Freedom Solar Power Reviews

Freedom knows that SunPower is one of the more expensive brands that are out there because it's a higher quality panel, and it's got a better, longer warranty to it. What differentiated Freedom Solar from Blue Raven was Freedom's warranty also included the labor. Freedom Solar covers parts and labor for the whole thing. So, they cover it end to end.

My experience with the Freedom Solar Power rep was outstanding. When I was talking to them, they were asking if there were any other competitors that I was using. I was sharing some of the names and they said, "Okay." They had comparisons and the nice part was that the sales rep researched the competitors and even looked at their service agreements. So, she was very much able to differentiate their service agreement from other ones and show it. I pulled up the other ones and, sure enough, she was spot on. She was very transparent on what makes them more expensive, but also what they offer that the others don't so that I can make the best decision that's right for me.

I don't know how large the company is, but they really give you that feeling almost like a small mom-and-pop shop would. They're very caring. Even when they came to do the installation, the whole experience was sensational. They could be larger than Walmart for all I know, but they treat you like you're the most important customer and that's a really good thing. If you do a lot of looking at reviews for other companies, a lot of times, the service and having to call in is usually tougher because it's like you're getting bounced between different companies and who's taking ownership of it. Freedom has owned the whole thing from start to finish and any questions I have, even if it was about a competitor, they're more than willing to look into it and share their thoughts on it as well.

They were a great experience and very good to work with, especially when some of my situations were changing around. They had no worries about it. Durham County was taking a long time to get the permitting done. So, at the time, who they were using for the loans, defaulted, unfortunately, because there's a time span of signing up until you actually get the money. So, I had to switch how I was paying for it and they had no issues at all with that. They easily worked with me and they weren't giving me any problems.

The installation was funny because we are in a unique situation. We have about three acres and we have two homes on them. We distinguish them with our local energy company as unit one and unit two. That way, we can get two separate bills for the two separate homes. There was a bit of a mix-up that took me a bit to get straightened out with Freedom because they came out, installed the solar panels on unit one, which is our main house, and then a couple of months later, they came out and hooked up the solar panels on unit two.

Once you get the hardware installed, they still have to come out and they have to have the local energy company sign off on it. Somebody messed something up somewhere. They came out and started doing unit two first instead of the main house. I talked with the actual installer people. I wasn't getting anywhere and it didn't seem to be getting cleared up. I finally called Shane and he got it squared away. Other than that small hiccup, things worked out pretty well for the most part.

I'm glad we did Freedom. We got the solar turned on right before summer and it drastically cut our bills. Our electric bill was down to about $150 a month and our payment was about 150 bucks a month. Overall, we're saving about $150, $200 a month. Coming into wintertime, I suspect that we will save even substantially more.

Part of the deal was you get a 30% tax rebate from the government but you have to apply that to your balance then your payments will stay the same. If you don't apply that to your balance on each unit, your payment will go up by about $50 a month. After 18 months, you have to apply that 30% solar rebate. This coming year, we'll be able to get that on our taxes. I just hate all that paperwork and tax stuff and having a thousand different people sign off on things. That's the only thing. It seems like it could be confusing. You end up forgetting to pay or you don't pay the right amount. Instead of depending on that 30% tax rebate, I'd rather have them take 30% off my bill. Otherwise, it's fine.

I was a little bit surprised at how quickly they could install them. They had them up in a day. The process where the electrician comes, hooks them up and tests them took a little bit longer because the electrician is scheduled separately from the installation. From the time they put them up until the time thee panels began producing electricity that I could use was two weeks. They have an app that you get. It's multifaceted. At the beginning, the app wasn't working too well. I was dissatisfied. It only worked every other day. But in the past several months, I've had no issues.

You go on the app and it shows you how much they're producing real time and how much you're using. There's this little cartoon that shows either electricity going into the grid or coming from the grid. If you're producing more than you use, the electricity goes into the grid and you're paid for it. If you're producing less than you're using, then you have electricity coming from the grid. The other part of the app shows each individual panel, whether it's in production or not. That's neat because you can click on a panel and it gives you the serial number of the panel and what it's producing. If you have a panel that's not producing, it'll highlight it and you can click on it. When you call Freedom, you can tell them what panel is not producing. They also monitor your panels. They claim that if a panel starts to malfunction, they'll know about it right away.

