Adam S.
5/5
I've had a Kasselman installed solar system on my house for over 12 months now! I wanted to wait at least a year prior to providing a review considering how long panels are on my/your house.
Short version:
I highly recommend Kasselman solar as an installer. I give Kasselman 23/25 points in this review.
Quick rankings
1. Ease of purchasing, project management: 5/5
2. quality of equipment and work: 5/5
3. willing to meet specific requests: 5/5
4. local people who care factor (predicted future support): 5/5
5. value of energy produced versus quoted: 3/5
Longer story:
Kasselman vs Tesla:
I compared Kasselman to Tesla and didn't receive other quotes. Tesla was considerably cheaper but was hard to specify to them that I'd like the array on a specific part of my roof. Because of their lack of communication the result was a sub-optimal array which was tiny. Additionally Tesla uses white labeled Qcell solar panels with no optimizers and a single central inverter that is made in-house and known to have reliability issues. Their service team is also then known to be slow to respond to issues. Most of my conversations with folks at Tesla were with people in Nevada. In light of that I went with Kasselman a local 60 years in business company who proposed a top tier system with REC panels and Enphase micro-inverters. The micros are also safer than running DC cabling down the side of your house (as their output right on the roof is AC, ask the OG Tesla about it!).
Purchasing Process:
The reason for deducting points on row 5 is Stephen (who otherwise was great at putting up with my very detailed questioning) overrepresented the production the system would make, considerably. Also he never mentioned NYSERDA assess a fee of $1.45*system size (in kW) per month. That's $13 a month added to my electric bill! Despite being pretty researched on the topic I didn't know this and It actually slows down your payback period. I highly recommend using PVWatts to get a sense of actual production prior to purchasing any solar system. Otherwise the process was easy
Install / Permitting Process:
You likely know new york state is highly bureaucratic and slows the process of permitting down considerably. I think my house went through like 4-5 inspections. This is however proof Kasselman did all their paperwork properly. During the process Kasselman was fast and clear at communicating the process and timelines. They did this through the holiday season too and I couldn't be happier with how hard the team worked. The whole system was installed within 1 day and they sent a decent sized crew with knowledgeable folks. The team was kind and profession.
Equipment Reliability / Performance:
The system has been incredibly reliable with 0 performance issues, roof leaks, etc. Kasselman also uses very high quality solar rails and mounting which often other installers will skimp on. The system has after 12 months made ~6.7% less than the final high resolution simulation Kasselman runs for each project. This however is likely due to an incredibly cloudy year compared to typical. Friends with solar communicated similarly low production for the year for their system relative to previous years.
Payback period:
Not every house / lot is ideal for solar. My system is one of those houses / lots. I really wanted solar none the less and Kasselman got into the details with me of optimizing a system that's on the back of my house, facing the N-NE direction, with big 100ft trees around it. Despite all these constraints this solar system still will qualify as an asset that returns money to my family and I over the long haul. Eventually it'll also be a tool to help provide backup power in a storm / outage. After incentives my 9 kW system was $15645. The system generated 6728kWh this year which once including NYSERDA's fee was worth $1104. I'll see a payback in ~12 years assuming a degradation of the system of 0.25% / year and an increase in electricity prices of 3% / year. If my roof was more ideal that payback period could have been as short as 8 years.
