Mysterious Solar Salespeople
This edition of the FAQ video series takes a look at door-knocking solar sales reps and why going with quotes from established local solar companies is a smarter path to a reliable new solar system.
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(Transcript)
Jeremy:
Hi, I am Jeremy, and I’ve got James Fisher with me from Sundance Power Systems. How are you doing today?
James:
I’m doing great, Jeremy. How are you?
Jeremy:
Oh, pretty good. I will say that you and I were just talking off camera a second ago, and a lot of us have had this situation where there was a solar power company, a solar systems installer, if you will, that comes to the door. This happened to me a couple of years ago. Young person came to the door and I’m realizing they’re actually pitching me for solar, and I got halfway through the whole process where I realized, oh, this is what they’re selling. They’re selling solar. And I was thinking, I don’t even know who this company is, if they’re actually a local company or just a huge corporation. And my biggest concern is will they support me on an ongoing basis? So I ended up not pulling the trigger with them because I was like, I don’t know. So tell us about that.
James:
Yeah, you went through it very thoroughly there. That is exactly the case. There are companies out there that are canvassing everywhere trying to sell solar. Now, the question is, do they know what they’re doing? You also had a good question. Are they going to be there in the long run? Our view is, well, that there are questions there.
What I can say about Sundance is, again, we’ve been doing this nearly 30 years. We go with a different approach, and our approach is the five-step design process. And that involves sending one of our energy consultants out to your home site to listen to what you want to do or what your goals are. We’ll analyze how much power you’re currently using. We’ll look at what’s called irradiance. Irradiance is the potential your home site has for solar. So it takes into account shading, where your rooftop is faced, all those factors. And then we bring that information into the office. We have an excellent design team. They create a potential system, meeting your needs and your home site’s potential. We create a proposal and there you go. We factor in tax credits. We factor in everything there is.
And then, if you do go with Sundance, we have local installers. We have professional guys, experienced guys. Some of these other companies, it’s questionable as to who’s getting on your roof. And you got to remember, a solar system is basically your own personal power plant. It’s really what it is. It’s electricity. You don’t want to cut corners. What I know about Sundance Power Systems is our guys don’t cut corners. They know what they’re doing, and we’re there after the installation as well. We have the biggest service department in the area. We service Sundance systems as well as systems from other people. We do assess those systems for safety before we go and service them. But Sundance Power Systems is there every step of the way and for the life of the system.
Jeremy:
So it’s good that I pay attention to my gut when my gut was like, I don’t know who actually the company is behind this. Whereas my gut was saying, it’s better to go with somebody who’s a local or they do everything.
James:
Absolutely. And whether it’s us or another local company, our recommendation is always get a couple of quotes, ask questions and see what your gut tells you. I think what you’re generally going to find is that a local company is more reliably present, is there for the long haul, and particularly in Sundance’s case, is there for the life of the system.
Jeremy:
And you guys have been in business for over 30 years?
James:
Nearly 30 years, yeah.
Jeremy:
Nearly 30 years.
James:
We started in 1995.
Jeremy:
Wow. So if you want to learn more about solar and you don’t want to fall into that trap of just going with whoever knocks on the door, or you want to just educate yourself, tell us more about how to get started.
James:
Sundancepower.com. Our website has all the information on our history, on what we do, all the different options for all the different systems, how we do it. There are project profiles on there, or you can just give us a call at 828-645-2080.
Jeremy:
Awesome. Thank you so much for your time.
James:
You’re welcome.
