This update is for service long after the house is done and there is really no reason for them to keep working hard for our approval. But they keep doing it anyway. We've been in the house 3 years now. Long enough to find all the little things that inevitably show up. There were precious few of them. So far we've had exactly one thing that we thought might be Native's responsibility to resolve but when we called them to see if they would be willing to discuss it they just sent two guys over and fixed it. No charge. No discussion. Just fixed it. Now we have had some stuff that we wanted to change, like a door that opened out that we felt would be better opening in. We contracted them to do it and they took care of it quickly, professionally, and at a cost slightly less than the quote from a local general handyman. Recently we had a crack in one of our big picture windows. It gets a lot of bird strikes and this looked like what happened this time. We called them and they came out, took the measurements, and a couple weeks later the replacement window showed up. We're waiting until it gets warmer to do the install, but it will be Native doing it. They are also going to do the solar upgrade later this year. One more string should make our house net negative, meaning we'll actually be able to sell energy back to our Co-op. We'll be a power plant! Seriously, ask anybody you know that has built a house. Ask them if they are still on good terms with their builder. Then ask them if their builder would be their first choice for any repairs. The answer for both will be 'Hell no!' I promise you. Our answer with Native is Hell Yes! read more

Since the earlier communication problem, I have been pleased with the service that Native has provided. Fortunately, I've only had to have a technician out once since purchasing our home in 2017. The tech was friendly, professional, and was able to explain the error with the system as well as how he would correct it. Can't tell you how great the savings have been having solar in Texas. My bill is usually $0.00 for 7month out of the year and I've build up credits during those months. I'm currently happy with this company. read more

They installed a system about 3 years ago through the NRG solar lease. There had been some problems also with installation and phone calls did not cut it and unfortunately leaving a bad review on yelp was the only way I could get their attention. 2 years down and the systems output is way down (since February of 2016). I called NRG which has been trying to get in touch with Native. Its either NRG or Native that is not responding (NRG blames Native and now they advised me to directly contact Native). I think NRG is correct since after repeated phone calls and voices mails there is no response. Stay away if you can. The install was decent, but there are at least 2 things that are not working 1. The output of the inverter (as indicated by locus monitoring) is about 1/3 of what it is rated to be. 2. An outlet that was installed in case lights go out during the day (to directly get power or use my own backup battery) has never worked and never been fixed. Dont have much hope of fixing this, but hope this review would get their attention read more

Two years ago we saved up enough money to install a cooling system in our old house. We had a slew of professionals come in and give us bids and recommendations, including traditional high-efficiency HVAC and geothermal solutions. Hill Country Ecopower was the highest quote we got -- but we realized that the another geothermal guy specked out a less robust a system with an insufficiently deep hole. Ultimately, we went with Lloyd because he and his crew were so smart, responsive and honest. Checking their references confirmed the quality of their work -- nothing but glowing reviews. Finally, they helped us secure a multitude of rebates to drastically reduce the final cost. Two years later and we're still very happy with the work Hill Country Ecopower did. The solar screens and insulation they recommended & subcontracted have held up very well and kept our house much cooler. The geothermal system itself is amazing, and has seen us through a biting winter (2010-11) and a ridiculously hot summer (2011) without any problems. Our bills are much much lower, year-round, than those of our neighbors with similar homes, so we're confident that the system will pay for itself before too long. Clearly, we recommend Hill Country Ecopower without reservation, and will definitely go to them when we're ready for solar! read more

Even though Native Solar did not install our system, they were willing to come out and repair our system when a squirrel built a nest under the panels and ate through some wiring. The person who came to our home was professional, competent and very good, In addition, we felt the price to do the work was very fair. We will use Native Solar for our future needs. John W. read more

Our experience with Native was exceptional! Right from the start Carl G. was our solar expert. He was there anytime we had questions or needs. We did a lot of research and got several bids but went with Native because of Carls expertise and care for his customers. We give Native an A+ all around!! read more

I had Native install two separate PV arrays, a 6.2kw ground mounted array in 2012 and 9.2 kw array in 2013. Working with the City of Austin through their PV Solar rebate program can be challenging. The whole team at Native worked diligently to dot all the 'i's and cross all the 't's. Lloyd the owner, Chris Renner the PV supervisor, David Dixon dealing with the city and everyone else involved. Thanks I am extremely excited that now the total PV we have is 18.4 kw and the home/office is now Net-Zero. I plan on working with them on the future for other clients and replacing an HVAC unit with a new Geothermal unit. read more

