I had solar installed right before the NEM 2.0 cutoff ended. I did a standard amount of over-analyzing, researching, and navel-gazing. My overall understanding is if you can get Tesla's design to work well in your situation, it's almost certainly the right choice. The main issue with Tesla is they're not doing their installs, and you get whoever they contract with. However, the prices of the Tesla panels are
sooo much cheaper than the other ones (when doing a kW/$ calc) that they're impossible to beat and likely worth any headaches.
You can effectively get a Tesla solar + Tesla powerwall install for the same price as getting just panels from someone else. That powerwall part is important, because those are also by far the cheapest batteries out there, and some of the best. For current installs, with NEM 3.0 rules, for it to be cost effective to get solar you need to get a battery.
I however didn't go with Tesla. The main reason was at the time Tesla only allowed very specific sizing of the systems, and minimal control over the layout. Our place has a ton of roof visible from the road, and some tree coverage, so for long-term house value and higher system sizing I paid extra for someone else to do it. My understanding is that this has changed with Tesla now, and they do allow more varied installs.
My neighbors also had someone else do their install. Neither of us have had any success getting our installers to be responsive after they got their final payments. My neighbor's company went out of business, and therefore so did his warranty. My company did an overall good install, and completely ghosted me after they got their final payment. Won't even respond to my emails about asking for a battery quote. Again, the theory of non-Tesla being better service I have not seen proof of.
My main suggestions:
- no matter what you need a Tesla quote, including powerwall. It'll at least give you a bounds on the lower cost option, and you should assess all other quotes against it
- you need to price in a battery, given NEM 3.0. You can find a lot of info online on why, but the gist is solar cost effectiveness got screwed by regulators when NEM 2.0 became NEM 3.0, unless you get a battery
- the best battery option is also Tesla, and most places are likely going to quote your battery install as a Tesla one
- on customer service, there's no right answer. IMO it's much more likely a random non-Tesla company goes out of business than Tesla does, especially b/c Tesla is so much cheaper and has so much more money behind it. Your install/maintenance warranty disappears as soon as the company you used disappears.
- the easy answer, and probably right answer, is just go with Tesla, unless you run into a compelling reason it doesn't work for your place
- price in the cost of a roof if yours isn't recent. You don't want panels getting installed on a roof that needs replacement in a couple years.
I think most companies try to sell you a system that covers about 90% of your current usage.
As a minor note, PGE (and maybe regulations) set limits on how many kW your install can be based on your current usage. From a quick google, the limit is something like 150% of previous 12month usage, but there's some leeway I think for growth. For example, if you don't currently have an EV, you probably will at some point, so you may want to size to include that and therefore the system size can also include that I believe.
