Simply Solar

Simply Solar is a great company who truly cares. They care about their customers, and they care about the environment.
With that said, I had started with Solar City and was initially very excited. Solar City was by far the most expensive of all, but I figured they’d provide the best panels and service. Boy was I wrong. Service started off great, but then the final quote, which was the most expensive, ended up being $ 1,000 more than anticipated. Even worse was the service. Once it was passed off to some other area, I got a call. I returned the call within minutes. Two weeks later, the rep calls me back. After that experience and reading ½ dozen Unilocal reviews (btw, they have only 2.5 stars on Unilocal) that resonated with my experience, I cancelled and started over.
That’s when I spoke with Anita from Simply Solar. My first experience with Anita at Simply Solar was great. We spoke on August 6 for the first time. I explained I’ve been researching companies for the better part of the past year and had just backed out of using Solar City. About a month later I have financing that works with my budget, the panels are installed (as of today), and it cost me thousands less than Solar City. Solar City couldn’t even get the permit with the city in a month and took 2 weeks to return a phone call. Simply Solar got my permit approved in ONE DAY with the city, once they had all they needed from me.
Trust me on this one. If you’re considering solar, please, please, please, don’t waste your time with any other solar company. Simply Solar is without doubt the best solar company out there, and there are a lot of them. If you’re like me and quality, service, time and money are important to you, look no further than Simply Solar.
BTW, the tax credit is ending soon (2016), so I’d highly recommend switching to solar. The biggest reason I switched is in about 8 years, I’ll be at a break-​even point with what it cost for my solar panels. And that’s if SCE doesn’t ever have another increase — HA! I’ll be free from the shackles of SCE and their ever-​shifting tier pricing and increased power bills.
There’s also the added advantage of helping out mother earth. I don’t want to downplay that benefit, but the cost savings is really the biggie for me. I figure with how much I’ll save over the decades on having solar panels from Simply Solar, I might actually be able to send my kids to college.
Thank you, Simply Solar!
P. S. Alex S. (one of the other reviews) pricing is very similar to the pricing I received from the same competitors. Read his review, too. He explains things very well in his review that will help to shed some light (pun intended).

I received quotes from 6 different installers; Solar City, Sun Power, Pacific Sky Solar, Sungevity and Treeium. Here is the breakdown of prices, keep in mind that Simply Solar will use Solar World panels with Micro inverters which is a more expensive system and they still came in lower than any of the 5 mentioned above.
Solar City — $ 16 575 central inverter
Sunpower — $ 15 537 — central inverter
Treeium — $ 16 621 micro inverters
Pacific Sky solar — $ 12 600 central inverter
Sungevity — $ 11 577 central inverter (I tried calling them 2X with questions they never returned my call)
— — — — — — — — — — — —
Simply Solar came in at $ 12 112 micro inverters.
Each micro inverter costs about $ 120 and you need as many as the number of panels you are getting. So for 10 panels you would need to add $ 1200 more to your price.
The Solar World panels are the second best panels on the market, (285 kWh/​panel), the best are SunPower (generating 320 kWh/​panel), SunPower is considerably more expensive. Simply Solar can instal the SunPower panels if you wish, it will be more expensive. For us Solar World panels are sufficient.
Costs: You receive a rebate from your utility Co. $.40 x AC watts your system generates for us it will be $ 836. We just signed it over to Simply Solar so our system will actually cost $ 12 112 — 863 = $ 11 249. In addition to this you receive a Federal tax credit to offset your tax liability (if you owe taxes) the tax credit is 30% of the FULL cost of the system, i.e.12 112, not the reduced amount after the utility rebate, 11 249. Our federal credit will be 12 112 x .3 = $ 3633
The Fed tax credit is set to EXPIRE at end of 2016!!!
In my case I will save $ 25,000 for the life of the system (about $ 1000/​year for 25 years). I will pay $ 7500 for the system, thus making $ 17 500 on the purchase. This is a guaranteed return on investment.
I spoke to Anita the founder and CEO of the company and really liked the way she approached the entire process. I have already recommended her to all my friends who are considering going solar.
I will update this post with how they do with the installation, but I can’t imagine them doing anything wrong. Anita is the general contractor who will be here overseeing the installation.
They inspected the roof and said it was fine but it could be upgraded. Simply solar would do the roof. They gave me the option of only doing the portion of the roof where the panels would be going. I got a quote to put a new layer of shingles on the roof from Slater Roofing, $ 6K for the entire roof, Simply Solar was $ 3600. I opted to do ½
of the roof for $ 1800. This way I know there will be no issues. Simply Solar did not push for the roof they told me it’s fine the way it was but the roof is older than 10 years and did look worn down at spots. The price was more than reasonable so there was no reason not to do it.
Will keep you posted.
INSTALLATION:
The crew came in at 9:20, they were done at 3:10. No problems, 10 panels in. They have to come back tomorrow with the city’s inspector to get the city’s approval. We then have to wait for DWP for their approval and activation. All went well no issues of any kind. NOTE: I have shingles on the roof (much simpler process), the install is considerably more complex with a tile roof.

The Simply Solar team was intelligent, professional, and super easy to work with from start to finish. Each member of the team I worked with was extremely knowledgeable and passionate about what they do. They helped me through the decision making process, obtained all required permits, and ensured that my solar energy system met utility provider guidelines and could be activated. And, by my calculations, the system will pay for itself in 7 years! I have recommended Simply Solar to a number of my friends and will continue to do so.