I did a bit of search to find the right contractor for my home array, and went with Native. The process went smoothly - Carl Gayhart was our point person, and he walked me through the process and was always available when I had questions. Native was open to the changes I wanted made to the contract, and later to the installation itself (running wires through the attic rather than across the roof). The installation itself went great, given the timetable of inspections, permits, etc. I now have a 4.5 kW system, and am very happy with how the whole process went. I'm looking forward to sitting back and watching the watts pour in! I would happily recommend Native to anyone looking for a residential solar array. read more

I bought solar panels through enPhase and they contracted with Native to install them. The product is fine and the installation went fine, and after the panels were operational for a couple of weeks, they began to function only intermittently. A technician came out in a timely fashion and reinstalled an electrical component that had malfunctioned. So far so good. Service was excellent. On May 23 when the violent storms came through Austin, a tree came down in my back yard, and took out cable, and electric. After both were restored, my Envoy device ceased to communicate with the enPhase internet application that reports how much solar energy is being produced. The simplest hypothesis would be that connection between my Envoy and my internet has not been reestablished, but I cannot get anyone from enPhase or Native to come out and test that hypothesis. I keep being passed back and forth from Native reps to local enPhase reps to the customer service phone reps of enPhase. At one point, Native reps came out and unlocked the box containing the Envoy on my outside wall so that I could report its condition to the enPhase phone reps, but having made that trip, they did not take a little more time to check the internet connection which is what the enPhase customer service reps are now telling me to do. I had engaged in a chain of correspondence with one local enPhase rep, and when I wrote today telling him that someone needed to come an reestablish the wifi connection, I got an automatic response in which he stated that he would be out of town for the next week and referred me to another enPhase representative. I sent this representative the chain of correspondence and his response indicated that he had not read it, not even the last communication which was the operative one, and instead inquired if the Envoy box was not yet open. In short, enPhase and Native have a good product and excellent installation, and good customer service immediately following installation, but their system is woefully unprepared to deal with customers further on. read more

Not sure if I just had bad luck or this is the beginning of downward spiral on what was once a good company. Short version: READ EVERYTHING THEY SEND YOU VERY CLOSELY especially before signing. It's crazy but this is the brief version. We were interested in solar and they were one of the companies that friends recommended. First sales person came out and we really liked him. They weren't the cheapest but with something that's going to be a 25 year relationship, cheapest isn't the object. Then when we started to move forward things got very slimy very quickly. He'd send me emails with proposed system specs and costs in the text of the email but then the formal proposal would be different. Different system output, different design, different cost. Thought we'd worked it out but then the official sign here contract had something different again. Final straw for me so I moved on to our second choice vendor, Longhorn. They came out for a site assessment and found that our home actually wasn't going to be good for solar. Too many big trees. Not a terrible problem to have but disappointing. Longhorn said they didn't want to move forward because they didn't feel like we would end up happy with the output or the cost. (If you haven't talked to Longhorn, you should.) So, now we think well maybe that's why Native came so highly recommend, they can do things others can't. Back to slimy sales guy but now, per Longhorn's recommendation, I'd like confirmation for the AE person about the system design. Now I get a lot about how great Native is and that won't be necessary. Trust us. Okay, don't know about you but that really sets off alarm bells for me. I request a different sales person. Who knows, maybe this guy and I just aren't compatible. Then nothing for like two weeks until out of the blue I get a call from someone with the company asking how things are going. Is it that you really don't know the answer to that question or are you trying to gloss things over? Turns out so-and-so is no longer with the company. They are terribly sorry and are going to do what it takes to "make things right". Next day I get a call from sales person number two. She doesn't seem to have any information about my situation other then she's supposed to fix it. And she assures me she's going to do that. Now I'm a little optimistic again, these things happen. Companies can have problems with individual employees. But then I get a proposal from her. She's "upgraded" me to a micro inverter system. So in fact the other guy was likely going to sell me a giant paperweight for my roof. The output is less and the cost is more. Oh and the proposal lists 14 panels and 11 inverters. I'm no solar expert but seems like those numbers need to be the same. She confirms yes they do and kindly sends me another proposal with an even higher price fixing her incorrect count and a note about being out of town for the next week so we'll talk later. Also there was a 1.74% discount to show their concern for my two months of headache. Now I'm furious. My reply is there needs to be a big discount or we're done. Unfortunately some companies only respond when it's about money. Here's the part that takes the cake. She again assures me that they care and things will be okay, they have this great new product that I will really be pleased with. But she tells me she needs me to get approval from their preferred financing company before she can really get things worked out. I do that, then let her know I won't be going with Dividend Solar financing because their interest rate is 2% over Velocity. She says that's fine, with a little bit of a tone, then proceeds to send me a proposal that costs even more per kW then the previous proposal even with their "knock out incentive"! Really you just tried to upsell me?!?!? It's disappointing because we really wanted solar but beware there are companies that will prey on that. Also, if you move forward with these guys see if you can find out who assumes the liability for the installers they use? They use a third party they are very close with but I couldn't ever get a straight answer what would happen if one of them fell off my roof. read more

