Overview
Solar Symphony is a privately held, medium-sized solar panel installation business located in Escondido, California. Founded in 2013, the company has installed more than 600 residential solar systems in Southern California. With a team of approximately 32 employees, the company’s projected revenue is due to exceed $4 million.
The company is part of a contracting family that has been serving Californians for over 40 years. The owners, Aaron Eriksson and Rob Smith, have together managed almost a billion dollars’ worth of construction projects, which were mostly built for the US military. Their business model is based on recommendations from friends and neighbours, as well as lasting relationships with customers. This is reflected by the review databases that we trawled: Solar Symphony has one of the highest percentage of five star reviews among the mid to large sized solar businesses in California – 99.6% across all review sites including Yelp, Solar Reviews, Facebook, Home Advisor, and Energy Sage.
Solar Symphony Services and Features
Solar Symphony Services
Solar Symphony orchestrates the entire process of going solar, from home solar panel installation, commercial solar panels, to complete solar energy systems. It does this by offering:
Tier 1 Manufacturers: Solar Symphony uses solar panels exclusively from tier 1 manufacturers, the top 2% of solar manufacturers. With that said, they aren’t married to any one brand, so if you have a particular model that you like, they will install it for you.
Energy Harvest Maximisation: To maximise the energy harvested from the sun, Solar Symphony uses micro-inverters on most residential projects.
High Quality Solar Panel Design and Installation: The designers at Solar Symphony have at least a bachelor’s degree in solar engineering and all solar technicians are trained through the Solar Energy International (SEI), the oldest and most respected solar training organisations.
Solar Symphony caters its products mostly to customers in the Southern California area, near its base in Escondido. The company’s service area in California extends throughout cities in Orange County, San Diego County, Imperial County, and Riverside County.
Solar Symphony Costs
Solar Symphony boasts to provide the best quality at the best price, beating any competitor’s advertised system price. Although they do not offer senior discounts, they offer military discounts and free estimates. The company offers financing options and will work with you to engineer a solution that matches your unique situation and concerns.
One customer writes that Solar Symphony was about 30% cheaper than the major players and that the system would pay off in under five years. Overall, all customers claim that their pricing was competitive and very fair based on other quotes they received. However, we found one negative reviewer who claims that the quote came out 300 watts less than the official quote. Based on the majority of positive reviews, we recommend Solar Symphony for their emphasis on reasonable pricing for high quality products.
Solar Symphony Legitimacy
Solar Symphony is a highly legitimate company. Here are some of its most recent accreditations:
- It is a registered business in the state of California since 2013 and has installed over 600 residential solar systems.
- Solar Symphony Construction, Inc. holds the following licences which are in good standing, fully bonded and insured: B- General Building Contractor, C-10 Electrical Contractor, and C-46 Solar Contractor.
- The CEO, Aaron Eriksson, is a second generation general contractor and was born and raised in San Diego.
- Solar Symphony has multiple installation supervisors who are either NABCEP certified or in the process of obtaining their NABCEP certifications, the solar industry’s most prestigious credential.
- Solar Symphony is transparent about its contact details, providing its location, email and phone number on its website for ease of contact.
Solar Symphony Maintenance
The company holds a 4.4 rating in 45 reviews. Out of 45 customers who reviewed Solar Symphony, 7 were dissatisfied with the customer service, reporting faulty installation and poor customer service. Based on their reviews, the company was hard to get in touch with and failed to fix some issues. On the other hand, the majority of reviewers express satisfaction with Solar Symphony’s industry knowledge, customer focus, flexibility and professional communication.
The company offers a 20 year workmanship warranty on every solar system with microinverters. They also have a 25 year Power Production Guarantee, where they promise to pay for the loss or increase system size in case the solar system fails to meet the specified amount of electricity each year.
The SolarEmpower view
Overall, Solar Symphony seems to be a great team to work with, offering excellent services with very high quality, at a competitive price. They also provide a good warranty of 20-25 years and hold 99.6% 5-star reviews across online review sites. Despite this, a few reviews showed that it was difficult to get in touch with the company for repair after problems arose after several years of the original installation.
