Mega Power Electric

Jason P.

Understanding the nuances of all of the choices involved when having solar installed can be confusing. Gary (German), the owner of Mega Power Electric, made the process very easy. From our initial meeting up through the final inspection and approval by both the City and permission to operate from Southern California Edison, Gary was knowledgeable, professional and responsive. He made the process easy, and lived up to the statements he made regarding pricing, timing and quality of work. From start to finish, the process only took about 6 weeks. Gary took the time to walk me through the process during each step along the way, and was also consistently present at my house (as opposed to just having his crew show up). He takes pride in his work, his company, and his reputation, and it shows. I have spoken with others who have used Mega Power Electic and they had the same positive experience.

DC H.

As a Petersen Dean Solar for America refugee, I was searching for a solar company to process a warranty claim for my LG residential storage battery and ultimately be my ""go to"" for system expansion and service. LG provided me with a list of LG authorized vendors, and advised me that LG pays up to $500 towards labor to the selected authorized vendor for labor related to warranty replacement. After contacting a few, I selected Mega Power Electric, Inc. who provided me a verbal quote of $550 over the phone, and arranged to have someone come to my home to inspect my battery.

A technician came out a few days later, inspected my battery, and gathered information to process an RMA replacement with LG. He advised me that once the RMA was processed and approved by LG, another crew would be coming out to remove my battery, and send it back to LG for repair or replacement. I asked if there was any paperwork to sign, and how payment would be handled, and he advised me that there was nothing to sign, and that payment was handled by the office. No paper quote was offered.

Months went by with no notification, so I contacted Mega Power for status of my RMA. A few days later, I was contacted by Mega Power, via text message, advising me that they had a replacement battery for my and that they needed to schedule a time to come out and retrieve my old battery and install the new one. I was surprised, as this was a deviation from the procedure that I had previously been advised of by the inspecting technician. However, we settled on a time and I was advised that payment would be due at the time of installation, payable by Zelle or check. I asked for a confirmation of the balance due, and was advised that the balance was $100 more than I was quoted. I responded to them asking for an invoice and warranty info for the new battery. The following day, they responded by telling me that they would e-mail an invoice to me which would state the labor warranty, but that they were providing no other documentation.

A crew came out and made the exchange, after which I asked them if there was anything to sign. They advised me that there was nothing to sign and that the office would be in touch. Weeks went by, and I received a text from Mega Power reminding me of my balance due. I hadn't yet seen an invoice, so I asked for them to re-send it. I received the e-mailed invoice from Mega Power advising me that I owe $650 for the labor associated with my warranty replacement, and indicating that there was NO labor warranty. I called LG to confirm the $500 credit, and was sent a form and instructions on how the vendor can claim the credit to forward to Mega Power. When I alerted them of the information provided to me by LG about the $500 labor credit, and that I would be sending them a check for the balance of $150, they suddenly advised me that my bill was actually $1150, and that I still owed $650 after the credit offset. At no time prior to this, was I presented with the $1150 figure, or indicate that they had factored the $500 credit from LG into the original quote; not on paper, or verbally. I called LG back and advised them of the situation, but after escalating the situation within LG, and waiting a couple more weeks for a response, they apologized for my experience with Mega Power and advised me that while Mega Power's business practices may be unethical, there was little that they could do other than compensate me for loss of use. They also offered to assist in identifying a more scrupulous solar vendor that services my area.

In summary, the interactions that I had with the people who actually did the work, were positive, but the practices of the Mega Power business office are unconventional and unethical. I hope that anyone looking to do business with this shady company can learn from my experience. Get everything in writing, and insist on a detailed quote that includes any potential credits offered by the manufacturer.

Paulo Isagani U.

This is a review of Mega Power Electric which designed and installed my residential, single-family home, rooftop solar in San Jose, CA. Mega Power Electric feels like a bit of an enigma to me. On the one hand, they feel like a big company, with a professional website and lots of positive reviews (both in the normal sites and in EnergySage) and they have been in the solar business for 15+ years. On the other hand, I only dealt with 1 person from sales, to design, to permitting, to installation, up until PTO (permit to operate). Gary, who is mentioned on most of the reviews of this company, is truly a stand-up guy who is very knowledgeable with solar installs. He engaged with me as the salesperson, on-site surveyor, the design engineer, pulled the permits, and on the day of the install he was also on the roof with his crew. After that, he also handled the inspector on inspection day (passed inspection in one shot). From initial engagement (solar contract signing) to PTO (approval by utility company), it took 22 days. In the entire process I talked to Gary only by email, phone, and text. No sales pitch, just a quality install. If you want to get solar quickly without any hassle in California, this is the company you are looking for. Do your due diligence and evaluate multiple quotes, you will find that this company is very price competitive.

