As everyone adjusts to our new realities based on the COVID-19 pandemic, we want to give you an update on what we at Net Zero Solar are doing to help flatten the curve, and reduce infections for those who may be most harmed. For extensive information on the pandemic, visit the COVID-19 page from the CDC.
Our first goal is to ensure the safety of our customers and our team members. We are regularly cleaning surfaces in our office and vehicles with appropriate products. Each person on our team has paid sick time, and has been instructed to stay home if they feel sick—especially if they have any symptoms associated with the coronavirus. If they feel sick, they will seek appropriate consultation and treatment from medical professionals, and not return to work until they have recovered. Our team is also limiting our contact with others outside our work hours.
At present, we are continuing installations and service, with some modifications to our procedures. We also continue to provide solar proposals, but are limiting contact between our sales staff and customers. Read on to learn more.
Getting a Solar Proposal
The first step to getting a solar proposal is still the same. You can contact us here, or call us at 520-207-4053. Brian is feeling great, and he’s happy to share as much preliminary information as needed over the phone. We will need you to provide us with your energy usage data if it’s available from your utility (most TEP customers & some Trico customers), or your monthly energy usage if your energy data is not available.
To understand how a solar electric system would fit on your home, Brian will need to complete a site visit to your home. In this site visit, he will climb on your roof to see where the solar could fit, and look at your electrical panel to determine how the solar electric system will connect. We will need your permission to come on your property, to set up a ladder to get up on the roof, and to open your electrical load center. If you regularly keep a lock on your electrical panel, it will need to be unlocked, or we will need the combination.
Normally, Brian would sit down with you in person in your home after looking at the roof and electrical panel. At this time, we are not doing any in-home consultations. At Brian’s discretion, he may also be willing to meet with you outside your home, if he and you are both feeling 100%, and it’s possible to maintain a safe physical distance of at least six feet.
We would prefer to schedule a time to meet with you via video conference on Skype, Facetime, or Google Hangouts (if you don’t have video capability, we can also do a phone call). Brian will schedule this meeting after he’s prepared your proposal and emailed it to you, so you can discuss the proposal together.
If you’d like to go ahead with an installation, Brian will email you a contract to be signed electronically. Once we’ve received a signed contract and deposit, we’ll work with you to submit the required utility paperwork, get a building permit for the project, deal with any HOA paperwork, and get the equipment on the way to our warehouse.
Solar Installations
As long as our team remains healthy, there are not other recommendations from local health officials, and there is not anyone in the home at higher risk for severe illness, we will continue scheduled installations if they do not require access to the inside of your home. If you have an attic space, and we would need access to your home to complete the installation, we will discuss alternative options with you, such as routing conduits outside the building envelope, entering the home with protective equipment, or postponing your installation.
Our team members will not knock on doors on arrival, but let us know if you’d like to receive a call or text when they arrive. They have been instructed to avoid handshakes, stay at least six feet away from customers, and stay away from each other as much as is practical.
Once the installation is complete, the crew lead will text or call you to ask for your wifi network name and password so they can connect the solar monitoring system. If you like, the crew lead can give you a walkthrough of the system operation via video conference on Facetime or Skype, or the walkthrough can be completed another time by the same methods. If they are not able to contact you when the installation is complete, they will provide you an update via email or text.
Most building department inspections will be done by Skype the day after the installation is complete. One of our team members will be on site to show the remote inspector the completed work. Utility inspections are done in person 1-4 weeks after the building department inspection is complete. As of this writing, we expect them to proceed as normal, but this may change.
Change is the Only Constant
Both internationally and in the United States, we have seen the situation around COVID-19 change very rapidly. Based on current information from health experts, we believe it is critically important that we make sure that we limit any possible transmission to others through taking these measures. We know that even though most of our team members are young and healthy, we don’t want to cause harm to anyone else, and even young and healthy people may have permanent negative health outcomes from the virus.
With this in mind, it’s almost certain that our approach may change. We can’t control this, but we promise to communicate clearly to our customers, just as we have been communicating to our team. We look forward to gathering for our annual solar mixers and having in-person conversations at a later date, when risks have dropped. Thank you for reading. We appreciate the support of our current and future customers. Stay well!
