Because home ownership is a team sport;  going solar definitely requires all parties to be on the same page.   Investing in solar is a big decision both in terms of financial philosophy as well as environmental stewardship philosophy,  so making sure that you’ve got the vision and the logistics aligned can make the process a lot faster… and dare we say enjoyable?

It is not uncommon that one spouse is further down the journey than the other and the reasons are wide ranging (cost, ROI, hassle, and so many more…).    I recently interviewed a good friend who had come to the other side of the process and here are the steps that they went through to get to their happy ending.

Steps in the Decision to Go Solar

Step 1:  Being Motivated

“I’d always wanted to use sustainable energy but I didn’t want to be the first one to test a new technology so I wanted it to be vetted before I make a big investment.  So, I’ve watched it grow over the years became comfortable knowing that this is not a fly-by-night technology; that it was stable and they was dependable – and I wouldn’t be throwing away my money on technology that becomes obsolete (or that was difficult to service.)”

Step 2 – Getting on the same page with the spouse

“As mentioned, my motivation was originally about sustainability but I didn’t have issues about the financial side because I felt sure it was just a matter of time before we could or we would recoup our costs.  That became pretty clear a few years back when panel costs and availability became much better.

However; my husband felt that given this big investment of money and our time and effort, we needed more than just home electricity — we needed this to support more needs.  And at that time, there was *not* a good option for energy storage, and further, while we loved the idea of having an electric car, their mileage range made that unfeasible.

So… without what we call ‘the closed loop power system’ – I didn’t have my spouse on board.  So you can see our journey to solar was somewhat meandering.

Step 3 – The first steps

“About 2 years back, we went we went to one of these home shows where they have lots of vendors and lots of solar installers,  and we it was hard to see any real differences. However, we did start up a conversation with someone who seemed like they could give us some options.  

We made an appointment with them… but they never showed up!

Next –  I tried SolarCity (this is before they merged with Tesla),  I had a call with one of their consultants, and they looked at the house on Google Maps and they said “it’s feasible but you need to cut down some trees that are casting a shadow over your roof.”  Okay…. well this put a bit of a bend in the process flow as my spouse did not want to do this.

So… we looked at a few other options – maybe even putting an array out in the backyard.

But then… we happened into the Tesla Solar showroom at our local mall (mostly because our son likes to play with the cars!)  and we strike a conversation up with one of the solar sales guys who again takes a look in Google Maps and declares our roof is indeed fine.  And… they had their storage product.”

Step 4 – The Full Loop Solution (aka Energy Storage!) closes the deal

“As mentioned earlier, my husband had a vision that solar power would be more than just electricity for our home.  He wanted it to power a car (yep – that’s now feasible) and that we’d have the ability to store our power for a rainy day (or more accurately, for a PG&E outage day…)  And once the pieces all lined up – we were on board.”

In conclusion:

In any marriage there is give and take, and big projects like going solar give a couple the chance to share visions, priorities and concerns. “It made us take our time but it gave us a solution that makes us feel like we did the right thing.” Today they are happy they made the decision to go solar.

And to summarize; these were important to my friend and her family.

• Affordable, Available solar panels. (Though they did have to wait.. But that’s another blog post!  Golden Bear has no availability issues and we feel our solution is the best possible quality at the best possible price.)
• Storage technology.  At Golden Bear, we partner with leading manufacturer of this storage solution to ensure that none of your generated energy goes to waste.
• A full-loop (SMART)  solution.  The power you create on your roof not only can power your home, your hot tub, your electric car – but you can easily monitor the power use of all your household systems from anywhere with our unique technology.