Sun Solar Overview
Sun Solar is a solar energy solutions provider headquartered in Springfield, Missouri, with offices in Houston, Columbia, Kansas City, and St. Louis. Operating since 2012, Sun Solar provides Springfield, Missouri, and its surrounding areas with solar energy systems and has completed over 4,000 residential and commercial solar installation projects.
Sun Solar offers services to both residential and commercial customers, and the company uses the full-service, turnkey approach to providing these services.
Sun Solar Services and Specifics
Sun Solar provides the following services:
- Solar For Your Home: Sun Solar provides solar panel solutions for homes. They help clients assess their home for the appropriate size of solar system, the amount of available space they have, and the style of installation they prefer to determine which solar installation option would work best for them. Sun Solar offers the following residential solar installations:
- Roof Mount Solar – Sun Solar roof mount panels work with many different roof materials and shapes to avoid taking up any space on the ground.
- Ground Mount Solar – Sun Solar also offers ground mount solar installations for residents due to flexible panel orientation to maximize the amount of sunlight and ease of maintenance.
- Pergola Solar – Sun Solar can combine an outdoor amenity with a resident’s solar energy needs. One way is by adding solar panels to outdoor pergolas. The pergola offers shade while producing power.
- Carport/Canopy Solar – Sun Solar installs solar carports or canopies that protect your vehicles while generating power with a carport/canopy composed of solar panels.
- Solar For Your Business: Sun Solar also provides solar energy solutions for business organizations and property owners.
- Energy Efficient Solutions: This service is handled by a division of Sun Solar called Smart Energy Solutions. They provide energy-saving alternatives, focusing on reducing energy consumption before its production. Energy efficiency experts from the company assess your home or business and help discover how to save up to 20% on energy expenses.
- Products & Support: Sun Solar offers a variety of solar products and provides ongoing assistance to ensure that clients’ solar systems are functioning properly at all times.
Sun Solar services have received mixed reviews from customers.
In the positive reviews, most customers commended the company for their high-quality equipment, competitive pricing, and knowledge of the field. While negative reviews mentioned rude and unprofessional office team/sales agents, and poor after-sales support.
Solar Panels and Services offered by Sun Solar
Sun Solar systems use n-type or p-type monocrystalline solar panels.
Specific Solar Panels Offered
Based on our findings from external databases, Sun Solar installs solar products from the following solar manufacturers;
Jinko Solar
Jinko Solar is a solar panel manufacturer that sells and distributes its solar products to utility, commercial, and residential customers in multiple countries. In the US, the Eagle G4 is Jinko Solar’s most efficient panel at the time of writing. The G4 has a maximum module efficiency of 21.16%.
Q CELLS
They are a publicly traded company that manufactures solar panels. Q CELLS solar panels start at around 20% efficiency with the Q.PEAK DUO-G5, and top out at 20.9% with the Q.PEAK DUO XL-G9, meaning they are high-efficiency solar panels, but not the very highest.
SMA
They are producers and manufacturers of solar inverters for photovoltaic systems with grid connection, off-grid power supply, and backup operations. Their inverters have an average rated power of 4000 watts and a CEC efficiency of 96.5 percent.
Solaredge Technologies
SolarEdge is an Israeli company that develops and sells solar inverters for photovoltaic arrays, energy generation monitoring software, battery energy storage products, as well as other related products and services to residential, commercial, and industrial customers.
Tesla
Sun Solar offers Tesla Powerwall power storage systems for off-grid installations so you can store solar energy generated, assuring power even in the event of a grid outage. Each Powerwall holds 12.2 kWh of usable capacity and maintains a 10% reserve so that when the power goes out, the battery has enough power to turn your solar on to get the battery recharged when the sun comes up the next day.
Specific Types of Solar Offered
Sun Solar LLC offers grid-tied and off-the-grid installations. They handle the following types of solar projects;
- Residential Solar: In this service, Sun Solar LLC installs a complete solar energy kit customized to the electricity needs of a resident’s home.
