Herca Solar

I have had my system for two years now and it is poorly designed and undersized for our house. The salesman promised zero out for the month and putting more into the system for a credit. Sadly this is not true and I continue to pay top tier for minimum amounts of electricity. I have contacted them HERCA numerous times exactly 1 year from owning the system and now at the 2 year mark, the promise and what was written in the contract and in the customer service girls email, she states I talked to my manager and well its doing what its supposed to do. Well in my book it isn’t I was promised zero on my SDGE payment for electricity, and this rarely happens, our meter trued up the first year and we owed nearly $ 1280.00 at Christmas time. I would not recommend this Company there Customer service is terrible and they never offered to resolve any issues with being under sized. SHAME on you HERCA Solar, use the used car salesman approach than catch us 1 – 2 years later. Very disappointed they don’t care to hep the home owner with the $ 27,000 dollar under producing system.

Finally being installed.

Scott Motherhead was my salesman. He was excellent to work with. He was very knowledgeable, flexible, and thorough. Additionally, he always had the time to patiently answer my many questions that came up over the days that we were discussing the project. The crew that installed my panels was very professional, and the work was excellent.

RUN! As written below in other reviews.
We have an almost mirror scenario as Kenneth L. below so I won’t repeat.
If you have a similar situation please feel free to contact me as we are aggressively moving forward with legal action.
All of the positive 4 – 5 star raters, I urge you to recalculate after one year as things just get worse.

We had our solar system installed by Herca last year. Wow, they were fast. We had solar panels within 2 days of getting the permits, including cutting the jungle back on the side of the house where the conduit went. The crew was fast and courteous, they did an excellent job.
We’ve contacted then a few times since with questions, and Scott and his team are always really helpful and professional. We’ve recommended them to our friends, and those who have gotten solar went with Herca.
The lease program is very easy and our power bill is $ 5 at the most if we’ve been running everything in the house.

Thanks for shoving a flyer down my window at costcl and causing mechanical issues. Not a good way to advertise or get good press.

I had herca Solar out to my home last week. After showing him the bill, roof and main service panel
the rep sat down at my table and sighed. Well Lacey we have a problem, he says. The shading analysis
does not look good, the trees on your neighbors property block your roof part of the day.
Since I don’t own the trees there is little I can do.
The next issue is this is a very old house and the main service panel is old and would have to
be upgraded in order to go solar.
Lastly we have very brittle clay tile on the roof and they would have to be removed to get the job done.
He called it the trifecta of solar problems.
After running the numbers he recommend I keep paying SDGE the $ 130 a month for power, it was cheeper than any solution that solar could come up with.
I appreciate the honesty of Herca Solar.

This company was very professional and all work was done in a timely manner. We had a manufacturer defect in one part, which was quickly replaced and the money charged to us by SDG&E was covered by Herka. We also had a fluke accident with a large truck ripping down our cable line, which damaged the new electrical panel they had installed for us. We contacted them about this, and their electrician repaired the damage. We love seeing those SDG&E bills now. We would definitely recommend this company to all our neighbors and friends.

We had our solar system installed by Herca, during the summer. We produced enough power to cover all that we used, plus a little extra. The crew that did the installation was very professional and paid attention to detail. They even painted the conduit the color of the house to match.
We have been satisfied with all aspects of the install and production of the solar panels. They also included a production monitor to show the power created and is very helpful in conserving energy.
The electric bill is $ 5/​month (connection fee) and the payment for the system is less than half of what we were paying before. Having the solar system has met all of our energy needs and financial goals.

I had Herca Solar install Solar on my house in 2013.
Scott was fantastic!
My SDG&E bill was getting out of hand and I had just installed
air conditioning. I needed a better option. I knew that I could not afford
my SDG&E bill if I used my new air conditioning.
I opted for the lease program with $ 0 down. It really was
$ 0 down. I did not pay a cent.
They did a fantastic job installing the panels and they even
gave us a new power panel to accommodate the new input.
Yes, it did take a while becasue SDG&E was not on the ball
with what they had to do. Herca worked with them.
Not their fault. If people think that these things happen
over night, they are kidding themselves. Do the project,
work with SDG&E, and it will get done. It was totally worth it!
People need to have realistic expectations. This is a big project.
I ran my air conditioning ALL Summer and into the Fall and was cool and comfortable.
Seriously, it was 90 degrees from July to October. I was a glorious 75 degrees
with my air conditioner in my house.
At the end of the year, when we did the yearly true-​up,
yes, I did have to pay for some power over what my panels made,
but it was ALOT less than if I had to pay SDG&E at top tier prices.
I really did use more than we estimated because it was unbearably hot.
I do not regret this. I still saved alot of money!
It was what one months bill without air conditioning would have been with SDG&E.
I would recommend Herca Solar to my friends.

got my solar a while back and I guess I should have posted sooner but love my solar and the sales guy was so much better then the other two guys I had out here. The installers did a great job and cleaned up after themselves. I needed to have some tree work done to get the full use, but that also improved the safety. I should not have had those big eucalyptus branches hanging over my roof anyway.
thanks Herca team

I have a home that’s 112 years old, with a brand-​new electrical system. I asked Scott to inspect to see if a solar power system could be installed. He gave me a very through list of options, but they all required cutting down the trees that surround the house. We chose not to cut the trees, but I was very impressed by his prompt response and professionalism.

