Texas Solar Outfitters

Installation was done quickly and effectively. However, there was a definite "bait and switch" in that the original price quoted was for LG360 panels, but at installation time "only LG335 are available ... we can add a couple to bring you up to the quoted power level ... but at the same price quoted for LG360." Since then, the company has been entirely unresponsive, not returning calls and not taking care of basic service issues. I need to update the cellular card in the system (no longer supported by TMobile), they will not call back about this. I want to add battery backup, but again, they will not call back. I would absolutely not utilize the services of this company again.

I had seven panels put in and less than six months into having the system turned on, two of the panels had become inoperational. I have tried and tried to call and email them for six months until I finally got in touch with a live person in late July of this year. She was going to look into the situation but nothing has happened since. So here I am with 5 of 7 panels working while two just burn holes in my wallet since I paid over $14,000 to help the environment and save a little change. I will updated, but for time being, beware of doing business with them because once they have your money, you don't exist.

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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!

Do not install more than you need.  Do not calculate your total yearly energy usage in kwh and then build/install a system that will produce that many kwh.  Why not?  Because you use energy at times when the sun isn't shining.  And you can't store the energy you need at night.  You will only get a small credit from the utility company for excess power, so it is not cost effective to offset your entire yearly energy usage by solar.  My advice is to find out how many kw of power your house draws when the A/C is running and maybe the hot water heater is heating or other normal electrical loads are on.  Then try to build a solar system that has that level of power.  This is not what I intended to do when I installed my system, but it is what accidentally ended up happening and I'm very happy with it.  I trimmed my system size down just so I could afford it.  Now I'm extremely glad I didn't get the huge solar system originally proposed.  I would have been producing way more power than I use during the day and not getting near enough from the power company for the excess to cover the cost of the installation.

All work performed cleanly and aesthetically logical.  Walker was always available to answer any questions and promptly returned phone calls.  He reworked our plan for us several times until we were able to make a final decision on placement and number of panels.  He was great with the numbers and was able to maximize return on investment plans for us.

Cal the company representative was great: very attentive, easy to contact very knowledgable providing lots of information, open to discussion, and fun to work with.

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.

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.

I was very impressed with them! It took 7-8 days to install, but it took 2 months to get all the paperwork and home owners association set up. They have been really good. It really only took that long because of the home owners association holding us up. They did it all so we didn't have to worry about it. They took care of everything! The panels have a wifi connection and smart meter. There is an app so we can see how much energy we are earning. They were very polite and professional people throughout the job.