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Solarcoaster: The Promise and Pitfalls of Rooftop Solar Jobs

38 points by frgtpsswrdlame 10y ago

Jeremy1026 10y ago
Good read. I contacted Solar City about going solar at home and after their hour quote pitch thing they did I told them no as they were too expensive. I now get called at least twice a week to see if I would be willing to talk to them again about the possibility of going solar. This was 6 months ago now.
- city41 10y ago
  I inherited a SolarCity lease after buying our house. It's been a six month nightmare of my account and the previous owner's account mixed together in their system. They keep trying to charge me for the previous owner's other solar system, and I'm unable to pay my bill because the statements are always incorrect and I have no idea what I actually owe them. This has been going on since last November. SolarCity is horrible.
  - city41 10y ago
    For some reason I cannot edit my own comment. I finally got a response from SolarCity on this matter just today. They say my account will be fixed in "winter 2017". I bought the house in winter 2016, so they are basically saying it will take them one year to fix the problem.
protomyth 10y ago
The company did not provide its workers access to bathrooms during worktime, requiring them to urinate in bottles or buckets while on the job, according to the lawsuit. that SolarCity failed to compensate installers for travel between jobs Zazueta also alleges he was fired by SolarCity after he refused to perform electrical work under conditions he deemed unsafe. His charge echoes Estrada’s claim that, when he worked out of the San Diego warehouse, certified electricians “would get fired if they asked too many questions.” Do you want a union, because this is exactly how you get a union. Frankly, I get the whole profit motive, but if your morals are so poor that you create a company with standards that would not be a fit place to bring your children up through the ranks, then you should be sued into oblivion or forced to fix it via a union.
- Animats 10y ago
  Sullivan Solar in southern California is unionized.[1] IBEW Local 569. It's really tough to organize a company today, though. Employers can just fire everybody and start over. [1] http://www.ibew.org/articles/14daily/1404/140422_solar.htm http://www.ibew.org/articles/14daily/1404/140422_solar.htm
- tcdent 10y ago
  No access to restrooms is the norm with any short-term on-site construction work. Industrial products exist (in the form of bottles and buckets) to serve the need. If a porta-potty is needed on-site, it's the customer who ultimately pays the cost, and it's easy to find the expense hard to justify, even on multi-day projects.
  - 91bananas 10y ago
    Yeah it's real hard to justify. Those guys up on the roof have to pee, shocking right?
- tunap 10y ago
  "Frankly, I get the whole profit motive, but if your morals are so poor..." This is the norm as I experienced it as a certified tech for a Fortune 50 entity working on Fortune 50 big boxes. The only exception was the rare day a safety inspector or district(or higher) bigwig was onsite. Project managers' positions are hyper-sensitive to cost & time, turn-over is always immanent. The sociopaths tend to endure & promote up.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
bronson 10y ago
We can thank Sullivan Solar's PR budget for this article.
aisdufh 10y ago
This post seems wayyyy too long for someone's blog. The author probably got paid per word or something.
- sp332 10y ago
  It's designed to be published in an actual magazine - you know, on paper. I figure it's sized to fill four pages including the pictures.
sxates 10y ago
Personal Anecdote - I just had solar installed on my roof by SolarCity. I found them to be very professional to work with, they pushed the process forward very rapidly (days from call to initial survey, another week to actual install (then a week delay due to rain), another week to completed inspections and green light to turn the system on). Everyone seemed to be enthusiastic about their jobs and about renewable energy. My rep called me frequently to check in and make sure everything was to my liking, and was very responsive to calls and emails. The installers all seemed competent, and the job was completed in half a day (19 panels). One asked if he could use my bathroom, which was fine. The first install attempt had to be rescheduled due to weather, and it was the install team's call to postpone. I didn't see any attempt to pressure them to do work they weren't comfortable with. Safety seemed to be a big concern for everyone from the surveyor to the installers. Everyone had a phone and photo-documented every step, every change, even the fact that they had installed their safety equipment. Probably CYA in most cases, but I also appreciate the attention to detail. Certainly a limited view of the company and it's workers. As a customer so far I've had a good experience.
- city41 10y ago
  Good luck, see my other comments in this thread. In my experience, SolarCity will be very helpful and supportive when first working with you. Once locked in and/or they have your money, they will stop caring.
fpgaminer 10y ago
My personal experience as a potential customer of the solar industry has been pretty weird so far. I'm at the contracting stage of getting solar. I used Yelp to narrow down our options to three different companies. I contacted each, gave my information, and ... then nothing. Never heard back from _any_ of them. So I tried calling each again. The first of them got back to me and has been the most helpful so far. It's a small local company. They use some kind of solar quoting software that pulls info out of Google Earth/Google Maps. It maps out your roof and everything. So this company was able to send me a quote with prospective panel placement, estimated generation by month, and estimated electric bill pre and post solar. Really cool! When I got ahold of the second company I ran down my list of requests for the solar system. They balked at my request for Tesla PowerWall batteries. The rep went on a 2 minute sales pitch for some other brand and said "Tesla batteries won't power your home"...I ... I didn't know what to say that. I ignored the ignorance and requested a quote anyway. It's now 3 days past when they said the quote would come (why would it take so long for an estimated quote anyway!?) and I haven't heard a peep. The third company apologized for not getting back to me and said they'd tell their solar rep to get back to me ASAP. Still nothing. All three companies were very highly rated on Yelp (and all with at least 40 reviews). And yet all I have to show for my requests so far is ... 1 quote. SolarCity may suck, but their competition doesn't seem to want business anyway.

