[redpoint5]

Bidding solar jobs is terrible. The initial quoted price is a starting point, and then you've got to set each company against the other to work the price down. It's all complicated by bidding 2 jobs because they might come in high on 1 job, and low on another. Just when I was ready to sign with a local company and pay a 10% premium for their slightly better product, the other guys drastically cut their bids and suddenly that local company is a good 30% over.

I've got them down to $2.66 per installed watt before subsidies, and $1.60 after. My parents are down to $0.75 per watt due to their increased subsidies, and that's for 100% production capabilities, which is about 3 kW unsubsidized (max subsidy goes to 6 kW and they need ~9 to cover 100%). Their break even on electricity alone is about 5 years.

Tesla is giving some effort now, and their pricing matches the best price I've found not factoring in the ODOE subsidy, and handily beats it by $1,500 if Tesla can obtain that credit. Do I gambe on a company with a bad reputation to potentially save $1,500?