Semper Solaris

Mike C.

Semper finished our job in 3 days total...1 to lay the roofing attachment points and 2 to install 21 panels. Great people to work with, from Mark Albano, the Alpine salesman to Trevor Decker, our job site point of contact. Everything was spelled out at our first meeting. No BS!! Mark actually said ""I don't know"" to one of my questions!!! He called back within the hour with answers! The installers (6) were clean cut and uniformed. They answered all my questions with patience and enthusiasm! Never felt like the dumb homeowner. I give this company top marks!!!

It's been 6 months since the install. True to their word we received $550....twice, for two referrals. Easy to recommend Semper. Panels really crank out the juice. Zero problems!!!

Michael L.

Great experience for something I knew little to nothing about!
I was looking at solar panels for my home for a few reasons: First, we are recently retired and I needed to fix my expenses - and electricity is one I had little control over (except use less of it). Second, it was a smart investment in my home - increasing the value of the property.
I looked at several companies and decided on Semper Solaris for a few reasons: American Made products, locally owned by veterans and very competitive.
My Experience: the guy I talked with was very helpful and not at all pushy. Once I decided to go with them I didn't have to do anything to take care of rebates and permits. The installers were efficient and courteous. The company's electrician came out and installed a new electrical panel on my house (required by SDGE) for which they did not charge me. They did an AMAZING job since the box they installed was bigger than what I had. They increased the power through the box.
The only part of the whole process I did not like was not their fault - but SDG&E's. They made it difficult for Semper Solaris and ultimately me.
I highly recommend Semper Solaris.
Mike L
San Diego CA

Gene P.

Extremely happy with Semper Solaris sales representative Mr. Mark Albano as our residential solar installation went flawlessly. We interviewed and accepted bids from a number of prospective solar installation companies and each of them had their respective drawbacks. Our decision not to go with the other solar companies stemmed from the quality of their solar panel product, the lack of active engagement and follow up by the customer service sales force but Semper Solaris was head and shoulders more impressive than the rest.

I recommended a number of my colleagues at work to do their homework before installing solar at their homes and they all reached the same conclusion as I did eventually going with Semper Solaris because of the quality of the product, and efficient installation, and reasonable pricing!

Would highly recommend Semper Solaris without hesitation!

Gene P.

Christopher V.

Semper Solaris is the best. I evaluated 4 solar panel installers - Semper Solaris, Baker Electric, A1 Solar and Sullivan Solar. Sullivan never bothered to give me a quote, A1 Solar was significantly more expensive with lower output panels (Solar World), and while Semper Solaris was very close in price to Baker Electric, the Semper Solaris rep, Mike Barnett never bad-mouthed his competition, he just spoke very positively about his company and what they do. As a former builder/developer, I was far more picky than most when it came to the details and materials, including construction details on the plans, roof penetrations, flashings (to prevent leaks), and having a licensed roofer and a licensed electrician on the job. Semper does this with in-house crews, not subcontractors. They provided the best solar panels on the market - SunPower, made in the USA, and they provided the best mounting and flashing system - PV Quick Mount. Philip the crew's foreman, Sergio the roofer, J.D. the electrician, and Josh and Ruben the installers were excellent, kept me informed every step of the way, were courteous and were very clean in their work. When the installation was complete, Philip showed me my electric meter going backwards - I was giddy! Take that SDGE! I highly recommend Semper Solaris and their owner, John Almond. John and Mike answered every one of my questions, were flexible when I asked for it, and had the integrity and honesty to do the job right. We now have fifteen 345 watt panels on our home generating 5.2Kw of electricity at a price far less than I expected. People ask me how did I come to the conclusion to install solar. Simple - pure economics. My after-tax monthly payment through the HERO program (no money down) will be about $140 a month. My current average monthly electric bill is $170 a month. No brainer. Get it now while the going is good before SDGE and the PUC start changing the rate structure when SDGE hits 5% of their power generation by solar!

Stan F.

I finally decided to install solar panels since electric rates will continue to rise probably forever. I interviewed a few companies and felt like I was on a used car lot getting the ""hard sell"". I called Semper Solaris because the reviews were good and it is veteran owned and they use American made panels (Sun Power). The sales experience was very relaxed and Brian answered my questions without a lot of bull. From the minute I signed up and gave my deposit, Semper explained the process of permitting, installation, and inspections and have kept me informed at each step of the process. The install crew showed up as scheduled and explained their plan of action for the job. These gys are professionals! The crew, Phillip (lead), Josh, Ruben and Sergio went to work immediately and never missed a beat. My installation site is fairly straight forward but, none the less, they did their magic and were finished by 1pm the same day. Phillip explained everything and answered any questions asked. They even painted all the conduits to match the color of the house and dark paint for the roof run. These guys are professionals! The system began producing power immediately after the switch was turned on for testing. Of course, I can't use the system until inspections are completed but it tested perfect. Semper has been really easy to work, informative, and professional. Semper does everything, start to finish, to get the system up and running from design thru permitting and inspections. All I had to do was write a few checks. Semper Solaris gets an A+ from me!

Carrie T.

We felt we needed solar because we needed an air conditioner and we knew we couldn't afford to run one without solar. We wanted a payment that would cancel out our current electric bill and we finally found that with Semper Solaris.

We look at other people who have solar and we feel sorry for them because, either they didn't have a great payment like Semper Solaris gave us, or they don't have the best panels (Sun Power panels), or they rent their panels and they pay another company for electricity instead of SDG&E. Also, Semper Solaris is one of the only companies that installs an extra power outlet directly from the solar inverter, which can be used to power critical equipment, such as a refrigerator, during a power outage. They called us after every stage to make sure we were happy and didn't have any questions. All of their staff, including our salesman, Mark Ivory, owner, John Almond and all the electricians and solar panel installers were all very friendly and extremely professional with the entire installation and afterwards. The electricians even painted the conduit against the house to match the paint on our house. They made sure that we were able to get ALL of our 30-percent government rebate with this year's taxes.

