Short version:
Great initial experience with great prices, but a general lack of proactive communication plagued the process. Renu seems to be a little short staffed. Some major problems (roof leak and Duke rebate problems) were able to be worked out satisfactorily. Early production results seem promising.
Long version:
Sales team was great, and willing to work with me on pricing. I had quotes from five companies, and I chose Renu for price, positive reviews, length of experience, panel quality, and production guarantee. Mark has been great about being involved throughout the process and clearly communicating.
My biggest scare was the Duke rebate. At the time I was signing the contract, I was assured that there was virtually a 100% chance I would receive it, and that they would take care of submitting the necessary papers the day it opened in a timely manner. Due to technical issues (not Renuâ s fault), I almost missed the rebate, but due to Renuâ s diligence in bookkeeping, I was able to receive it. While I am happy with the end result, and Renu did do the proper things to ensure that we got the rebate, the process could have been less stressful had Renu been more proactive about communicating what was going on. I also want to note that Reun submitted my application at about 9:19 AM, with a cutoff for receiving the rebate (this year) ended up being at about 9:20 AM. Bottom line, I would be wary of counting on the rebate in making your purchasing decision.
My second biggest problem that I had was a roof leak caused by solar panel installation. This is something that according to pretty much any source online should be very, very rare, as long as the installers are good and your roof is in good condition (ours is brand new and hadnâ t had any problems). Now, to give Renu credit, they sent someone out quickly to take a look, and didnâ t try to pretend that they didnâ t cause the problem, and got it fixed within the week. Getting it fixed in that time frame did require me to push back on their original plans, which were to fix it about a week later, after some major rain storms were set to pass through. We were lucky that the water dripped onto a place where it was visible to us, otherwise we could have had major water damage done before noticing that there was a problem.
A recurring problem after signing until completion was communication. I was given only one day of notice before installation, and wasnâ t told that it would be an all day affair. A bigger deal was working with Evan to get the inspection done. Evan was a nice guy, and I suspect at least part of the problem might be that he is too busy, but he required constant prodding to let us know what was going on, and often did not show up when he told us he would. The first time the inspector came by, he was supposed to stop by a couple hours earlier to drop off needed paperwork, but he never showed up, which meant we failed the inspection. Furthermore, he never called to explain what happened, meaning that a few days later I had to call to find out what was going on. The cycle of needing me to call to find out needed information or needing him to push him to reschedule, etc., occured several times. Again, nice guy who is probably just too busy, but definitely not too reliable or good at letting you know what was going on.
Since my panels have been on (only a couple of weeks), I have seen production numbers that are about what I expected, and should be higher than the guarantee by a comfortable margin. Right off the bat, one of my optimizers didnâ t work. Renu automatically generated a work ticket for it, which is nice. After a couple weeks of not hearing from Renu, I reached out to find out when they would be coming. Joel let me know that since one panel not working is a small problem, it might take a couple more weeks to even get a date scheduled for when they will come. Once again, Renu seems sh...