JBird Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 Elon makes SolarCity sound fairly compelling in this TED talk: Are any board members SolarCity costumers? I'm curious about the customer experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ERICOPOLY Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 I met a couple at a dude ranch in Northern California -- back in early July. They were both medical researchers at UC Irvine. I talked about Tesla a bit and they told me they had a Solar City installation on their rooftop. They were recommending the company to others. They purchased the system rather than leasing it. It's hard to imagine why more rooftops don't have solar yet. No money down, and immediately your energy bill drops. We'll get there, it's a matter of getting the word out perhaps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremykgold Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 If you don't purchase it outright though and you want to sell your house at a later point before the system is paid off, you either have to pay it off before selling or get the buyer to assume the payments on the system which is seen as a negative. I think this is all true... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ERICOPOLY Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 If you don't purchase it outright though and you want to sell your house at a later point before the system is paid off, you either have to pay it off before selling or get the buyer to assume the payments on the system which is seen as a negative. I think this is all true... Solar City has a no money down program where after five years you can tell them to take their equipment away at no cost to you. So it's only a five year window, and during those five years your only obligation is to purchase the generated electricity at a lower price than your utility charges. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ERICOPOLY Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 In short, you are obligated to save money for five years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremykgold Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 Well, then it's a better deal than one of the companies in Los Angeles which at least last summer when I looked (if you weren't buying) had a 20 year minimum lease. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremykgold Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 In short, you are obligated to save money for five years. Have you purchased it? It does seem pretty cool Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ERICOPOLY Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 In short, you are obligated to save money for five years. Have you purchased it? It does seem pretty cool My situation is complicated by a few factors: 1) I'm not a homeowner so I'd need the landlord to be a cosigner for the loan or agreement (not happening) 2) I'm exploring have a carport built later this year and having the solar installed there (I have a purchase option so the house is going to be mine in 3 years) 3) I want to look into the cost efficacy of using batteries to buy power at night and spend it in the day. Might be better than buying solar panels, but the company (BYD) refuses to answer their email (two weeks now, two tries at different departments). BYD is really irritating me. I don't like waiting a week and not getting a response to a basic question like price. And people think BYD has a rich future -- not if they routinely behave this way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grenville Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 BYD is really irritating me. I don't like waiting a week and not getting a response to a basic question like price. And people think BYD has a rich future -- not if they routinely behave this way. Have you tried calling them instead of email? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkbabang Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 In short, you are obligated to save money for five years. Have you purchased it? It does seem pretty cool My situation is complicated by a few factors: 1) I'm not a homeowner so I'd need the landlord to be a cosigner for the loan or agreement (not happening) 2) I'm exploring have a carport built later this year and having the solar installed there (I have a purchase option so the house is going to be mine in 3 years) 3) I want to look into the cost efficacy of using batteries to buy power at night and spend it in the day. Might be better than buying solar panels, but the company (BYD) refuses to answer their email (two weeks now, two tries at different departments). BYD is really irritating me. I don't like waiting a week and not getting a response to a basic question like price. And people think BYD has a rich future -- not if they routinely behave this way. Wouldn't solar panels with net-metering accomplish almost the same thing? You would be using the power you generate during the day when it is expensive to buy, and selling any extra to the utility during the day when it is expensive. Buy a few more panels than you need so that you sell back electricity everyday. Then you would only be buying power at night when it is cheap and your credits have run out. The only exception to this would be on cloudy days. BYD not getting back to you would be disconcerting to me if I were a shareholder. How do they expect to make any sales in the US with customer service like that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ERICOPOLY Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 BYD is really irritating me. I don't like waiting a week and not getting a response to a basic question like price. And people think BYD has a rich future -- not if they routinely behave this way. Have you tried calling them instead of email? Not yet because who do you call? China? Come on BYD, how about a local number for those of us actually in North America? I'm not kidding, they give you a Chinese phone number for their North American Energy sales: North America-Energy Address:No.3001, Hengping Road, Baolong, Longgang, Shenzhen, 518118, P.R.China Tel: +86-755-8988 8888 | Fax: +86-755-8420 2222 Email: nmd.og@byd.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parsad Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 BYD is really irritating me. I don't like waiting a week and not getting a response to a basic question like price. And people think BYD has a rich future -- not if they routinely behave this way. Have you tried calling them instead of email? Not yet because who do you call? China? Come on BYD, how about a local number for those of us actually in North America? I'm not kidding, they give you a Chinese phone number for their North American Energy sales: North America-Energy Address:No.3001, Hengping Road, Baolong, Longgang, Shenzhen, 518118, P.R.China Tel: +86-755-8988 8888 | Fax: +86-755-8420 2222 Email: nmd.og@byd.com Billion dollar company, and they don't even have a U.S. office with receptionist. Sheesh! Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ERICOPOLY Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 Start off at their website: www.byd.com Click on "Energy" Then click on "Contact Us -- Sales Information" Then click on "Energy". Then they tell you to basically call China. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grenville Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 How about this number: On the bottom of the brochure for that system lists the contact info as: BYD North America 1800 S. Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 09915, USA Tel: +1-213-748-3980 Email:bydenergy@byd.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ERICOPOLY Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 How about this number: On the bottom of the brochure for that system lists the contact info as: BYD North America 1800 S. Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 09915, USA Tel: +1-213-748-3980 Email:bydenergy@byd.com That's really weird. On the website they list that address as their "Auto" destination (cars presumably). http://www.byd.com/na/service/salesinformation.html And for all the other departments they say you should contact China. And it's funny, the "Autos" for North America is the only department on that sales page that lists a non-Chinese number. They only offer Chinese numbers for Africa, Europe, Australia (and all of North America excluding "Autos"). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grenville Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 How about this number: On the bottom of the brochure for that system lists the contact info as: BYD North America 1800 S. Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 09915, USA Tel: +1-213-748-3980 Email:bydenergy@byd.com That's really weird. On the website they list that address as their "Auto" destination (cars presumably). http://www.byd.com/na/service/salesinformation.html And for all the other departments they say you should contact China. And it's funny, the "Autos" for North America is the only department on that sales page that lists a non-Chinese number. They only offer Chinese numbers for Africa, Europe, Australia (and all of North America excluding "Autos"). Yeah that's weird. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ERICOPOLY Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 How about this number: On the bottom of the brochure for that system lists the contact info as: BYD North America 1800 S. Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 09915, USA Tel: +1-213-748-3980 Email:bydenergy@byd.com I called that number. This is humorous. Thank you for calling BYD North America Headquarters. If you know your party's extension, you may enter it at any time. To reach an operator, please stay on the line or press 0. So I stay on the line (my hands are busy chopping veggies in the kitchen and I have the phone on my shoulder). But they must repeat the loop like 6 times or something. Finally they hang up on me. Operator never came on the line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ERICOPOLY Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 I called back and pressed "0" this time to reach an operator. Instead of getting an operator, I got an answering machine with no instructions. It just told me to leave a message. This company is a joke -- you've heard about Bank of America having bad service? Well... move over, we have a new champion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grenville Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 I called back and pressed "0" this time to reach an operator. Instead of getting an operator, I got an answering machine with no instructions. It just told me to leave a message. This company is a joke -- you've heard about Bank of America having bad service? Well... move over, we have a new champion. That's ridiculous. At least you have an early indication of their customer service level before investigating any of their US products for your own use. Thanks for sharing your experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ERICOPOLY Posted August 14, 2013 Share Posted August 14, 2013 Wouldn't solar panels with net-metering accomplish almost the same thing? You would be using the power you generate during the day when it is expensive to buy, and selling any extra to the utility during the day when it is expensive. Buy a few more panels than you need so that you sell back electricity everyday. Then you would only be buying power at night when it is cheap and your credits have run out. The only exception to this would be on cloudy days. Fully understand what you are saying. I was trying to find out if the battery solution was more cost effective. Or at least I wanted to find out how cost effective the battery thing is. Simply getting a price would do the trick. But they don't have any North American salespeople perhaps. BYD not getting back to you would be disconcerting to me if I were a shareholder. How do they expect to make any sales in the US with customer service like that? I'm wondering if I keep repeatedly trying, one of these days I'll find that they've hired employees to sell their product. Then if they are very responsive and eager to get my business at that point I'll buy the stock. Then in the next quarterly earnings report the stock will soar because suddenly they'll have sales in North America. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBird Posted August 15, 2013 Author Share Posted August 15, 2013 Eric is the best Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liberty Posted January 15, 2014 Share Posted January 15, 2014 https://www.solarcity.com/pressreleases/222/-SolarCity-to-Introduce-Solar-Financial-Products-for-Individuals--Institutions-of-All-Sizes.aspx SolarCity to raise money from small investors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liberty Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 SolarCity buys a solar manufacturer: http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/AMDA-14LQRE/3257317271x0x762403/aa368a6f-c0ba-4164-8068-be869edd4e98/Sunflower%20Investor%20Presentation%20FINAL.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeffmori7 Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 And the blog post from Elon Musk: http://blog.solarcity.com/silevo/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fareastwarriors Posted June 17, 2014 Share Posted June 17, 2014 SolarCity in talks to build one of world's largest solar panel production plants in New York http://www.cnbc.com/id/101754244?trknav=homestack:topnews:20 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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