Ra Solar

I picked RA Solar because Varney laid out the advantages and let me think about that, there was no pressure and he delivered exactly what I requested. His workers are extremely professional and respectful. A couple of roof tiles were cracked and they not only replaced those, they replaced some more that were already broken before they started. Any problems were quickly addressed to my satisfaction and they would keep working any problem until it is solved. My project manager was Henry and he made sure that things went smoothly. Tavee, lead solar technician, was very helpful and would take the time to explain some of the technical aspects of the system, since I like learning the details and he did not mind me sticking my nose into everything. Shaun, one of the other techies was also very helpful and he even took the time to check out my home grown solar system. Pepe and his brother are ex-roofers, now solar professionals and they also answered any questions I had about the system. They also repaired my roof (a couple tiles) but went the extra mile and did more than expected. Varney’s entire team are great to work with and their expertise is right up there with the big guys, like Solar City, Sunpower, Sunrun, etc. I got 5 quotes and Varney beat all of them. RA Solar is a small company and they are a local Bay area company and they do not contract their work out, they have their own staff that are employees of the company, so everyone has a strong interest in the company succeeding. It doesn’t matter how busy they are, they will always make time for you. I love my system now, it just works, no muss, no fuss and I have a cool mobile app and PC app to check how the system is doing. I have a 6kw system, December 2017, Jan, Feb and Mar were between 300-700 kwh, but man old man April was 1Mwh (1 megawatt) and that is awesome! I got my April PG&E bill today and I got a credit of -$12.99, total NEM charges to date is -$164.43. My credits paid my gas portion of the bill and I did not pay electric and gas. And to top this off, I did my taxes for 2017 and my solar tax credit of approximately $5000 plus, resulted in me getting a nice refund check from the state and the federal governments. Now that has to be the coolest thing ever. RA Solar is the best and I definitely got my monies worth. I will use them again, if I move somewhere else. By the way, invest in the wiring that goes around the solar panels to keep the critters from moving in underneath the panels.

My solar panels were installed in June 2021. My panels worked fine until March 29 2022. Since then my solar panels started having problems. Varney barely picks up his phone. After repeated attempts, he finally sends someone over but this person either comes without the right ladder or the harness or enough people to support. Either way, after repeated failed attempts, he never fixed my issue. It is now Feb 2023 and I have still not gotten my solar panels fixed. I subsequently hired a third party solar repair company, paid nearly 10% of my entire solar install costs just to get them to come and inspect the installation. After working the panels for many hours including a participation from their senior electrician, they figured that the solar design and installation itself was not done optimally and that I would require rewiring/routing of the circuits again. I haven't gotten my solar panels fixed yet as it is costing me quite a bit of money now. I hired a lawyer to represent my interests and my lawyer told me that Ra Solar has gone bankrupt and has no assets on the books. He also told me that Varney cannot be sued for any money and customers are completely at his mercy for support. These types of solar installers need to be removed from partnership from solar companies like solaredge, enphase, etc. I wanted to post this review here to make sure no one else gets scammed by companies like Ra Solar.

I installed panels in 2020 and the experience was great. I even recommended my friends. This year I wanted to install more panels. Experience has not been great. Gustavo, the installer is great. My inverter is 3800 but in the quote for upgrade it is written as 7600 and is supposed to handle new addition of panels. The energy production in maxed out without any benefit of new panels. I contacted Varney and he did install a new micro controller. I gave 5 stars in 2020 Gave 2 stars in 2023 Upgrading to 4 stars as Varney is trying his best to fix everything.

I contacted RA solar recently to install my solar system as they are a elite installer for Panasonic panels. RA solar did an excellent job in installing the solar panels with expert workmanship. Gustavo is a an expert what he does and does it right the first time. Solar panels are working fine and now i m waiting for pg&e activating my system at their end. Hopefully will be done soon. I would strongly suggest RA solar for any solar project.

I got help from Varney and Gustavo for my solar project couple of months ago. Though there was initial back and forth communication in finalizing the contract and installation date, at the end it went smoothly. Varney is a hard working and straight forward person.

RA Solar is a scam. They were pleasant enough during installation but after that it took posting a bad review to get them to answer repeated phone calls and text messages to come look a the system that wasn't functioning properly. We got a bunch of flack for posting a bad review but evidently it is the only way to get this companies attention. To make matters worse, we moved from the house where the solar panels were installed and they emailed me again. I asked them to take me off of their mailing list as I didn't live in the home anymore to which I got a very snarky email back. See below for email chain below: Me: Please remove us from your email list. We have sold the house that these solar panels were installed on. Thank you Response: Thanks for letting us know. We tried on so many occasions to get you to have your husband sign his part of your add-on contract, we texted and left you messages about that, but all we got was a negative review that cost us dearly. Attached, please find the incomplete contract that's still waiting for your husband's signatures. "Owner" showed up at your home in the middle of covid to make sure your inverter was back online. We will take you off the mailing list. Thanks for being a customer. Me: Yeah well, you were supposed to send the contract to ME not my husband. He travels a lot with work so I am always the one that handles all that kind of stuff. We had the same problem when you initially installed the solar panels the first time. If you had followed directions you would have had more business. Not my fault you sent the contract to the wrong person. Customer service is lacking. Cordial communication is lacking. Not a company that should still be in business.

I had my solar panels installed 2 years ago and was pretty happy. Last Oct, I called in for a minor service request. I was told that Varney will get back to me. It has never happened. All of my follow up attempts since then were not responded to. I tried everything email, phone calls. [Follow up] Fast forward 3 months, I got contacted by Varney who told me the company made personnel changes to address the delayed responses. Varney takes up things quickly from here and I'm convinced that he's committed to making things right. That's why I've decided to give the company top stars now.