I purchased my solar panels from Herca Solar and I’m totally pleased with everything from start to finish! I was kept informed every step of the process and finished weeks ahead of schedule.
Herca Solar was able to expedite the city and SDG&E permits much faster than any of my neighbors who have had panels installed recently.
I highly recommended Herca Solar for their pricing, professionalism and customer service!!! Thanks to the whole team!

I purchased my solar panels from Herca Solar and I’m totally pleased with everything from start to finish! I was kept informed every step of the process and finished weeks ahead of schedule. Herca Solar was able to expedite the city and SDG&E permits much faster than any of my neighbors who have had panels installed recently. I highly recommended Herca Solar for their pricing, professionalism and customer service!!!

I first saw a Herca Solar installation when I visited a friend in Yorba Linda. I was impressed, but having dealt with various vendors for major projects (pool, central air, landscaping) I made my mind up to study up on the multitude of companies offering Solar. I called and received quotes from 6 Solar installation companies and studied the various ways to pay for it (cash, lease, HERO program, etc.) I ended up deciding to use Herca and although it took longer than expected to have the system installed (they were very busy with installs at the time), I was happy with the quality of the product (panels, inverter, roof mounting hardware, customer service). I do not regret my selection of Herca and have referred three friends to them. I highly recommend Herca Solar over many of the other companies that promise more than they deliver.

I cannot say enough about how great Herca has been for us. I’m the pastor of a church in La Jolla and since we’re a church we don’t qualify for any of the solar stimulus packages from the state, which makes solar very difficult to afford. We’re also such a small «business» that no other solar company was interested in working with us, I must have contacted half a dozen other companies.
But Herca was interested from the get go. They sent a rep out right away to talk to us. We have a small church plus a parsonage (small cottage for the pastor) that I live in. They gave us a quote on the church and then offered to add solar for the parsonage at cost.
Every person we dealt with, from the sales rep who was the first to come out to the installation crew, to the marketing manager who we are still working with, has been amazing. The installation crew was especially awesome, they were just a great bunch of guys, incredibly respectful, hardworking, and competent. They had our whole system installed in just a few days even after they had problems from their suppliers.
Our electricity bills have dropped off the charts. We also have people tell us all the time how great it is that we’ve gone solar.
I can’t recommend Herca enough. They did a spectacular job at a more than reasonable price and were friendly and accommodating throughout the entire process. I’ve been recommending them to every church in San Diego and I would work with them again in a heartbeat!

A sales rep came to my house almost two weeks ago and still haven’t provided a quote. We have received calls promising the quote but still have nothing.
The consultant was knowledgeable but the interest in gaining my business is obviously not there.
I would not recommend them if asked.

Sad to see the issues people have had here but ours was quite the opposite. We looked at three different Companies to do our install. Two seemed very «fly by night» and threw out a bunch of unrealistic numbers that were not backed up in any way. Then we met «Ashley» from Herca and things changed. She did a very detailed analysis on over a years worth of our Power Bills. She then went back into Her office and compiled all the data into very detailed spreadsheets and reports. She told me that based on my average usage I’d have to buy «X» worth of a Solar system to get into tier 1. I told Her I didn’t want to be in tier 1… I want to be in tier ZERO and not have to pay SDG&E anything. She worked everything up, came back to my house to review and explain things, recommended Sunpower panels and then I did the research necessary to validate things.
My house is 75 years old, I knew that this install would be much more than just slapping panels up on my roof and moving on. Herca was the only Vendor I talked to that told me that right up front, none of the others even mentioned it. When SDG&E came here to do the initial inspection of my property… they threw another wrench into the process by deciding their wire to my house was not up to code because it was too close to my pool. That complicated things even further.
Herca worked with SDG&E and the Inspectors and was able to resolve all these issues by moving the SDG&E wire and panel to the other side of my house. They worked everything out for me. Once the install started it was done and up and running in 3 days time. They had 30 panels on my roof, moved my Electrical panel to the opposite side of the house and wired everything back to the old panel, very professionally done and looked perfect. The install crew was great. Friendly and Professional. They did a beautiful job up on our roof. All the piping was painted to match the color of my home perfectly.
5 months later, April through July I ran a credit balance with SDG&E. August and September were exceptionally hot and humid so we ran our A/​C non-​stop. This pushed my usage over what the panels provided. So right now SDG&E is a bit ahead in the game but I anticipate that will change back into my favor again once this wretched heat quits.
My only post install interaction with Herca, other than them calling a few times to tell me the state of CA takes forever with the rebate, was getting help with the Web Portal so I could monitor my Power production. They responded quickly and had me up in running with that in no time. I didn’t have to wait for anything.
So We are very happy and have no complaints. Herca did everything in a timely manner and Professionally and I think that so far I have what I was promised. I do believe that I will end up pretty close to ZERO with SDG&E when my year closes. From my late April install through today my system has produced 8,850 Kwh.