I contacted this company both through phone call and their online consultation form. One guy called me back, but he was extremely unprofessional. During our short conversation, he said "big deal" more than 10 times. It was bothersome and I asked him what was the meaning of that. He didn't answer me and continued with his every sentence ending with "big deal". He said he would send me an email with a general cost of the projects, but he never did. I would not recommend this company to anyone. read more

Installation of a 40-panel - 10 Kva system - Residential property in Dallas We started getting bids for a solar system in March, 2014. We went to Oncor first to see the list of installers they had already worked with to insure that we'd pick someone who wouldn't endanger getting our Oncor rebate. Picked two local companies to start - to get educated about what would have to be done. Through them and other searches for information found two serious contenders to do the job: Native (out of Austin, but with a Dallas presence) and another Dallas company. Although the other company had slightly better pricing, their production estimates were not believable - perfect world figures. And, they only wanted to install 32 panels which would be an 8 Kva system - said you only needed to produce what you're using now. Native's production numbers seemed more realistic and they recommended a 10 Kva system (40 panels). Keep in mind that over the course of a 23 year life time, the panels may reduce their output by 20% (guaranteed to be no more than 1.25% per year). The 8 Kva system would have then only been producing 6.4 Kva - not enough to maintain a $0 cost of electricity for us. Native's recommended 10 Kva system would then be down to 8 Kva and would still allow us to live without having to pay any electric bills. We had many conversations between the two companies. The most sincere conversations (in our opinion) were with Carl Gayhart (Native - 512-763-6714). He had an excellent grasp of what we wanted to accomplish (eliminate all electric bills). He represented Native well and promised a reasonably quick installation. We signed the contract with Native the first week of May. There were a number of other paperwork items that had to occur before the actual installation started - Oncor and the City of Dallas (you have to permit the installation). Actual installation started the third week of June. We had a slight hiccup in that the panels that were first delivered weren't the right color. Josh Koehn, the on-site project manager, took care of that within 2 days. The electricians (Tommy and crew) had to upgrade our electric panel which added about a day to the project. So we were producing power within 3 days of the crew actually being to work. As soon as the panels started working we started seeing the results from Smart Meter Texas - zero power having to come from Oncor. Josh worked with me to get the monitoring system for the units working - my electric lines in the house weren't cooperating. It took about two weeks to get things working (communicating) properly (this didn't affect the system's electrical production). Now I can see each individual panel - what its status is and how much it's producing on a minute by minute basis. It's great information if you want to be at that level, but it's not necessary - I just like monitoring things. We're now two months into things and we wouldn't go back. We're not producing so much (in the summer) that we'd be ahead of the game, but in the other 8 months of years we'll be accumulating credits to cover everything next summer. So in a 12-month span we're looking at zero cost - regardless of whatever the electric companies are charging for a kilowatt. (All my analysis has been based on our consumption figures for the past three years - that includes the hot 2011 summer.) In terms of costs, we got about $10,000 from Oncor in the form of a rebate and then we'll get a 30% federal tax credit next spring (Native has a partner that'll finance this with a 12-month, zero interest, zero payment loan, so it's not really out of your pocket). Based just on my current electric rates we'll have this paid off in a little over 7 years. Then it's at least 18 years of absolutely no electric costs. BTW, our homeowner's insurance cost didn't increase at all. All we had to do was supply a copy of the project's documentation and photos of the installation. Our local real estate friend said that this immediately added about $25,000 to the value of our house and gave it a big plus in any competition with a similar house without a solar grid. read more