Sunnova Energy

I bought a new townhome in California, which was required by CA law to have solar panels. My builder Lennar, contracts with Sunnnova. Once the panels were activated, Southern California Edison changed me from the tiered plan to the Time of Use (TOU) plan that costs significantly more to use power between 4 pm - 9 pm, when most people are home from work and need to use power. Sunnova's system came with a FranklinWH battery that was supposed to charge during the day from the solar while I'm not home and the home is not using power. The battery is not connected properly, so the excess solar all exports to the grid at about 25% of the rate which they sell it to me, about 6 cents per kW vs 24 cents to buy. If I change the battery to TOU or Self-Consumption mode, which is supposed to power the house, it also exports to the grid rather than power the house. Unfortunately, my home is all electric, so that means I cannot even cook when I get home because I have an electric stove and oven. Before the solar panels, my average monthly electric bill was $85. After activation, it is $75 to SCE, plus now $109 to Sunnova, so I now pay approximately $185 for $85 worth of electricity. I reached out to FranklinWh who told me there was likely a misconfiguration with the Current Transformers (CTs). They recommend I ask Sunnova to send a technician out and have them call Franklin from my home, but Sunnova doesn't want to do this. I have had an open case with Sunnova that was closed because their technician said they see it working exactly as designed on their end. I have used their online chat twice and had two phone calls with their foreign based customer service who really don't understand what I am trying to explain. I have sent two emails to customer service. I did receive a response that they apologize and would give me an update when available. Well, it's been over a month now, and no response and the case number they gave me doesn't even appear on my account on Sunnova's website. The battery now shows on their website, but not the app. The battery doesn't charge or do anything to power the house when the solar panels are not generating. I know Sunnova is about to go through a bankruptcy, so I'm sure they are trying to cut costs and I give up with trying with them to get this resolved. I unfortunately signed a contract with them as part of the home purchase and with their arbitration requirement, I am screwed. Please stay away from this company. Do not buy a home in CA if Sunnova installed the solar/battery system. Under CA's Solar Billing Plan (aka NEM 3.0), if you have Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric, or San Diego Gas & Electric, the Investor Owned Utilities, you will not come out ahead with solar panels unless you have a battery backup. The battery needs to work though.

Their customer service is the absolute worst I have ever had to deal with. Their technicians only repeat one thing...you don't have a problem. I have a under-producing panel that needs to be looked at. They won't come out and look at it. They keep telling me each panel produces a slight variation. Duh! But a difference of 200+ Wh difference? When we have FULL sun, the difference is even greater. No wonder they filed bankruptcy. STAY AWAY FROM THEM!

Very misleading company. They used a " partner" ( actually a subcontractor) who presented themselves as Sunnova. Did not tell the truth about how much Duke energy would charge me for the connection and it actually costs me more than if I didn't have them. And it only gets worse because they have an accelerator clause so the price increases every year by 2.9 %. ( a lot over the 25 years ) And you don't even own them after 25 years and even if you pay the lease you don't own them. They would take ZERO responsibility for their lying " partner" or try to do anything to make a fair deal. DO NOT USE. CHECK IF WHOEVER CALLS ON YOU IS AFFILIATED WITH SUNNOVA. IF SO CANCEL

I had a 3mo performance & response failure in 2024. I made 5 calls to customer service , 5 tech service visits over 11 weeks failed to resolve a wiring error made by one of the techs. I incurred over $1000 in extra electrical cost . I requested reimbursement & showed invoices . Sunnova refused reimbursement, Now I have performance problems again & sent my monitoring data to Sunnova . I’ve Been without solar since Mar27. Sunnova replied it was due to weather! It has been sunny every day . Sunnova had been very difficult to respond & poor customer service performance,,I have requested a service tech. No response yet ! Why why why Sunnova ??

This company lied, cheated and stole from a vulnerable adult senior citizen who was dying. Liars. Liars.

We’ve had an absolutely terrible experience with Sunnova. We spent a significant amount of money on our solar panels, and they haven’t worked for over 3 months, forcing us to pay outrageous energy bills to Xcel — over $400/month. I’ve reached out to Sunnova support 5+ times with zero resolution. They finally sent someone out, only for the technician to leave the equipment exposed and unsafe, leaving wires uncovered. Since then, we haven’t heard a word. No follow-up, no accountability, nothing. This company is highly unprofessional and completely unreliable. Save yourself the frustration and money. I would strongly advise against working with Sunnova.