A few months after our solar was installed we were amazed by the amount of money we were saving on electricity. We recently had our air conditioner installed and now our house feels wonderful and our electric bill still shows that we have credits. We are excited knowing that we will have free electricity in 12 years or less! If you're considering having solar installed on your house, then look no further, Semper Solaris will be your best choice.

Becca L.

Overall, I would say this whole process has been disappointing. It started out great when Mark came over for our initial appointment. We loved that the company was locally and veteran owned. Mark assured us he would be in frequent contact with us throughout the whole process. We heard from him maybe one time without hunting him down after the initial contact. We got passed from person to person without anyone informing us of what was happening or what to expect. We had numerous occasions where employees would show up unannounced only to ask ""didn't anyone tell you we were coming"". We got our system installed in a timely fashion however 1/3 of our system was not connected. We were told someone would be out within two days to connect the portion. A few days later another employee called to walk me through turning the system on. I asked him if the connection was ever fixed and he told me he didn't know and would call someone else to ask. No one ever called me back. Yesterday, three weeks after this was supposed to be fixed, someone shows up unannounced to fix the connection. It is difficult to get ahold of people, you never know who you are working with and there is no follow through. The panels are supposed to be amazing and we started out getting 29 kWh with only 2/3 of our system operational but within about 10 days we dropped to 18 kWh. All of the reviews on yelp are 5 stars but I noticed they didn't all start out that way.

Richard C.

Overall, Semper Solaris is a great company.

Only 4 stars, due to the process took a really long time and I had to call a lot for updates. I had Mark Ivory come out to my house in November 2014. He went over everything and answered all my questions. I was still unsure if solar was the best option. Well, after careful consideration I call Mark back in December and had him come back out and signed a contract. He told me it's about 8-10 weeks out for production. A few weeks go by and I get a phone call stating I need to add another panel to get the quoted kilowatts I need. I wasn't really pleased at this. As this added another $1400. The production process seemed to take a really long time and panels were not install until March. The installation crew were a couple of guys that were pretty cool and explained everything to me about the process. They installed the internet monitoring system on my router. Then the second wait begins, waiting for the city. After 4 weeks of waiting, I was informed the city rejected my plans because my unit was installed inside the garage and the plans said outside the house. The plan was always to have it in the garage because I had an emergency outlet installed on my system for power outages. So they had to resubmit. That finally got approved and then the wait for SDG&E began. That is a pretty quick turnaround 10 days. My system was finally up and running May 20th. I will say the Internet monitoring is awesome. I check it all the time. On my best days I produced 31 kilowatts. The system is working great.

I opted to by my system outright. I will tell you to carefully consider buying it instead of leasing. My payback is around 5 years and the system will have paid for itself. 25 year bumper to bumper warranty. My neighbors who have older systems have 3-5 more panels than I do and produce the same power as me. If you are serious about solar. Give Semper Solaris a call. Veteran owned and operated.

After writing this article. I am changing it 5 stars. Sometimes you have to wait for a quality product.

jul t.

I've shopped around and did my research (including talking to my tax lady that I am qualified to get the max rebate) for over a year until finally pulled the trigger to get solar installed. Semper will definitely not be the cheapest but you'll have BBB and yelp reviews backing so thats peace of mind you won't have to call Turko complaining about you're solar not working. They're not the most expensive either. I got a 16 panels totaling 5.2kw. Great price/kwh after rebates. Great installation - my street has several homes that have solar and I could say mine's is the best looking. I'm now producing more power than what I'm using. Looks like I'll have enough surplus to offset the consumption when I use my a/c daily during the warmer months. Total 4 months from start to finally getting the system up and running. It's really worth the wait. Local business and veteran owned. Just do it. Btw, tell them I sent you and we both get $500 when you get your system installed :-)

marjie s.

All I can say is ... Stellar Service.

I cannot express enough how satisfied I am with the whole Solar Experience. My husband and I had made appointments with several companies and they all seemed to blow us off. Bummer for them because we were serious. We finally sat down with mark Ivory with Semper and we were so sold on their product and company. we got more panels, better panels and supreme service from them.

We were told that it would take the county about 2 months to approve the plans but, because Semper Solaris has a history of quality work with the county, our plans were approved in about 2 weeks. From the time they had the county approval, our system was installed and approved by SDGE within 2 weeks. Gosh that is fast.

The team that installed the panels came out and did it in one day. The lead guy (Jacky) was AWESOME and super friendly. He had a real knowledge of the process and, even though he was goofy and fun, totally knew his stuff. In so many ways, he reminded me of my own husband (as a young guy) and it was quite endearing. I know that is a side comment, but it is rare when you feel a connection with a contractor working on your house. Totally great installation team, and there were several guys busting it out. Jacky came back for the county inspector and to take care of the router connection.

That's another thing, you want this device... It connects to your router, sends a signal to the panel manufacturer to indicate how the panels are doing. you also install the app and program so that you can see the kWh produced by the hour, day, week, month, year... It is my new favorite thing. Even still, I log onto the app several times a day just to see and lovingly touch the bar chart on the glass screen. Nowhere else will you have that kind of relationship than between you and your solar.

There are so many reasons to get solar now. I know Mark Ivory will fill you in on all of that better than I could ... but don't wait.

Tell them Marjie Short referred you and I get a sweet bonus. Please and Thank You.