I tried one of those solar estimator/ads
Thought I’d give you a quick rundown of what happens when you click on one of those “can your house pay for your electric?” solar estimate advertisements on Facebook. You’re probably not going to be surprised by what I found.
I’d seen this advertisement something like 80 times at this point. I decided I would click through finally after accidentally clicking it, it asked for my address and then asked me to point to my roof. It asked me some questions about how much my energy bill was currently and then produced some 10-year statistics, but only after I entered a phone number.
I’m not a solar expert mind you, but I do know how much electric a solar panel can generate, and the numbers it gave me were way too good to be true. I mean, I’d loved it if they were true, but yeah, even if 100% of my roof was solar capable there’re no panels capable of making my house create that much power.
So the first hook/lie was that it would pay for all of my electric and then some (a few dollars more a month I think) – I’d be making cash, I’d get a huge tax credit, it would probably pay for itself. Er, no. I knew this was some low quality BS off the bat as I’d calculated long ago I needed about half my back yard to make money.
The calls started about an hour later. I’m not sure how many actually were related to this particular company. My favorite interaction was someone calling me up asking who he was speaking to and I asked who he was calling and he said he didn’t know, he was just asked to call this number, and I asked what was it about, and he said he wasn’t sure as they offered a variety of services. Nope. Home improvement company calls asking about insulation… nope.
Over the next 24 hours I received exactly no Solar info, two calls asking if I wanted their white paper, and an offer to buy my house that I’d not heard before (get them all the time, this one was a weird one.)
Checks email before publishing, nope… no Solar info.