Good read. I contacted Solar City about going solar at home and after their hour quote pitch thing they did I told them no as they were too expensive. I now get called at least twice a week to see if I would be willing to talk to them again about the possibility of going solar. This was 6 months ago now.

city41 10y ago
I inherited a SolarCity lease after buying our house. It's been a six month nightmare of my account and the previous owner's account mixed together in their system. They keep trying to charge me for the previous owner's other solar system, and I'm unable to pay my bill because the statements are always incorrect and I have no idea what I actually owe them. This has been going on since last November. SolarCity is horrible.
- city41 10y ago
  For some reason I cannot edit my own comment. I finally got a response from SolarCity on this matter just today. They say my account will be fixed in "winter 2017". I bought the house in winter 2016, so they are basically saying it will take them one year to fix the problem.

protomyth 10y ago

The company did not provide its workers access to bathrooms during worktime, requiring them to urinate in bottles or buckets while on the job, according to the lawsuit. that SolarCity failed to compensate installers for travel between jobs Zazueta also alleges he was fired by SolarCity after he refused to perform electrical work under conditions he deemed unsafe. His charge echoes Estrada’s claim that, when he worked out of the San Diego warehouse, certified electricians “would get fired if they asked too many questions.” Do you want a union, because this is exactly how you get a union. Frankly, I get the whole profit motive, but if your morals are so poor that you create a company with standards that would not be a fit place to bring your children up through the ranks, then you should be sued into oblivion or forced to fix it via a union.

Animats 10y ago
Sullivan Solar in southern California is unionized.[1] IBEW Local 569. It's really tough to organize a company today, though. Employers can just fire everybody and start over. [1] http://www.ibew.org/articles/14daily/1404/140422_solar.htm http://www.ibew.org/articles/14daily/1404/140422_solar.htm
tcdent 10y ago
No access to restrooms is the norm with any short-term on-site construction work. Industrial products exist (in the form of bottles and buckets) to serve the need. If a porta-potty is needed on-site, it's the customer who ultimately pays the cost, and it's easy to find the expense hard to justify, even on multi-day projects.
- 91bananas 10y ago
  Yeah it's real hard to justify. Those guys up on the roof have to pee, shocking right?
tunap 10y ago
"Frankly, I get the whole profit motive, but if your morals are so poor..." This is the norm as I experienced it as a certified tech for a Fortune 50 entity working on Fortune 50 big boxes. The only exception was the rare day a safety inspector or district(or higher) bigwig was onsite. Project managers' positions are hyper-sensitive to cost & time, turn-over is always immanent. The sociopaths tend to endure & promote up.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]

bronson 10y ago

We can thank Sullivan Solar's PR budget for this article.

aisdufh 10y ago

This post seems wayyyy too long for someone's blog. The author probably got paid per word or something.

sp332 10y ago
It's designed to be published in an actual magazine - you know, on paper. I figure it's sized to fill four pages including the pictures.

sxates 10y ago

Personal Anecdote - I just had solar installed on my roof by SolarCity. I found them to be very professional to work with, they pushed the process forward very rapidly (days from call to initial survey, another week to actual install (then a week delay due to rain), another week to completed inspections and green light to turn the system on). Everyone seemed to be enthusiastic about their jobs and about renewable energy. My rep called me frequently to check in and make sure everything was to my liking, and was very responsive to calls and emails. The installers all seemed competent, and the job was completed in half a day (19 panels). One asked if he could use my bathroom, which was fine. The first install attempt had to be rescheduled due to weather, and it was the install team's call to postpone. I didn't see any attempt to pressure them to do work they weren't comfortable with. Safety seemed to be a big concern for everyone from the surveyor to the installers. Everyone had a phone and photo-documented every step, every change, even the fact that they had installed their safety equipment. Probably CYA in most cases, but I also appreciate the attention to detail. Certainly a limited view of the company and it's workers. As a customer so far I've had a good experience.

city41 10y ago
Good luck, see my other comments in this thread. In my experience, SolarCity will be very helpful and supportive when first working with you. Once locked in and/or they have your money, they will stop caring.

fpgaminer 10y ago

My personal experience as a potential customer of the solar industry has been pretty weird so far. I'm at the contracting stage of getting solar. I used Yelp to narrow down our options to three different companies. I contacted each, gave my information, and ... then nothing. Never heard back from _any_ of them. So I tried calling each again. The first of them got back to me and has been the most helpful so far. It's a small local company. They use some kind of solar quoting software that pulls info out of Google Earth/Google Maps. It maps out your roof and everything. So this company was able to send me a quote with prospective panel placement, estimated generation by month, and estimated electric bill pre and post solar. Really cool! When I got ahold of the second company I ran down my list of requests for the solar system. They balked at my request for Tesla PowerWall batteries. The rep went on a 2 minute sales pitch for some other brand and said "Tesla batteries won't power your home"...I ... I didn't know what to say that. I ignored the ignorance and requested a quote anyway. It's now 3 days past when they said the quote would come (why would it take so long for an estimated quote anyway!?) and I haven't heard a peep. The third company apologized for not getting back to me and said they'd tell their solar rep to get back to me ASAP. Still nothing. All three companies were very highly rated on Yelp (and all with at least 40 reviews). And yet all I have to show for my requests so far is ... 1 quote. SolarCity may suck, but their competition doesn't seem to want business anyway.