Solar X Inc.

In fifty years of home ownership and dealing with contractors, we have never been as frustrated and disappointed as we are by Solar-X. The company has failed to deliver the installation its representatives promised. Before contracting with Solar-X, we explained repeatedly that our primary objective was a solar power system that was independent of the grid (not potential financial savings) and would incorporate our stand-by generator. Only after repeated verbal and email assurances on the points we raised did we accept the contract presented to us. What we have received from the company is: (1) A system ("Net-metering") which shuts down when the power grid is down, i.e., is ENTIRELY dependent on the grid being up; (2) An aesthetically crude (for a Heritage District property) finish with improperly trimmed panel support beams and "critter-ridder"; and, (3) A wiring cavity made by electricians in an exterior wall left thermally uninsulated; The response of Solar-X to these issues has been repeated, unfulfilled, promises of resolution, followed by silence. So, for anyone considering this company: BEWARE!!! If, based on the professionalism of its sales staff, you decide to proceed: (1) Ensure that your contract includes a definite project completion date, with specified financial penalties for the company for non-performance. Our "expected" installation date of March 13, 2023, dragged on - with communication from the company only after repeated prompting - until July 5, 2023. Installation of solar panels took three days. The crew commuted many hours from Toronto each day and worked into the dark hours each day. Electrical wiring began only on July 21 and was not 'completed' until the next week. Solar-X did not "commission" the system until August 14. To accomplish that, its personnel had to trouble shoot and correct wiring that had been improperly installed or connected. (2) Get any assurances from Solar-X personnel in writing (not email and certainly not verbal) before signing any contract. We did not learn until the ESA inspection on July 26, 2023 that what the company had installed was not what it had promised. To date, the company has, in verbal exchanges, attempted to blame its failure to deliver on us, rather than on the tunnel vision and inattention (or incompetence) of its planning, design and initial implementation personnel. (3) Do not execute any contract that requires you to make final payment before Solar-X demonstrates that the installed system functions properly, that the whole project is completed to professional standards and is aesthetically satisfactory. Solar-X would not "commission" the system it installed until we had paid the contract amount in full. Our choice was to pay or wait indefinitely for all outstanding issues to be resolved. The company has not, to date, finished the hands-on work satisfactorily. Nor has it offered any proposal to rectify the failure of its employees to deliver the system for which we contracted. (4) Insist that your site survey be done by a qualified professional engineer and that proper, exact measurements be made. In our case, the site survey was done by someone who made a quick stop en route to or from somewhere else, who arrived without measuring equipment or even a ladder, and whose "survey work" consisted of photos with a cell phone and a drone camera. All design and engineering work, prior to the arrival of the panel installation crew, was based on estimated measurements. It was not until the panel installation crew came on site that they (not designers or engineers) came up with, and proposed on the spot, the most efficient and appropriate panel configuration for our location. (5) Be prepared for long delays due to poor work planning, to the frustrations of dealing with a dysfunctional company, to poor communication and to being passed through a succession of personnel and managers, most of whom communicate in dilatory fashion and pay only superficial attention to your project. [Further to my review above, a Solar-X team arrived on August 28 and (a) trimmed the mounting beams so that they were aesthetically appropriate and (b) filled the cavity in the external wall with foam thermal insulation. (They also redid part of the wiring in order to restore the system's operation, it having stopped functioning the previous day.) On August 30, a Solar-X representative called to discuss my review and promised that a proposal to resolve my principal complaint would be made by the company by September 8.]