Elemental Energy is a five-star business in every way. Everything about them, from the informative initial visit, to the thorough site survey, to the careful installation, to the courteous and professional crew, are all completely first-class. We highly recommend their work.
They installed a solar system for us in November 2021. We want to wait a full year to make sure there are no problems before writing a review.
Our goal is to maximize energy production. Ruthie the Elemental salesperson understands the difference between big modules and a big system. A competitor's quote proposes using 440W modules from LG. Those modules are physically large (1.9 square meters). However we have roof vents and dormers that they have to work around, so large modules don't actually cover the roof that well, leaving large gaps. By using 370W modules (1.8 square meters) from Solaria, Elemental's proposal is able to cover more of the roof with modules. Their design results in a higher output system than the competitor's, 10 vs 8.8 kW DC.
Our installation requires some additional, non-solar electrical work. Besides installing modules on the house roof as well as the standalone garage roof, we also want a new 50A circuit into the kitchen to electrify our gas range, and a new high-power circuit to the garage for a future EV charger. Bryce the Elemental electrician takes the time during the site survey to determine the best options for running all this new wiring. His solution runs conduit around the back of the house, through a basement workshop into the kitchen, so no interior finish is impacted. It also reuses an existing conduit going under the driveway to the garage so that no concrete work is needed.
Elemental's installation crew was very professional, courteous and efficient. Jeff and his rooftop crew were always punctual. We have had no roof leaks or any other complaints after a whole season. Bryce, Will and Cory did a very tidy job with the wiring. The conduits in particular were greatly admired by other electricians who later saw it.
Elemental's proposal uses micro inverters from Enphase. Their competitor specifies a string inverter. Our garage roof is partially shaded in the mornings. Micro inverters are better at maximizing production when the modules don't get uniform sun exposure.
Elemental also includes the Enlighten data reporting and monitoring apparatus in their proposal. To be honest, we thought it was a little gimmicky when we first saw it. But since then we have totally geeked out on solar data! "Look, it's another 60 kWh day!" :-) Enlighten has the ability to monitor consumption as well as production. This is very useful to us, because we electrified most gas appliances at the same time, and if we just relied on PGE's net metering alone, we would have had no visibility into the energy usage of our new appliances.
Elemental's system greatly exceeds our expectations. For the trailing 12 months, the system produced over 11 MWh. Even with increased consumption from a new heat pump and induction range, we are still net exporters of 2.6 MWh for the year!
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