What is a solar consultation?
Ever heard the term “solar consultation”? Even wondered what, exactly, that looks like? Well, we can help answer that question for you. In this article, we’ll explain to you what a solar consultation is, go over the steps of a solar consultation, and help you understand where it fits in the solar journey. Let’s get started.
So what exactly is a solar consultation?
A solar consultation is basically what it sounds like...a consultation about solar.
Here’s how it works:
A representative from Vivint Solar will visit you, or call you, or reach out to you in some way, and talk to you about the benefits of installing a solar energy system on your roof.
- Maybe you’re building a new home and have the option of adding a solar energy system into the cost of your build.
- Maybe you’ve been seeing an increase in energy rates lately.
- Maybe you’re trying to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle.
- Maybe you just really like new fancy-looking technology.
Whatever the reason, your Vivint Solar representative will talk to you about how solar energy can help you. They’ll also review the things that we can offer you as a company because we have a lot of different options when it comes to powering your home sustainably.
You deserve to feel confident in this decision. You’re committing to a twenty-year relationship with us, so you deserve peace of mind. To help put your mind at ease with this decision, your Vivint Solar representative should be able to easily and clearly answer every single question you have about Vivint Solar, the solar energy system, how it works, and our part in the process of going solar.
If that’s not enough, we also encourage you to check out our website. We’ve put a lot of effort into supplying you with answers to several different questions you may have about solar, the electrical industry as a whole, and some of the questions other homeowners like you are asking when it comes to solar.
In fact, here are a few articles we recommend pursuing, just to get you started:
The bottom line is that—at the end of your consultation (be it over over the course of one visit or multiple)—you should feel confident in the decision you’re making and ready to make it.
If your answer is “Yes,” then we say to you, “Congratulations, we applaud you on this decision, and welcome to the world of renewable energy.”
If the answer is “No” or “Not right now,” be prepared for a little follow up. We feel that everyone would be happier with solar, so we’re committed to engaging all homeowners in the cause. Our representatives will want to understand why you came to that decision and if there’s anything we could do to get you to change your mind to help you emulate that renewable energy life.
The good news is that you have a little power here, as a homeowner. In fact, in reviewing the 10 reasons to go solar, we talk about the fact that you—a potential solar system owner—can do a little negotiating here in order to get what you want. For more insight, check out reason #1 on that list and consider your options the next time your Vivint Solar representative stops by.
At any rate, we’re going to assume that you’ve decided to make the very smart decision to consider a Vivint Solar system because then we can go over the next part of the consultation which is...
What are the steps of a solar consultation?
To understand your personal needs and how to best set up a design catered specifically to you, your Vivint Solar representative will talk to you about your home, interests, and collect some information from you. They’ll ask for your utility bills, some information like your name, address, phone number, and email, and they’ll verify stuff like internet and attic access. Once they’re done, they’ll review your contract options and generate a mock solar design, right then and there.
To help clarify these steps for you, we’re going to list them out and explain why they’re important to you as a homeowner with a soon-to-be Vivint Solar system.
In order to get the process started, we’re going to create an account for you and assign you a service number associated with your home address. To do this, we’ll ask you the following questions:
Once we enter your information, we’ll have you look it over to ensure it’s correct. We’ll also have you check boxes that confirm things like, “Yes, I am the owner of the home” and “Yes, X is my current utility provider.” Our goal is complete transparency and to make you feel comfortable with the information we’re documenting.
- We’ll get consent to pull your credit report
We’ll ask your permission to check your credit. Because of the large upfront cost for us to do a solar installation on your home, we need to ensure you pass credit verification before moving forward.
We must have documented consent to pull your credit report. So, we’ll present you with a Credit Qualification Form for you to sign that acknowledges that you give us permission to pull your credit. As long as you pass the verification, we’ll ask for your utility bill.
- We’ll collect copies of your utility bills
In order to customize your solar energy design, we’re going to take historical records of your electricity usage and use them to determine the optimal size and output of your new Vivint Solar system.
That’s why we’ll ask for at least three months worth of past electricity bills. To be eligible for our records, the bills must be:
- We’ll collect some photos and create your custom design
By the time you get to this point, you should have already had a candid discussion with your Vivint Solar representative about your home, roof, current bill amounts (roughly), and whether or not your home is eligible for solar. Once that’s done, we’ll collect some photos that we’ll use to create a mock-up version of the solar design. These pictures will also help us verify your electrical setup and identify whether or not there are other, outstanding concerns that we may need to address.
We’ll take a picture of your:
We’ll then take all of this information, as well as the usage that we collected from your utility bill, and use them to create a custom design that shows how your solar energy system will be placed on your roof, where the equipment will go, and how much solar energy your system may produce.
