Better Earth Solar
Top Ten Reasons To Never Use Better Earth Solar
A Picture Is Worth 1,000 words.
Because Better Earth Solar installed all our solar panels facing East, this graph shows production start to decline from Noon, through the bright, unblocked Southern side of our house’s Southern and Western Exposures, as people are returning home from school and work to use electricity and when PG&E has started charging peak rates.
(Why would Better Earth Solar show us the optimized layout for our house they said they would use, then change to the easier, quicker to install layout without first telling us they changed the plans?)
Top Ten Reasons not to use Better Earth Solar
- After 2-10 below, Better Earth Solar responded to a shocked and upset customer by saying they met their minimum production obligation under the contract.
- Better Earth Solar installed all our solar panels together on the East Side of our house (including the part shaded by tall trees). They proudly showed us the optimized layout they would use specific to our house, with panels filling the unblocked South side roof and the rest on the unblocked part of the Eastern roofline. They changed the layout and changed the final building permit without telling us.
- Better Earth Solar told us they stocked and would use the most current version of Solar Panels. Then, Better Earth Solar installed panels that were larger, yet still produced less electricity, than the panels that were in common use at that time.
- Better Earth Solar installed an inverter that was too small for the solar system they installed, limiting what it should be producing with the proper size inverter.
- Better Earth Solar’s electrician installed the circuit breaker incorrectly. Better Earth Solar’s electrician caused us to awake to smoke and the smell of fire the next morning. [We paid an electrician to come to the house immediately. A building inspector we called also arrived shortly thereafter. Both explained why it had been installed incorrectly.]
- Better Earth Solar told us they would void our solar system’s warranty if we used an electrician other than their own to disconnect the individual breaker switch and reinstall it into a new breaker box (needed to install the electric car charger).
Important note: this was the exact same simple connection that their electrician installed improperly, leading to the emergency, early a.m. call to fix the fire danger they created.
- Better Earth Solar charges $1,000 ($500 x two trips) for the five minutes it takes to disconnect and reconnect a breaker switch from a breaker box. [They refer to the five minutes to take the wire off the breaker switch and reconnect the wire as “disconnecting the solar system.”]
- Better Earth Solar’s installation did not pass the building inspection. The building inspector explained that this was a major code violation, because wind gusts can rip solar panels off a roof it the panels are not mounted close enough to the edge of the panels.
- (9a) Better Earth Solar installed our panels unevenly. (9b) Their installers left hot tar in large amounts on our sidewalks.
- When Better Earth Solar sent a different installation team to fix the mistakes, they said they were routinely sent to correct mistakes made by multiple installation teams.