Cu T.

Getting solar for the home is a little bit confusing at first. I gathered and compared about 5-6 quotes, and checked the rating on Yelp and other websites.
I finally chose Mega Power and I am glad everything went faster than I expected. The day that I received and signed the contract with Mega Power to the day that it's on for use is about a month and a half. Mega Power took care of all of SMUD requirements, Elk Grove city permit, and inspection.
Here is what I think about Mega Power: Reasonable price, you do not have to wait too long for the job to be done, and the panels and electrical wiring were done professionally. I highly recommend Mega Power.

Brian J.

I bought my solar energy system from mega power. Everything was straight forward, very fast and done as promised. Everyone was very helpful throughout the install process.

Lorin A.

The Mega Power team did everything they promised. We are happily enjoying our new system - solar and battery. When the final stages of the system's set up provided a curveball, Gary quickly returned to resolve the issue. In all, I am happy with my system and the performance of the Mega Power team.

James H.

Note: I live in San Francisco, but Mega Power does solar installations all over California.

I ran a very thorough process of getting quotes from half a dozen solar installers from national brands to small local installers. Gary was great to deal with throughout the entire process answering all my questions about panels and inverters. I ultimately chose Mega Power because of their great reviews (including with the BBB) and competitive pricing. And I am glad I did!

Gary and his team did fast and great work with professionalism. They installed the entire system in 1 day (and it was a large system - just over 10kW), did high quality work (we had one of the worst storms in San Francisco the few days after they installed it and there were no issues), we easily passed inspections, and they got me set-up with the buy back program through PGE, all within a few weeks of signing the contract.

I've already recommended him and his crew to several friends and recommend you pick them too.

Alex N.

I would recommend Mega Power for your next residential solar project. We have just finished a large size system install with them and I'm quite happy with the results. Some points you should consider: 1. Gary (the owner) is the guy you deal with and he leads the solar crew on the install day. You are not paying a pushy salesperson for a ""solar consultation"", you are talking directly to the guy who will plan the job, drill your roof, and set up your electronics. 2. These guys have years of experience installing solar and have seen and dealt with everything, they know their equipment and will match it to your site. And they will.come to your house and look at everything before giving you a quote. It won't be a hack job based on Sat pictures of your roof. 3. They have high quality tools and maintain them well, this is quality work and they do not skimp.on any aspects of it. The job site was always clean and organized too. 4. They will make sure the install is done right. My electrical panel has an issue with wire routing and they had to rebuild it completely at a large labor and parts expense, all absorbed by the company. You pay them the contract, they will make sure it's done right. 5. Gary will keep monitoring your site for the first few weeks to make sure things are done right. Thats what you want from your solar installer.

To sum up: quality, experience, and no middlemen involved. These guys are pretty close to the sweet spot of solar installations right now. They may not be the absolute cheapest, but they give you by far the best value.

J O.

We live in Oakland, California.

After soliciting bids through EnergySage from multiple companies, we got so turned off by commission-inspired sales tactics from other companies (NB many on the site have commission-based sales teams that promise the world at great prices, but then when it's contract time, everything changes drastically due to the disconnect between those promises and the reality of each site--this happened to us and our neighbor with Solar Optimum), we were on the verge of abandoning this project, when I decided to give German (pronounced gair-mon, but he also goes by Gary) and his company Mega Power a try. He apparently let go of his sales team years ago for these reasons (I see problems too from earlier Yelp reviews).

What an amazingly refreshing difference! This is not a multi-tier sales organization. German owns the company, provides honest bids, and came to our home for an on-site inspection before providing his actual bid. He also worked directly with his team on our installation. That does mean that he can be personally busy, but he always got back to me and I admittedly can be kinda demanding, especially with endless questions as I try to wrap my mind around new things.

We went with LG Neon Panels, SolarEdge Inverters, 2 LG Chem batteries, and the StorEdge multimode inverter so our system can operate when the grid is down (thanks PG&E). German worked with me to be sure our system works as desired (despite a lot of misinformation, including from the manufacturers who are still working out this cutting-edge technology). And their installation was beautiful! We have a very clean aesthetic and these guys were really impressive--even painting various pipes and what not to match our house.

They also upgraded our panel to 200 amps, installed the critical load subpanel, and pulled all the permits, worked with PG&E to change the power line to our house as part of the panel upgrade, etc.

I definitely recommend German.

Mike P.

A great experience all the way around for my industrial building install. Gary was prompt at returning calls and emails. He supervised and worked on the install with his crew. The work was professional and there were no problems with the city permitting/inspection or power company. It was a pleasure working with a guy who does his own bidding as well as being involved with the whole process. Any questions you have starting from the first meeting are answered by the guy that knows the answer in detail, not by a fast talking sales guy.