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mommyago
♥ Lucas and Layla
Member since 8/08 2979 total posts
Name:
Jenise
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Vivent solar... Anyone have experience with solar panels installed for free?
My neighbor recommended us to Vivent solar who (if you qualify) puts solar panels on the house for free. You still will need to pay pseg for any usage that goes beyond the solar panels and Vivent for what usage you use from the solar panels but at something like a 40-60% savings. Sounds good and no catch. We just found out that our house does qualify But I was curious if anyone has experience with this?
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Posted 5/23/14 7:18 AM  |
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AndreaLMT
:)
Member since 5/05 6856 total posts
Name:
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Re: Vivent solar... Anyone have experience with solar panels installed for free?
They came door to door to us last year. We did some research online & there are some complaints about them ( being a hoax, etc...) Just be careful & do you're research...
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| Posted 5/23/14 7:56 AM |
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starlitdragon
Me and my love
Member since 3/13 1301 total posts
Name:
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Vivent solar... Anyone have experience with solar panels installed for free?
I know people that just had this done through Vivent and they seem very satisfied with the results. Said she was sitting watching the dial on her electricity go backwards. Id be interested in looking into this once we move into our home.
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| Posted 5/23/14 7:58 AM |
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Mrs213
????????
Member since 2/09 18986 total posts
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Vivent solar... Anyone have experience with solar panels installed for free?
There is a big catch to these things. Check the contract. We were referred to a different company but similar thing. It was a 20 year contract you had to sign, after the 20 yrs you had to buy the panels at a predetermined price wich I didn't like. I would ask your neighbor more about the contract if they did indeed sign up...
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| Posted 5/23/14 8:33 AM |
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Re: Vivent solar... Anyone have experience with solar panels installed for free?
We almost just went through getting these. The cons are that they increase your bill by 2.9% every year for 20 years. You dont own them so you are not getting the refund at tax time, they are. That is how they make money. After 20 years you can take them down at no charge but they have only been in business for under 10 years so how are you supposed to know if they will still be in business and what happens to your roof after all those years.
There were just too many cons vs. the pros for us to get them.
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| Posted 5/23/14 8:39 AM |
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ANewDayHasCome
Love multiplies, not divides
Member since 11/12 14481 total posts
Name:
Me
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Vivent solar... Anyone have experience with solar panels installed for free?
I have never heard of them, but it would be very weary. We installed solar panels on our house and it was far, far from free. My husband is in finance and he did a ton of research and if that was a legit option he would have done that I'm sure. At the time we did it we did get a percentage back in a refund from the government from a program they were running.
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| Posted 5/23/14 9:01 AM |
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tray831
Dee-licious!
Member since 3/06 5355 total posts
Name:
His Baby
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Re: Vivent solar... Anyone have experience with solar panels installed for free?
We had them come and measure our sunlight to see what savings we would have. We have a few trees that they asked if we can trim or cut them down; we would save more. I said absolutely NOT.
We were exited about them in the beginning; but now DH is leaning towards a big NO.
He also doesnt like the fact of it being a 20 year contract.
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| Posted 5/23/14 9:10 AM |
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Cheeks24
Living a dream
Member since 1/08 8589 total posts
Name:
Cheeks
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Vivent solar... Anyone have experience with solar panels installed for free?
I wouldn't say they are a scam and if the "catches" don't bother you then fine. This is legit. But as other posters have said, you don't own them so you don't get the tax credit. You have to sign a contract for a long time (typically 20 years). One of the big pros of doing this is not having to lay out thousands of dollars up front. Again, if the contract term and non tax credit don't bother you, then go for it. And of course, do your research.
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| Posted 5/23/14 9:15 AM |
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mommyago
♥ Lucas and Layla
Member since 8/08 2979 total posts
Name:
Jenise
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Re: Vivent solar... Anyone have experience with solar panels installed for free?
Has anyone actually done it? I'm interested in it if I save money on my electricity the whole 20 years. But I'm not sure about that? There is a 2% increase every year but pseg/lipa increases every year also right?
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| Posted 5/23/14 10:56 AM |
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Re: Vivent solar... Anyone have experience with solar panels installed for free?
Posted by mommyago
Has anyone actually done it? I'm interested in it if I save money on my electricity the whole 20 years. But I'm not sure about that? There is a 2% increase every year but pseg/lipa increases every year also right?
I don't know anyone who has done them with this company. I do know someone that leases them from another company. They have a different deal that they pay $100/month to the company and then just a little bit to Lipa.
I do know others who own their own panels and love it as they get $5,000 rebates every year when they do their taxes and have lower bills per month. They didn't have to pay all up front either.
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| Posted 5/23/14 11:46 AM |
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LadyS
LIF Toddler
Member since 8/11 382 total posts
Name:
Vicki S
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Re: Vivent solar... Anyone have experience with solar panels installed for free?
Posted by AndreaLMT
They came door to door to us last year. We did some research online & there are some complaints about them ( being a hoax, etc...) Just be careful & do you're research...
Same here. We even scheduled a time for the sales guy to sit down with us and explain everything and it sounded great. But after he left, we did our own research, read the complaints online, and decided we weren't ok committing to 20 years with them
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| Posted 5/23/14 12:10 PM |
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LIMomma
LIF Adolescent
Member since 6/12 523 total posts
Name:
Momma
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Vivent solar... Anyone have experience with solar panels installed for free?
Why Lease them - buy them get the NYS tax rebate and collect on the overages from PSE&G rather than the solar company keeping the $$ for themselves.
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| Posted 5/23/14 12:30 PM |
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blustar214
So in love with my little girl
Member since 1/10 2471 total posts
Name:
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Re: Vivent solar... Anyone have experience with solar panels installed for free?
We lease our panels. We pay a small monthly lease fee (a little more than 1/3 of what our LIPA bill had cost over the winter) and a small connection fee to PSEG ($8-12 depending on how many days are in the month). It costs is nothing else - no installation charge. Our lease payment remains the same over the 20 years. We will get a check from PSEG at some point since we produce more energy than we use (although it is better to use the energy that you produce because the buy back rate isn't amazing). That money comes to us, not the leasing company. We can deduct the cost of our lease payments on our taxes, up to a certain amount.
For us leasing made sense. We didn't have the money to pay for the panels out of pocket and we have already saved a ton on our electric costs.
We leased through EmPower CES, DH works there but not in sales or anything.
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| Posted 5/23/14 1:04 PM |
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GoldenRod
10 years on LIF!
Member since 11/06 26792 total posts
Name:
Shawn
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Re: Vivent solar... Anyone have experience with solar panels installed for free?
Posted by LIMomma
Why Lease them - buy them get the NYS tax rebate and collect on the overages from PSE&G rather than the solar company keeping the $$ for themselves.
The big downside to buying the panels is that you have to lay out $10k-$20k (depending on capacity) up front. We purchased ours as part of our renovation, and we are more than thrilled with them. Some months, we only pay the line fee, so it's about $6 or so. Our panels currently cover about 2/3 of our electricity usage for the year. We've had them for about 5 years now.
In the long run, it's worth it to buy them, but in the short term, it's hard to drop several thousand dollars with a 7-10 year return on investment.
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| Posted 5/23/14 1:44 PM |
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