At this point, our representative will review your design with you, explain each part of it, help you understand the energy production, and ask for your approval. It’s imperative that you approve the design because it’s going on your home for the next twenty plus years, so you should definitely make sure you’re comfortable with the layout and structure before we install it on your roof.
- We’ll review paperwork, payment, and reconfirm everything again
The last part of your consultation is perhaps the most important, and that is reviewing and signing your agreement. Our Vivint Solar representative will walk you through the agreement you’ve chosen and talk to you about how the solar production works with the payment structure you’ve agreed to. As of today, we offer four different agreement options:.
The agreement you choose is based on the options available in your area, so be sure to check that out beforehand. At this step, your representative should have already gone over these options with you.
Once you understand, acknowledge, and sign your agreement, we’ll collect your payment information and initiate a welcome call. The welcome call is a verification check, performed by an employee in the Vivint Solar corporate office, to ensure that you understand the terms and conditions of the agreement, and verify that your home is all ready to go for solar.
In order to get the process started, we’re going to create an account for you and assign you a service number associated with your home address. To do this, we’ll ask you the following questions:
Once we enter your information, we’ll have you look it over to ensure it’s correct. We’ll also have you check boxes that confirm things like, “Yes, I am the owner of the home” and “Yes, X is my current utility provider.” Our goal is complete transparency and to make you feel comfortable with the information we’re documenting.
- We’ll get consent to pull your credit report
We’ll ask your permission to check your credit. Because of the large upfront cost for us to do a solar installation on your home, we need to ensure you pass credit verification before moving forward.
We must have documented consent to pull your credit report. So, we’ll present you with a Credit Qualification Form for you to sign that acknowledges that you give us permission to pull your credit. As long as you pass the verification, we’ll ask for your utility bill.
- We’ll collect copies of your utility bills
In order to customize your solar energy design, we’re going to take historical records of your electricity usage and use them to determine the optimal size and output of your new Vivint Solar system.
That’s why we’ll ask for at least three months worth of past electricity bills. To be eligible for our records, the bills must be:
- We’ll collect some photos and create your custom design
By the time you get to this point, you should have already had a candid discussion with your Vivint Solar representative about your home, roof, current bill amounts (roughly), and whether or not your home is eligible for solar. Once that’s done, we’ll collect some photos that we’ll use to create a mock-up version of the solar design. These pictures will also help us verify your electrical setup and identify whether or not there are other, outstanding concerns that we may need to address.
We’ll take a picture of your:
It can be a little jarring to open the door to a stranger—we get it—but that doesn’t mean you don’t have options. There is a great little link on our website called Verify Consultant. Just enter the employee’s ID badge number in the search section. If they’re a current Vivint Solar employee, their name and ID will populate verifying that they’re an active employee with Vivint Solar.
- You have the right to understand what you’re agreeing to
This may seem a little on-the-nose, but we recommend that you refrain from signing your solar agreement until all your questions are answered to your satisfaction, and you have fully read and understand the terms and conditions of your agreement with us. At the very least, your Vivint Solar representative should have clearly explained:
- You have a right to receive a copy of your Vivint Solar agreement after you’ve signed it.
After you’ve signed your agreement, we’ll email you a copy of your agreement at the email address you gave to us. Once you set up your Vivint Solar account online, you’ll also have access to your agreement automatically. Either way, you have a right to review your agreement, at any time, at your leisure (and you should).
- You have a right to read the Vivint Solar agreement in the same language as it was presented to you during the consultation
Let’s explain this concept with an example. Let’s say that your Vivint Solar representative started the consultation by speaking to you in Spanish. That means that, by law, when the time comes for you to sign the agreement, they must present you with an agreement written in Spanish.
Now currently, we only have two language options available for our Vivint Solar agreement: English and Spanish. We’re working on getting more, but it’s taking a bit of time.
Don’t speak either of those languages? That’s okay too. You have the right to use an interpreter of your choosing to help you understand the information. That means that our Vivint Solar representative will go through the solar consultation and agreement with you in English, and you have the right to work with an interpreter who will help you understand the ideas, terms, and conditions of what you’re agreeing to.
- You have a right to consent to your credit check
Though we have to verify credit before we can install our solar equipment on your roof, we can’t do so without your permission and approval. Your Vivint Solar representative must explain to you why we run credit and present you with an acknowledgement form, that only you can sign, authorizing us to run your credit.
- You have a right to cancel your agreement before we begin work on your home
You, as a homeowner and potential Vivint Solar system owner, may cancel your account, without penalty, right up until the moment we begin installing the system or begin performing any work on the home (i.e. re-roof, main panel upgrade, etc.), whichever comes first.
Aside from installing a system on your home, we’ll sometimes invest in your home first before we install the solar energy system. For example, some homeowners will work with their Vivint Solar representative to fix their roof before they opt to install a Vivint Solar system on their roof.
