HORIZON ENERGY SYSTEMS
Horizon Energy Systems (HES), San Jose/Los Gatos, CA; www.gosolarnow.com
Based on my experience, I highly recommend a small, local company over the big solar players in the industry. HES was recommended to me by several other residents of the MLN. My system designer/sales person was Kurt Newick. He was the ideal representative for the solar business. He respects the environment and is extremely knowledgeable about the products and the direction of the industry. He is an environmentalist and a member of the Loma Prieta Chapter of the Sierra Club. Kurt was accessible, responsive, and went out of his way to answer all of my questions to ensure I made an informed decision about whether solar panels were a good investment for me. Most of the big companies that I contacted would not even answer my basic questions, or they just gave me the standard "party line" response, so I eliminated them from consideration and hired HES.
I installed my 2.8 kW system [using Aleo (Bosh) panels, and enphase energy microconverters] in Summer 2012. At the time, Kurt Newick worked at HES and he designed and sold me the PV system that I installed. However, Kurt now works for Cobalt Power Systems, Inc., located in Mountain View, CA (see below). Since Kurt was a great resource and the main selling point of HES, I'm also listing his new company CPS, although you'll need to evaluate the company for yourself. It's certainly worth your effort to check out both HES and Cobalt Power Systems!
Update - April 2015 - I've had one issue with my solar system worth noting. My Enphase Energy Envoy Communication Gateway unit stopped working (this is the monitoring system that tells you how much energy the solar system produces). At the time I bought my system in 2012, the Envoy had only a 1 year warranty. It didn't last 24 months. A replacement unit costs $500, which is extremely expensive (e.g., as bad as $500/2 yrs!). As a warning, you must include the replacement cost of this unreliable component in the total cost of your system when calculating your ROI. If your vendor argues against doing so, then make them offer you an extended warranty on the monitoring system, which Enphase now warrants for 24 months. The microinveters and panels have a 10-25 year warranty. If I could re-do my purchase, I would not invest in the Enphase inverter technology unless the monitoring system came with the same warranty as the rest of the system. I got little help from Enphase or Horizon Energy Systems on this issue, so that has taken the luster off of HES for me. So, make sure you research many other vendors and other product offerings too!
Posted by GMason on Thompson - Aug 2013 & updated May 2014 & April 2015
COBALT POWER SYSTEMS, INC. (CPS)
Cobalt Power Systems, Inc.
885 Maude Ave, Mountain View, CA, 94043; www.cobaltpower.com
contact: Kurt Newick, System Designer/Solar Sales; [email protected]
650-938-9574 / 650-847-8188 (cell)
See comments posted above with Horizon Energy Systems. Kurt Newick holds a free PV solar class (1st Wednesday evening of each month) at Cobalt Power Systems in MV. It's a good way to learn about PV power, as well as this small company & their product offerings.
Posted by GMason on Thompson - Aug 2013
OTHER RESOURCES
www.solarpaneltalk.com
There is a lot of useful information on this website. Do your homework!
OSullivan Green Solar
www.osullivangreensolar.com 408-628-4142
We just completed a project with Tim O'Sullivan of O'Sullivan Green Solar. Tim and his crew, Jesus and Eric, did a fantastic job installing our solar system. Tim was great to work with from start to finish. He answered all our questions thoroughly, was very helpful but not pushy with any decisions we made, and uses quality products. His team was effective and efficient with the installation, communicated well, and were a pleasure to work with all in all. I highly recommend them if you're considering installing a solar system on your house. We wanted to take advantage of the 30% tax credit this year (drops to 26% in 2020). Once we started the project the installation was completed within the month.
posted by John and Judy on Thompson Avenue April 2019
