Northwest Harvest's new solar energy system will allow the food bank to spend electricity savings on direct services. Northwest Harvest has a network of 375 food banks, meal programs and high-need schools across Washington. The network provides two million meals every month. A&R Solar installed the 75.3 kW system on the distribution center in Kent. The funds to pay for the system...
Are you ready? Tesla Powerwall has arrived in Washington and Oregon. A&R Solar is one of a handful of Tesla Powerwall Certified Installers in the Pacific Northwest. We have a backlog of installations, but we wanted to share everything we know about the product (our designers and project managers are already certified, and we’re installing our very own Powerwall this month...
As a B Corporation and a Social Purpose Corporation, A&R Solar has giving back ingrained in its DNA. Recently a group of our employees spent a Saturday cleaning up and helping to restore a popular Washington State hiking trail. The group lugged buckets of rocks and dirt up the Barclay Lake trail to fill in turnpikes (raised trail sections). They also worked on a bridge and...
No, no, no, no. No. We recommend being extremely cautious about same-as-cash financing. Read the fine print! Many of these “deals” are deferred interest payments. If you can pay off your loan in full within the 12 month window, that’s great. But if your finances change and you are unable to pay off your remaining balance, you will be charged interest on the...
No. While we are not tax experts, we can assure you that adding the cost of replacing your roof into the tax credit equation is a bad, bad idea. Don’t listen to any contractor who tells you otherwise. You don’t want to give the IRS any additional reason to audit you, and you especially don’t want to have to repay...
We're in the business of selling solar energy systems, but for certain homes, going solar just doesn't make good financial sense. We love our trees here in the Pacific Northwest, but they can definitely be a barrier to solar potential. The shade that trees can cast on your roof means that your solar panels won’t be collecting energy. We want our customers...
Because it’s your investment. If you have a solar installer promising you big production numbers and then has no written guarantee to back them up, think twice before signing up. We take great pride in our reputation, and we also care about the solar industry as a whole. A&R provides 10-year warranties on your residential system’s performance and workmanship. This is...
Maybe. Whether or not solar can go on the roof of a pre-engineered structure--whether it’s a pole barn, carport, or manufactured home--has to do with its load-bearing capacity. This isn’t the time to guess or hope whether the structure will hold up under the added weight of solar panels when snow and wind storms hit; we often have engineering reports to...
Because we really believe that matters. A&R Solar has the most NABCEP-certified employees in the Pacific Northwest. NABCEP certification is the gold standard for solar. It means that our employees have been through rigorous training and testing--they’ve invested a significant amount of time and money to initial and continuing solar education. It doesn’t stop there--every NABCEP certified professional signs onto a comprehensive...
Our first job onsite is setting up the roof anchor. From then on, installers know that they need to be roped up anytime they are on the roof. This goes for ALL roofs, flat to steep. Working with safety gear on and managing ropes does slow down the install a bit, but all of our crews get to go home...