Dear Editor and Watertown Neighbors,
I know that many of you have received information about a current Watertown solar initiative called Neighborhood Solar. Recently, my husband, David Breakstone, and I decided to explore this option. We had no idea what to expect.
I attended one of the informational meetings and found Ben Mayer of SunBug well-organized, informative, and willing to answer all questions. The program and the process made sense, so David and I asked SunBug Solar, Neighborhood Solar’s installer, to do a site visit and give us a proposal. We thought we would not be good candidates because our roof is already partly covered with solar thermal panels for hot water. Ben Mayer’s site visit affirmed that we could indeed have solar photovoltaic panels.
Ben is a joy to work with, and SunBug takes care of processing all the rebates and permits. Our system will supply 97% of our electricity, which amazes us, and at a cost that is very doable. There’s a 20% discount through Neighborhood Solar, which when combined with federal and state tax credits and rebates, brings the system’s cost to half of what it would have been without these incentives. And there’s terrific financing. Instead of paying NStar (they’ve asked for a 30% rate increase, by the way), we will pay off our loan, and we should be making money in four to five years if the rate of electricity does not increase.
I want to add my enthusiastic endorsement of this program for anyone considering solar. Jocelyn Tager has done all the legwork to make the process easy by finding the best solar company, SunBug Solar, the only solar company in the Greater Boston area to receive Angie’s List’s Super Service award. She is not getting paid. The 20% savings goes straight to us.
There’s not too much time left for this program. It ends at the end of December. But there is enough time to get a free look-see, estimate, and proposal. It’s easy. Just send an email to neighborhoodsolar@sunbugsolar.com (and put Neighborhood Solar in the subject line) or call SunBug Solar at (617) 860-2521 or (617) 500-3935.
It really is a good deal.
Sharon Bauer
Pearl Street