks to get the plans finished. After that, the plans were provided to the HOA to sign off on. The HOA was very impressed with the thorough information provided by company. With the HOA signing off, the company got permits from the city for installation of the system. I also received an Interconnection agreement from CenterPoint Energy that I had to sign off on since the solar system will be pushing power to the grid when I'm not using it.
The installation occurred on a Friday, the crew of 7 worked hard all day. On Monday a foreman with the company came out to install a Wifi antenna on the Inverter so that both they and I could monitor the system online. There is a home station that is directly connected to the modem in my house that receives the wireless signal from the inverter. On Tuesday CenterPoint came out and inspected the system and approved it. Cal met me at lunchtime with a nice binder with all the material you could ever want on the system for my records and we activated the system. This is only the third full day that I've had the system and it's produced from 26.5 to 31 kWh a day. It's a lot of fun to see how much electricity your system is producing and you can even monitor it from an app on your smart phone!
From my initial discussion with Cal, to the actual functioning system, it was just under 2 months. A lot of things have to happen in that time, I've hit all the major ones above, so you have to be patient with the installation of a system like this.
My thanks to all of the folks from Texas Solar Outfitters who installed a system for me that allows me to produce my own energy without any pollution to the environment!
The initial design took about 2-4 weeks depending on how one interprets the start date but nothing that was not communicated up front. I was kept up-to-date on the design and received a very detailed design, performance, and cost estimate (~15-20 color pages) document that also contained solar panel technical specifications.
Once I accepted the estimate and paid the initial fee the contractor arranged for all government and utility permits/contracts. Since we live in a development with an HOA I filed the architectural request and pursued its resolution. That took a month but I was assured by the contractor that the HOA would accept the request and it did. The contractor moved quickly after the HOA approved the change scheduling the installation within a week.
Installation took two days because two roof surfaces were used. The contractor did a nice job of covering up most of the installation and provided compensation for issues created during the installation: one bent gutter was fixed and compensation was paid for holes not used. I watched most of the installation closely making daily comments to Cal.
After installation it was necessary to have the utility company inspect the installation. I was required to sign a what I would term as a use agreement with the utility, which was arranged for and supplied by the contractor.
The last step was a walk through with Cal on the day the system was turned on. It is a fabulous system, fully automatic with online and iPhone app to monitor the system. Over the last eight months the system has worked pretty much without issue. All issues were self resolved by the system within a few hours. I have been able to monitor utility usage and electricity production from the solar system to compare how much is being created and used. Overall I am very pleased with the contractor and the solar system.
"Extremely thorough review [Member Name Removed], I'm sure it'll be much appreciated by other members. Thank you, Cal Morton Texas Solar Outfitters"
After several call backs, I finally got a bid of over $7,000.00 to replace. When I talked with Cal and he explained that to replace the entire system would now cost $10,000 I questioned a $7000 to replace the inverter. He said he would check and get back to me. After several attempts over 3 months to get more information, the last 2 times I was told Cal would call back, but never did. I finally received a bill for $125.00 and decided to pay $100 (less 25 for non-response).
I finally got the work done in June by Adaptive Solar Design.
"(removed member name) experience was unfortunate. As indicated, Texas Solar Outfitters did not install her solar system, nor did we do any service work on the system. As (removed member name) indicated, we also questioned the wisdom of the spending such a significant amount on fixing an older system, compared to the cost of installing new and better equipment. As Texas Solar Outfitters warranties work for 5 years, as soon as we touched any part of the system, we would have felt obligated to warranty the entire system, and we were not comfortable doing that in this case. We're very happy she found a company to do the repair, and that her system is up and running again. It's not hard to find great reviews on Texas Solar Outfitters, we have the 2nd most customer reviews in the state of Texas (42), and one of the highest rankings. Hope this helps explain the circumstances, we did reach out to (removed member name) by telephone to offer an apology. Thank You, Cal Morton Texas Solar Outfitters"
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