Day 93

We reached out to the second solar referral we had received and instantly felt better when the first action was to schedule a time to come see the property and meet face-to-face. When the time came to meet and pleasantries were exchanged, the company representative asked us for what we envisioned and then said he would take some measurements and then talk to us about his recommendations.

When he was done, he almost instantly gave us feedback we would have never received through a virtual meeting. Our meeting was in the early afternoon and he said that the shade on the roof already made the roof of the house a questionable place to put panels, even with direct sunlight for a small portion of the day. He reiterated our thoughts about putting panels on the unobstructed roof of the barn, even though it didn't receive any direct sunlight.

While this pleased us, we did want a second opinion about the potential trenching and/or meter placement connected to our project. He did mention that both were viable options, but he felt trenching was the better option. Getting the electric company to move a meter was often very time-consuming and expensive. While trenching was obviously an added cost to the project, it left the electric company out of the process and gave us more control over the details of the project. The information we received felt much more aligned to our goals for the project. Better yet, the price was better than our first quote. The meeting ended with a lot of our questions answered, but we weren't ready to commit to anything yet.

Even though we felt better about this company, I was a bit concerned that they weren’t “local.” I reached out to my initial contact and he mentioned that being “local” isn't much of an issue as many installers are contracted out through the company to have a further reach then the specific geographic area of their headquarters. That made me feel better, but we still wanted to investigate a bit more.

Listening to my local sports radio show, the commercial that jumpstarted the process was a great way to continue the investigation.