Either way, once the solar energy system is installed, or once we’ve begun the work on your home, there are very select instances when we will cancel an account. This is because, once we install a system on a home, we are honoring our half of the agreement to invest our assets onto your home.
Either way, you have a right to cancel right up until we begin any work on your home.
We’ll then take all of this information, as well as the usage that we collected from your utility bill, and use them to create a custom design that shows how your solar energy system will be placed on your roof, where the equipment will go, and how much solar energy your system may produce.
At this point, our representative will review your design with you, explain each part of it, help you understand the energy production, and ask for your approval. It’s imperative that you approve the design because it’s going on your home for the next twenty plus years, so you should definitely make sure you’re comfortable with the layout and structure before we install it on your roof.
- We’ll review paperwork, payment, and reconfirm everything again
The last part of your consultation is perhaps the most important, and that is reviewing and signing your agreement. Our Vivint Solar representative will walk you through the agreement you’ve chosen and talk to you about how the solar production works with the payment structure you’ve agreed to. As of today, we offer four different agreement options:.
The agreement you choose is based on the options available in your area, so be sure to check that out beforehand. At this step, your representative should have already gone over these options with you.
Once you understand, acknowledge, and sign your agreement, we’ll collect your payment information and initiate a welcome call. The welcome call is a verification check, performed by an employee in the Vivint Solar corporate office, to ensure that you understand the terms and conditions of the agreement, and verify that your home is all ready to go for solar.
And that’s it. After the welcome call, we’ll set up a home survey to reassess your house and check the minute details of your layout in preparation for your installation.
What are my rights as a Vivint Solar customer?
We’re so glad you asked that, because you actually have a lot of rights as a solar customer, and we want you to know them. Going over every single one would take a really long time though, and there are six main ones that we feel are the most important, so we’re going to focus on those. To make this easy for you, we’re going to list the main six out and include a brief explanation of what they mean.
For more information about your rights as a potential solar customer, we recommend checking out the Consumer Guide to Solar Power.
It can be a little jarring to open the door to a stranger—we get it—but that doesn’t mean you don’t have options. There is a great little link on our website called Verify Consultant. Just enter the employee’s ID badge number in the search section. If they’re a current Vivint Solar employee, their name and ID will populate verifying that they’re an active employee with Vivint Solar.
- You have the right to understand what you’re agreeing to
This may seem a little on-the-nose, but we recommend that you refrain from signing your solar agreement until all your questions are answered to your satisfaction, and you have fully read and understand the terms and conditions of your agreement with us. At the very least, your Vivint Solar representative should have clearly explained:
- You have a right to receive a copy of your Vivint Solar agreement after you’ve signed it.
After you’ve signed your agreement, we’ll email you a copy of your agreement at the email address you gave to us. Once you set up your Vivint Solar account online, you’ll also have access to your agreement automatically. Either way, you have a right to review your agreement, at any time, at your leisure (and you should).
- You have a right to read the Vivint Solar agreement in the same language as it was presented to you during the consultation
Let’s explain this concept with an example. Let’s say that your Vivint Solar representative started the consultation by speaking to you in Spanish. That means that, by law, when the time comes for you to sign the agreement, they must present you with an agreement written in Spanish.
Now currently, we only have two language options available for our Vivint Solar agreement: English and Spanish. We’re working on getting more, but it’s taking a bit of time.
Don’t speak either of those languages? That’s okay too. You have the right to use an interpreter of your choosing to help you understand the information. That means that our Vivint Solar representative will go through the solar consultation and agreement with you in English, and you have the right to work with an interpreter who will help you understand the ideas, terms, and conditions of what you’re agreeing to.
- You have a right to consent to your credit check
Though we have to verify credit before we can install our solar equipment on your roof, we can’t do so without your permission and approval. Your Vivint Solar representative must explain to you why we run credit and present you with an acknowledgement form, that only you can sign, authorizing us to run your credit.
- You have a right to cancel your agreement before we begin work on your home
You, as a homeowner and potential Vivint Solar system owner, may cancel your account, without penalty, right up until the moment we begin installing the system or begin performing any work on the home (i.e. re-roof, main panel upgrade, etc.), whichever comes first.
Aside from installing a system on your home, we’ll sometimes invest in your home first before we install the solar energy system. For example, some homeowners will work with their Vivint Solar representative to fix their roof before they opt to install a Vivint Solar system on their roof.
Either way, once the solar energy system is installed, or once we’ve begun the work on your home, there are very select instances when we will cancel an account. This is because, once we install a system on a home, we are honoring our half of the agreement to invest our assets onto your home.
Either way, you have a right to cancel right up until we begin any work on your home.
We hope you found this information helpful. If you’d like to see if you’re ready to go solar, get a solar bid tailored to your home and electricity use. Let us give you a free quote today!