Complaint Review: Sunnova Energy International Inc - Houston Texas

Four years ago we had a sales rep knock on our front door and ask us if we were interested in going solar. My wife and I listened to his speach and told him we would consider it. We then contacted several other companies and did some research. Sunnova at the time appeared to have a good amount of reviews and were almost all positive and they were the only ones who promised that our entire electric bill would be covered as they custom built packages based on usage.

Most others we spoke to had prebuilt systems that could cover up to 70% of our usage. There was another company who promised the same but their price was a bit more than Sunnova so we called Sunnova back and decided to go with them. The sales rep came back out to the house and went over in detail what we were being offered and how there was government rebates that would cover up to 35% of the cost and how our bill would never exceed the $167 a month plus the $10 connection fee to FPL because our panels would produce enough electricity to completely cover our usage. They even as a bonus offered us an energy efficient water heater to reduce our usage and potentially get a refund from FPL for producing more energy than we consumed. This all sounded great as our normal electric bill averaged about $180 a month so it was basically the same price but we were solar instead of dependant on FPL.

We agreed and signed the contract. Sunnova built the system and almost a year after the initial sales attempt they came and installed it and we were now solar powered. 

This is where things slowly went downhill. Come tax time we filled out all of the paperwork and submitted for the governement rebate which was denied and we were told we had to have the panels for a complete year and to reapply next year. We called Sunnova and they said thats fine you have 2 years to provide us with the rebate for the panels. So again I thought nothing of it. The first six months went ok. We were getting small bills from FPL in the amount of $20-30. Now we had hurricane impact windows installed which should have reduced our energy usage but oddly enough our FPL bill started to increase.

Our usage didn't change and we did multiple things to reduce our energy consumption including replacing all light bulbs with LED's and sealing all doors and windows and yet our electric bill continued to climb. Now our FPL bill is up around $100 a month every month and our solar bill is still $167. Way more than we were paying before and after several calls to Sunnova we were basically told theres nothing they can do because we signed a contract.

Then it gets even better. Tax time comes and we fill out all the paperwork yet again and yet again no rebate. Now Sunnova comes demanding the $10,000 we should have gotten from the governement but never did and since I don't have an extra $10,000 lying around they just added it to our bill. Our monthly payments are now $250 per month plus the $100 a month from FPL. 

We have fought and called and argued with them countless times and they are at the point where they get rude on the phone and just keep repeating "you signed the contract". We now pay $350 per month for electric where we used to pay $180 and there doesn't seem to be anything we can do about it.

If you see the name Sunnova or Windmar solar, RUN, don't say no, not interested, please inform them they are a rip off and are scamming customers and DO NOT even listen to the sales pitch. It is all lies and false promises. Please do not get taken like we did.