Let's Talk Solar Troubleshooting 101: Higher Than Expected Energy Bill

If you’ve gone solar but still find yourself staring at a higher-than-expected electric bill, you’re not alone—and the answer might not be what you think.

In this episode of the Harman Solar Podcast, Ralph and Ben break down the most common reason homeowners call in frustrated: “Why is my bill so high if I have solar?” The truth? There are a few possible causes—and one of them surprises almost everyone.

Ben walks through how we troubleshoot your system, from checking expected vs. actual production to verifying output through your utility meter (not just your app). The guys also dive into a major misconception: just because you have solar doesn’t mean unlimited power.

You’ll learn:

•  The reasons your solar bill can increase 
•  How to tell if your system is actually underperforming 
•  Why 95% of high-bill cases come down to usage changes
•  The difference between a monitoring issue vs. a real system problem
•  How lifestyle changes (thermostat, guests, new appliances) impact your bill 
•  Why you’ll always have some utility bill, especially in hot climates like Phoenix 
•  How misleading sales promises can set the wrong expectations 

Plus, Ralph and Ben introduce Harman Solar’s free 90-day active monitoring program, giving you real-time insights into your system’s performance and energy usage—so you can stop guessing and start knowing.

Bottom line: Solar is about reducing your costs—not eliminating them—and understanding your data is the key to maximizing your savings.

Transcript

Why Solar Confusion Is Growing

SPEAKER_00 0:00

The solar energy market has become increasingly saturated, leading to widespread misinformation and a lack of transparency. Welcome to the Harman Solar Podcast, offering a straightforward, honest perspective on going solar. Each episode dives into key topics to help you better understand the industry. Our goal is to educate and empower you to make informed decisions about solar energy. While solar may not be the right fit for everyone, we believe everyone should take the time to explore it. Our mission is to increase your knowledge, not your bills.

SPEAKER_02 0:32

Welcome to another edition of the Harman Solar Podcast. I'm Rah Romano, VP of Sales and Marketing at Harman Solar. And with me, as always, my partner, my guy, Ben Walshlager. You guys know him as Mr. Everything.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Ben. How are you, Ben? I'm doing good. You? It's been a minute. It's been a while. We're back in the studio again.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

We're not floating over the floor. But something's wrong.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Took a little hiat hiatus. What's wrong?

SPEAKER_02 0:56

I'm here and you're there.

The Two Reasons Bills Rise

SPEAKER_01 0:57

That's right. We flipped it. So no, do not adjust your television monitors. Everything is fine. We are good. It's all fine. We just wanted to switch it up.

SPEAKER_02 1:05

So we're sitting here in April and we're talking solar. Yep. Today, you know what we're going to talk about today?

SPEAKER_01 1:12

We're going to talk about what I actually do for a job. We are part of what you do. Part of what I do. Not what you always do, but part of what you do. Part of my my little bit of everything's.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

Right. So today we're going to talk about troubleshooting solar. So what does that mean? You know, let's example, right? So I've got solar. Everything's going great. All of a sudden I got a high bill. What's going on? Why is my bill high?

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Happens a lot.

SPEAKER_02 1:36

Guess where we send that phone call.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

Uh Ben. Yeah. That goes to Ben. Ben, can we can you figure this out? Because every time you know what you're doing. Yeah, no, it's a common thing that we get a lot. You know, people they have solar, they call in. Um, and again, it's not necessarily our customers, it's you know, our installs, other people's installs, whoever. So they'll call in and say, Hey, um, I got solar, but everything was fine, but now my bills are high. So the first thing that I tell people is, well, there's two reasons and only two reasons why your bill would be high.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

Okay.