You read an ad that says, "Eliminate your energy bill," but that's not true. This month, our energy bills from the electric company is going to be $68. We've never had a zero electric bill. They will tell you to read the fine print, but they're not telling people the truth. I don't think there's any such thing as a zero energy bill. This summer, our panels produced maximum because of the sunshine in Texas. But our air conditioning was also using maximum-plus. But my solar panel payments for the panels plus my new electric bill is still less than what I would be paying without solar. I'm saving anywhere from $150 to $300 a month, depending on the month.

The only negative I have on Freedom Solar is there's a period from when you purchase the panels to where they're installed. Their department that oversees the permitting is lax. I've been in construction. I know how to go on the city website and check my permits, and there were some hold-ups on my permits that were normal engineering stuff that they needed to submit. Every time, they were unaware that my permit was being held up. We could have had our panels installed a month earlier if they had paid attention. But for buying the solar panels, they had a couple cash rebates and when it came time for my rebates to come in, they came right through.

Freedom was good with us. We had an issue with the financing part of it and they worked with us to find a solution for that. The crew came out, they did the install in one day, and it wasn't super disruptive. Their cleanup was pretty good. There were a couple of things they left behind but nothing crazy. They took us out there and explained everything to us. They showed us where everything was connected. They did good. The permit process was all managed by Freedom. In total, that took around seven months. Customer service has been good as well. We get a monthly bill. My wife had some calls with them early on just so we could understand how the app works. It tracks all the energy coming in versus going out. They were always quick to explain things to us. We haven't had to wait for long periods of time for things.

We started talking to Freedom either June or July last year and then the system got installed in January. Unfortunately, we're in one of those areas where they do some buyback but they won't take our bill down to zero. We still have a connection fee that we have to pay every month no matter what. We still have an electric bill. But for the last two months, we haven't paid for any electricity. We just paid that connection fee every month.

I'm pleased on the whole. If anyone were to ask me, I would definitely recommend Freedom Solar. We'll probably buy more products from them in the future. We had talked about doing like a battery as well, but the timing and the financing just wasn't right. At some point, we will probably have a battery installed and we'll probably use Freedom Solar for that.

Then one day, they called and told me my installation date, which was earlier than what they originally told me, but it was fine. After that, the installers came out and did it all in one day. The guys were really nice. After they installed the panels, they said I'd be waiting for one more guy to come and do something with the little box outside and hook it up to TXU. I had a problem with that guy because he left everything wide open. I had to call and ask if there was a reason he did that and he said he just forgot to shut it. He told me how to close it up and that he'd come back and check it the next day. So, I shut everything up.

When I was going through the inspection process, they had to come out and access my garage. Then I got a notice that it got done and I passed, but I never let anybody into my garage. Also, I did not like that I was told by my rep, Chris, that Texas doesn't have electric companies that have programs with the buyback stuff. When I started researching it and calling around, all other places did. So, Texas needs to get with it and their electric companies need to get better about the buyback. It would be great if that research was done and customers would be told which companies are the ones that do it. Aside from that, I wasn't really taught how to read the app and I'm still learning to read it.

But overall, I never got so irritated that I regretted going solar through them. I'm already feeling that it was beneficial with my electric bill, especially now that it's 113 outside. I also loved how everything came in packets. They told me how you get back on your taxes, and how you can refer your friends and family to them. All in all, I would recommend them to friends with my additional input to them about things that I didn't know that I know now.

Our salesperson, Hailey, went above and beyond to ensure that we were comfortable, understood every step of the process, knew what to do when, and answered any question that we had which was a million. She was there with us every step of the way. The installation is beautiful. They were there when they said they were gonna be there, which is huge. The installation was quick. The way that they did the work looks good too. It isn't super invasive. I don't have ugly pipes running along my roof connecting them. They were able to manage to do that underneath the roofing system. We got the system turned on in February. I don't think that our summer bills were as low as they will be 'cause we haven't built up enough credits, but we are seeing lower bills.