PLEASE READ!!! I wished i could leave zero stars for this company. Almost two years ago i had them install panels on my house and its been a disaster since i agreed to use them. To start off it took them 4 months longer than the install date we agreed on when i signed the contract for them to get started. They kept coming up with one excuse after another as to why the project kept getting delayed. Now to their credit, i try to be as fair as possible in my Unilocal reviews because i truly believe in this app’s concept, when the system was installed it looked amazing and very professionally done. Lots of people have solar in my neighborhood and my system looks better than all of them. On top of that i made the argument that because my system took 4 months longer to install than agreed upon and then and additional 6 weeks just to turn on after that i should be compensated for my electric bills for that time. They did apologize and cut me a check for my expenses. At that point i was very happy with my end result. Fast forward 6 months and i had yet to make more power than i used in any month and i wasn’t staying in tier 1 like they said i would either. I still had an electric bill every month on top of my solar loan bill. Now In their sales pitch, just like every solar company, they tell you by going solar you save money because you’re only going to be paying for your solar loan which is less than what you’re energy bill would be annually. They said that some months i would make more energy than i used and others i would use more than i made but it balances out over the course of the year and my annual bill to SDG&E would always be less than $ 100, very low tier 1 rates. To calculate what size system you need they take your previous 12 months of electric bills and figure it out from there. Then they’ll give you the cost of the system. When they did this for me the system was going to cost $ 30K, my house is 4500sqft. When i looked at what the monthly cost of that would be on a 15yr solar loan it was too expensive in comparison to my average monthly electric bill so i passed on purchasing their system. The sales manager called me back the next day and said that their sales rep miscalculated the size of system i would need and the actual size i needed was only $ 21K. This figure was much better so i agreed and made the purchase. When i presented my bills to them 6 months later and showed them that i still have an electric bill every month they said something must be wrong. They came out and said their was some switch that failed and was causing my system to under produce but they fixed it and would cut me another check for the bills i had been paying. I never got that check! Fast forward 18 months later and NOTHING has changed. To date I’ve paid $ 3,000 in electric bills to SDG&E since my solar system was installed on top of my solar loan monthly bill. There has not been one single month that I’ve made more power than I’ve used and nothing has changed in my household to consume more energy. They have done everything from just completely ignore my emails for months on end to just dancing around the fact that to make the sale they simply sold me a system that was never big enough for my house. Ive asked them repeatedly to fix my system at their expense because this is in no way my fault but they have yet to do so. Today was the final straw when they asked if i had anything in writing that said the system they sold me was guaranteed to cover my energy usage. I about lost it. Im so disappointed and frustrated. I can’t believe a company could be so dishonest. I refuse to roll over on this and am out of options i can personally do so this next week I’m going to have to spend more money and hire a lawyer to fight this for me. If anyone is reading this and has had the same problem please contact me. If they’ve done this to other people we can stick together in court to prove our cases and get some resolution, compensation and restitution!!! If you’re reading this before you’ve purchased a system i would highly recommend going elsewhere for your solar system and regardless of where you go get everything in writing…

Herca came to our house some time ago and gave us a quote. The saleslady gave me 2 prices. When I asked about the difference in the two different panels, she said «well this one is much cheaper, it’s the German made panel and it is what my boss is pushing right now.» Sorry folks, but when you tell someone that you are «pushing» a product with no reason it comes off a bit suspect.
Anyway, I interviewed several other companies and chose REC solar which sells through Costco. Couldn’t be happier!
Herca called me to follow their sales lead and I advised them that I chose REC. About 3 months after that follow up call they called again on a Friday after 5 pm. The man asked if I was still interested and I once again advised I used another company. The WHOLE TIME he was speaking to me he was eating. I mean CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH! After I could get a word in between each bite I advised him that when he calls people it would sound a bit more professional if he were to finish his eating before trying to close on a 20K deal.
I would NEVER recommend this company.