What does SunPower Offer, and Where is it Available?
SunPower is one of the early players in the solar industry; they’ve been around as a company since 1985, but seem to have kept up to speed with updates in solar panel technology. As a company, they have received over 1,000 solar power patents.
SunPower is an established company with a lot of experience in the market. They offer “all-in-one” solar energy systems for both homes and businesses using SunPower Maxeon solar panels, a type of panel they exclusively make, which uses high-performance IBC cells. Some reviews show that these panels are the most efficient solar panels currently on the market, with an efficiency rate between 19.6% and 22.8% (compared to the market average of 14%-18%).
SunPower also offers batteries for saving excess power output that your system generates. Along with their systems and panels, they also provide a comprehensive 25-year warranty for their products.
Like many solar panel manufacturers, SunPower allows local operators to become dealers and installers for their products, meaning that the quality of those operations may vary depending on location and on which dealer you are in contact with.
SunPower offers their services in 24 states and districts of the United States:
- Arizona
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Hawaii
- Illinois
- Iowa
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Missouri
- Nevada
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- Oregon
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Virginia
Is SunPower Better for Homeowners or Businesses?
SunPower offers services to both residential and commercial clients without specializing in one or the other. Let’s take a quick look at what SunPower offers both of these types of customers.
Residential
For residential customers, SunPower’s marketing emphasizes the efficiency of their systems and the minimalist design of the solar panels. Both of these things mean that their systems will have a smaller impact on the overall appearance of a home. In short, you’ll need slightly fewer panels to get the same power since SunPower’s panels are quite efficient, and the ones that you do need will not have as large of a footprint or stick out as much as some competitor brands. They also minimize the need for external power inverters by including that part of the system behind the solar panels themselves, further reducing the footprint. These things could be important if you’re looking to upgrade to solar but are worried about the visual impact of a large and bulky solar system.
Sunpower also emphasizes the fact that their systems are all designed and put together at the same place–although they contract out to different installers, their systems are all designed in-house to make sure that the components will work together correctly. Furthermore, their reputation for quality products and a comprehensive warranty means that residential customers might be able to expect fewer problems over time with a SunPower system than they would with other conventional solar panels.
Commercial
A major perk for commercial customers is SunPower’s panel efficiency, which, as they point out, makes it easier for corporations to meet sustainability goals by relying more heavily on renewable energy. In addition, in advertising to businesses, SunPower mentions the overall durability and completeness of their solar energy solutions. Companies can be confident in their new solar system’s reliability, and they only need to work with one company to get a custom system designed for them. This is obviously important to homeowners as well, but reliability might be even more necessary in commercial settings, where many people could be relying on a power source for electricity.
One other note is that Power Purchase Agreements (PPA), a system where the solar energy company still owns the solar system and panels and sells you the energy it produces, are only offered for commercial customers. These kinds of agreements can help a business be more eco-friendly and save money on electricity bills without committing to a large purchase all at once. Instead, they can agree to buy the electricity production from SolarPower’s system, and SolarPower will own (and therefore also maintain) the systems themselves. This added simplicity might be useful for small businesses in particular since PPAs rarely require a sizable down payment (or any at all, in some cases).
Looking at Reviews: What do SunPower’s Customers Have to Say?
One of the most important things when working with a large business like this (and for a large purchase, as well!) is obviously to review what others have been saying about the company and its products. So we’ll take a look at some customer reviews regarding SunPower.
General Impressions
SunPower has generally positive reviews, with an average of 4.4 stars out of 5 on BestCompany.com. The overall impression from reviews is that SunPower’s materials are of excellent quality, their solar installation is generally fast and professional, and the systems themselves work very efficiently.
Issues With Customer Service
Although SunPower is generally considered to have good products, purchase options, and performance warranty, one type of complaint stands out: customer service.
Some customer reviews noted that SunPower’s customer service was somewhat (or significantly) lacking. For example, one customer said that although they believed “There is no argument that SunPower has some of the best products available,” they also found that “Customer Service, communication, and coordination leave a lot to be desired.” A similar review mentioned that they found the installation process for their solar system very efficient and professional, but that “Frankly, their customer service is abysmal” after the system was installed.
Issues with Licensed Installers
It is also noteworthy that some reviewers said the issues they were experiencing were more with the licensed installers or dealers than with SunPower itself.
These kinds of frustrations are not universal, but it does seem like they’re common enough to mention even among people who were otherwise satisfied with SunPower’s products and overall service as a solar company. Because of these kinds of complaints, it seems reasonable to make sure that you not only check out what people are saying about SunPower, but that you also look up what’s been said about the particular solar installer or dealer who services your area for them. These installers can vary greatly in quality, which is a common situation for this kind of system. You might also need to deal with the installers in the future as well, which could be one reason some of the customer service is lacking.
The App
Several customers also noted in their SunPower reviews that the app provided for them to use in monitoring and adjusting their system was disappointing to them, either because it was not adequately integrated with their system or because it was difficult to use and understand. Complaints about the app are seen even in otherwise positive reviews, so this issue seems to be more prevalent than the occasional complaints in other areas.
The Positive Reviews
However, as mentioned above, reviews for SunPower are generally positive! For example, 74% of reviewers on GoodCompany gave SunPower 5/5 stars, and another 11% gave them 4/5 stars, meaning that 85% of customers are mostly or very satisfied with the company’s services.
Positive SunPower reviews show a theme of reliability when it comes to SunPower’s products, knowledgeability on the part of the salespeople and others who work with customers to get their systems designed and set up, and availability to answer questions and help customers understand their options and what is being done with their systems.
Positive SunPower reviews also often mention the good rates of energy production and the savings that customers can see. Again, this is a prevalent theme, showing that SunPower’s claims about the efficiency of the SunPower solar panel seem to be accurate in most people’s experience!
Positives of Customer Service
In contrast to the above-listed complaints, many positive notes about SunPower’s customer service show that there is not just one side to that coin.
“They made the process so easy. They explained everything and were very helpful. We had an issue and they came and took care [of] it immediately.”
“I really appreciate their customer service team. If someone can’t answer my question, they find someone who can quickly. The installation was very smooth and everything is up and running well. I’ve had a very positive experience with them.”
Some of these positive reviews are more recent than some of the very negative ones, so it’s possible that SunPower has responded to feedback and is working on improving their customer service now. But, of course, customer service is hard to measure, and any company will likely have a range of how helpful their employees are. So, it’s good to take both positive and negative reviews on this aspect into consideration.
Knowledge and Understanding
Another positive often noted about SunPower is their helpfulness and ability to explain things to customers who might otherwise not know too much about solar as a clean energy system.
It seems like SunPower’s sales and design people are reasonably good at taking the time to connect with customers and help them understand their options, the results they can expect, and even the costs that will be associated with their system. This final point, in particular, is especially valuable when working with a company that installs big-ticket items like solar panels since the prices will vary greatly depending on each customer’s needs.
Conclusion
Although there have been some customers with negative experiences regarding SunPower’s customer service or their contracted installers, virtually none of them complained about the quality of the system itself, and there are also always positives on the other side of those negative reviews. They are widely regarded as having some of the best solar panels, which makes their systems more reliable and more efficient than many competitors.
Overall, SunPower seems to be a fairly stable, reliable player in the field of solar energy, and a company that generally excels at helping their customers through the planning and installation process.
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