The company who did our solar…everyone who came here was an employee of the solar company…no subs. They had well fitted company vans (DH is an engineer, and he sure checked this out). They had different crews assigned to tasks within their area of expertise. IOW, the guys who installed the panels on our roof were not the electricians who did other work.
We also had excellent customer response to questions.
The time delay did not come from the company…it came from the utility company…I mean really…the electric company wasn’t benefiting from us getting solar.
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That was our choice as well. A small local business that has been operating for more than a decade, strictly does electric work, has done multiple installations in the area, and doesn’t use subs. I did not get good vibes about their larger competitors… and one of those still emails their spam to me like once a week! 
Utility companies can be a tossup. Ours came to bless the installation in less than a week. Our project manager was shocked. He was expected at least a month!
Our state has put in some mandates…once the installation clears the inspection, the utility company MUST get service up and running within 2 weeks. Likely because they were dragging their feet.
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@1NJParent, we have a metal roof with standing seams (thanks @BunsenBurner) so the solar panels attach to those standing seams and don’t penetrate the roof at all. We did an installation like that at my MIL’s house in Florida (which also has a metal roof with standing seams). She is on Sanibel Island and the solar panels were still intact after Hurricane Ian.
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The solar tax refund just landed in our bank account. Our installation timing was almost perfect: we wrote the final megacheck for the system in December, so minimal loan to the feds.
These “fins” are called “standing seams.” Yes, these types of roofs are preferred for solar installation.
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We just got our first full months electric bill after our solar installation. It was -$189 due…IOW…we have a $189 credit sitting on our bill. We are trying to figure out whether this will just sit there…or how often they will refund. We had completed a form, indicating how we wanted a refund.
It’s still processing🤦🏻♀️And we did it over a month ago.
I think they refund either quarterly or twice a year…not monthly.
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Depending on our state & utility, you could also just let it sit in your account - then by the summer (with air conditioning in full use) you might draw more than you produce, thus eating up that balance. Then come fall, you’ll start going into the “plus” again until the days get shorter, and you need more lighting in the winter - and you start eating up your balance again.
Then you go to some equal payment plan, and pay a tiny amount each month the entire year - mostly covering the basic account charges and connect fees.
@DigitalDad summer is when we should have maximum solar gain…and if we got $189 this month…we should get that in the summer too, we think. We have never had an electric bill that was $189 a month…even running air conditioning in the summer. So we shall see!
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For ours, we’ve had it 8 years and at the beginning we said send us the money if it’s over $25. Every time we get a check we think, we should change that to $100 because it’s fussy to get little checks. We never get around to it but you can change it. Our system does not produce very much more than we use over the course of a year, maybe $150 worth. So it would have been smarter (for us) to just wait and use that creditup in the winter when we generally pay in.
That’s what we are hoping we are able to do. We know our electric bills with AC are the highest ones we have.
The solar company looked at our electric bills for a year to size our solar system. Goal was to generate no more than we use over the year. So…we shall see!
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Our net metering system works like this. Extra electricity produced in a billing cycle is banked as kWh, not $$. We have two tiers of electricity charges: first 650 kWh is cheap, the next one is slightly more expensive. So technically we bank those more pricey kWh. The banked amount is being used to offset kWh consumed, and the excess gets transferred to the next billing cycle, but whatever is not consumed by the end of March turns into a pumpkin on March 31.
What do you mean turns into a pumpkin, you lose it or do they pay you.
@BunsenBurner we are pretty sure we get sent a refund quarterly. Otherwise why would they have asked us how we wanted our refund if we were entitled to one.
I’ll let you all know.
Just like the Cinderella’s gold carriage disappearing at midnight, the credit goes to zero (pumpkin). 
This is our specific utility co in WA. We knew this because we did read the net metering disclosures before signing the solar installation contract. My point is that different companies interpret metering differently. Years ago, a program existed where the solar generator could sell all of their kWh to the utilities, but that program reached capacity, so no new contracts. Net metering might be coming to an end here, too.
We have also considered getting a battery…but we are going to wait on that. Not exactly a bargain!
Did those of you who installed a solar system switch any gas appliances to electric as part of your deal? Were there any extra incentives to make the switch simultaneously?
The only “gas” appliance we have is a gas grill. So…no. No switch.
We have oil heat. Didn’t switch that either.
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We will be adding minisplit AC which will make our life a little easier during hot spells which seem to be occurring more often.
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