- Commercial Solar: This service is designed for business organizations. It targets business owners who wish to opt for more economical energy-saving strategies to maximize profit long term.
Installation costs and process
Costs
When SolarEmpower asked Sun Solar about costs, they did not disclose their pricing, and there is also no price quote in any of their customer’s reviews; nevertheless, their customers have commended their competitive pricing.
There are also solar incentives available in Missouri that cut these costs to very affordable levels.
Some of the solar incentives available in Missouri are:
- Federal Solar Tax Credit (ITC)
- Missouri solar rebate programs
- Missouri Solar Property Tax Exemption
- Net Metering in Missouri
Taking advantage of the solar incentives in Missouri can reduce the cost of Sun Solar’s installation services by more than 50%.
Sun Solar offers the following financing options:
- Lease – Low monthly payments to add solar to your home or business. Optional buyout after year 7 of leasing.
- Loan – You can apply for a loan through your local bank or credit union or explore Sun Solar’s loan options, allowing you to finance your solar system even if you cannot purchase it outright. Clients can also utilize tax credits and rebates for cheaper payments.
- Cash – With Sun Solar, you can pay off your solar system with cash upfront. Tax credits and rebates can lower the price.
- HERO – HERO financing is based on the equity in your home and debt payment history, meaning that a low credit score is not an immediate disqualifier. Clients can check if they are in a HERO-approved area and apply for a no-money-down, fixed-rate financing program.
- PACE – Through the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program, businesses in participating areas can pay for their solar system through their property tax, allowing repayment for up to 20 years on a fixed-rate loan.
Legitimacy
- Sun Solar is registered and licensed to operate in the state of Missouri.
- The company’s solar engineers are NABCEP-certified.
- Sun Solar has been BBB accredited since 2013.
- Sun Solar is a certified installer for the Tesla Powerwall solar battery system.
- The company is also certified through the National Association of the Remodeling Industry.
- Sun Solar is a member of the Missouri Solar Energy Industries Association (MOSEIA).
- The company’s contact details are publicly available on its website. These include their street addresses, email, phone number, and operating hours.
Based on these findings, we are confident to say Sun Solar is a fully registered and legitimate company.
Maintenance
Sun Solar provides after-sales support, and the company offers the following warranties:
- 25-year product warranty
- 12-25 year inverter warranty
- 25-year workmanship warranty
- 25-30 year power output warranty
- 10-year Tesla PowerWall warranty
Many customer complaints have been directed toward Sun Solar’s after-sales support. It has been said severally that the maintenance team is difficult to reach and terrible with their scheduling.
Based on feedback and research, we discovered the cause of Sun Solar’s poor maintenance services might be a result of being understaffed.
Customer service
Like the maintenance service, Sun Solar’s customer service has received mixed reviews, with some customers complaining about unresponsiveness and lack of after-sales support.
The SolarEmpower View
Sun Solar is a solar energy solutions provider headquartered in Springfield, Missouri.
Based on our findings, Sun Solar is an excellent company to work with if you want to go solar, but only if your solar system does not develop any problems in, say, 10 years after installation, which, based on statistics, is very likely to be the case.
But it is not practical to assume that your system would not develop any issues within that period, and this is where Sun Solar fails. Their maintenance/after-sales support team is unreliable and hard to reach. This seems to be the underlying problem with the company.
The table below is a summarized review of Sun Solar:
| Locations served | Headquarters at Springfield, Missouri. Also offices in Houston, Columbia, Kansas City and St. Louis. |
| Services | Solar For Your Home, Solar For Your Business, Energy Efficient Solutions, Products and Support. |
| Solar brands used | Jinko Solar, Q CELLS, SMA, Solaredge Technologies, Tesla |
| Warranty |
|
| Cost (Expected, not confirmed) | Range of $2.35 and $3.17 per watt (before solar incentives) |
| Legitimacy | Fully registered and licensed, Secured website, NABCEP-certified engineers, BBB accredited, Tesla PowerWall certified, MOSEIA registered, contact details publicly available. |
