Day 94

Listening to sports talk radio, you quickly get to memorize the slogans and jingles connected to the various companies that advertise on the program. One such memorization was a solar installer who was headquartered just a few minutes away. Even though our previous meeting with a different company went quite well, we decided to get a third opinion. At this point, we had a much better understanding of the process, our needs, and what we wanted from an installer. This third company felt like a hybrid of the first two. Though personalized with a face-to-face meeting and hands-on investigation of the potential project, there was also a much more business-like, formal presentation attached to the meeting. Though it didn't come off as forced, it did lose a bit of the casual nature we enjoyed from the second company. However, this company had great reviews and was located very close, so we felt it was definitely a potential partner. He confirmed the best place for panels was probably the barn and once again reiterated the need to either move the meter or do a more extensive trenching job to connect to the barn from the house. The overall presentation was professional and I think we felt comfortable going with this company as well. It probably would come down to what most home improvement projects come down to, crunching the numbers. He was able to give us a quote right away. While it was in the ballpark of our second quote, it was more expensive. We also noticed that we were quoted for a less powerful system. In essence, if we chose this company we would be getting less power for a higher cost. 

We thanked him for his time and planned on getting back to him after we had time to look over everything. We had questions? Why did company number two quote us using a more powerful system? Would we be buying panels we didn't need? Was the benefit of working with a more “local” company outweigh the cost benefits of the more regionally located one? Could we afford any of this right now?  Did we really want it? 

So much to think about.