My family offers Valley Solar an unreserved recommendation for any solar/battery storage system that you might want for your home or business. They will do quick, excellent, and reliable work that will exceed your expectations, and someone is always available for any questions you might have before, during, and after your installation.
Google says I need to omit the quoting/initial part of the permitting process due to review length… Sam was a great expert that was thorough and patient as I learned about solar power.
Slightly more than a month after calling Sam during an “Easy Quote” (impressive with how many other people were doing the same thing I did), I reviewed and signed a full proposed construction agreement. However, Eversource delayed my project for a technical review of their own, and they demanded that I pay over $11,000 for a grid infrastructure upgrade that “would be needed to prevent overloading of secondary transformers.” Instead of hiding this or asking for more fees of their own, they immediately had me work with the vice president of sales. I was honestly ready to cancel the project until I talked to Mike; he knew there was a way to negotiate with the utility to make the project happen. Sure enough, less than 3 weeks later, they re-submitted the application for my system with an “export limit,” and Eversource approved the installation to proceed sans grid upgrade.
Now, at this point, Mike was sounding a little nervous; I was tentatively scheduled for early January with a “high likelihood of moving up.” Little did I expect Dawson to call me in the middle of November, asking if this team could have a head start on November 19th. Of course I accepted, and the men who arrived at my home on that day did amazing things in less than 7 hours. I do need to point out the dedication of this team; a solar installation with battery backup can take up to a week of electrical and structural work. The racking, hidden conduit, and swap-out of my entire electrical panel was done on that day, and I need to thank Andrew for refusing to leave the job site until he knew the power was back on after his full panel swap.
The team returned in early December (just like they said they would) and installed/wired the battery, every panel, disconnect, conduit, and wire (there was a lot of wiring) in just two days. The team was hard-working and meticulous; they even moved the 300 pound Powerwall from one mounting location to another over uneven and half-frozen ground, just because they were worried the fire department might not like it! Andrew even pointed out how much better the new location would allow him to hide conduit. Look at the pictures; everything looks great with ZERO exposed wires or conduit outside of my home. It’s a joke in construction that electricians are the messiest trade, but Valley Solar’s electricians respected my home and cleaned up every wire and sheath that they could. On December 11th, with hands freezing in the cold wind, Andrew and his team flipped the breaker going to my Powerwall, closed everything up, and then we watched the Tesla app report the first solar AC production occurring at my home.
In conclusion, Valley made the best system; it exceeds my expectations and reasonable production estimates from PVWatts and Gemini AI alike. They installed it quickly and at the best time, at the best price. They used highly efficient bi-facial panels, which are more expensive than what national competitors might use, but allow me to have much more production, including on cloudy days. They used construction practices and design practices (including certifications from outside contractors) that make me believe this system might actually last 25 or more years, like they warranted.
I am glad I called Valley Solar. I’m very pleased with their work. I would hire them again for any major electrical projects, and I trust that they will stand behind their work for a long time to come. If you call Valley Solar for your project, I hope that you find them as ambitious, excellent, dedicated and reasonable as I did.