Check Production Against The Forecast

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Either your equipment's not working. That's the most that's the most common one that people go to. They say, hey, my bills are high, so therefore my solar is not working. Like, bump the brakes, not necessarily. Um, two reasons. Either your equipment's not working or your usage has gone up. And a lot of people will will deny that one. So what I do is I go, let's take a look at the first thing. Is your equipment working? And the equipment working, you have to understand what is it supposed to produce and what does it actually produce. Okay. Because yes, it could be producing right now, but you could have half your system not working. Yes, it's producing, but it's not producing what it should be.

SPEAKER_02 2:46

What's on is producing.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

Yes, what is on. Okay. If half your system is down, yes, it's producing, but not producing what it should. Right. So then I take a look at, okay, what's it what's it supposed to produce each month for the entire year? Okay. Okay. So then I compare, like, oh, it's for this last month for the month of March, it's supposed to produce 1,500 kilowatt hours. In the month of April, it's supposed to produce 1700 kilowatt hours. Then what I do is I take a look at, well, what is it actually producing? And there's two ways that you can do that. You can do that from your inverter level monitoring. Usually, when you have a system that gives you some sort of inverter level monitoring, you can log into your end phase or your Tesla or your Solar Edge or Fronius or whatever and see how much am I producing for that given period? How much am I producing for March? How much am I producing for April? And you can compare. I like to go a little bit deeper though, Ralph. I get it. You're a deep guy. I I dig deep because I've met your girl.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

You're a deep guy.

Verify Output On Utility Meter

SPEAKER_01 3:43

Because I know that sometimes the monitoring aspect doesn't work. Because what they use. I know. What? I know. So I like to use two fail-safes. Okay. I look at the monitoring from the inverter, right? Knowing that it sometimes that could be off, but then I also look at what is your production on the utility side. And this is the one a lot of people don't realize. Your utility meter, like an APS and SRP, actually shows what you're producing. It's not necessarily on your bill. Um, sometimes on SRP we'll show it.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

You have to do math, don't you?

SPEAKER_01 4:13

You actually have to do a little bit of math. Right. Crazy.

SPEAKER_02 4:15

I I struggle with that. I know. I'm not gonna lie.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

I know.

SPEAKER_02 4:18

On my bill, I struggle with yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Yeah, a lot of fingers and toes.

SPEAKER_02 4:22

I don't have so many.

Usage Creep After Going Solar

SPEAKER_01 4:23

Yeah. So what I do is I match up on your online portal with your utility company. I match up, you know, the the same, the same months, not your billing months, but the same full months. What's it supposed to, what's it actually producing in March? What's it actually producing in April? So then I compare those three things. What's it supposed to produce? What's it producing on your inverter, and what's it producing on your utility? These two numbers should match. Your inverter and the utility should match within reason. You know, there might be you know a kilowatt hour here or there's gonna be a little bit. There should be pretty close. If what you're actually producing is matching to what it should be producing, well, guess what? Going back to my two scenarios, the system's perfect. It's not it's not the production. So if it's not production, it's what? It's probably my usage. It's probably your usage, yes. And this is the one that people don't want to hear. This is the because this is the conversation that I have to get into a lot of times.

SPEAKER_02 5:17

What percentage of people, what percentage of times do you think that you go look at this? And the system is correct, it's working perfectly and it's usage.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

Probably 95%.

SPEAKER_02 5:30

Why do you think that is?

SPEAKER_01 5:32

I I think I have a theory. I uh well, I think it's because a lot of people, once they get solar, they think I have solar now, I can do whatever I want.

SPEAKER_02 5:41

That's my theory.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

I can lower my thermostat, I can get that hot tub, I can do uh, you know, whatever I want. Right. And that's kind of the wrong thinking. What I tell people is hey, when I design your solar system, I'm designing it based off of what you are currently using. Right. If you give me information like I plan on getting an electric car or I plan on adding a pool, well, then I'll adjust your system size before it's installed, obviously. Makes sense to account for that extra usage. But there are times where people go, hey, I have solar on my house and oh, I've I've got great bills. Guess what? I can lower my thermostat by two degrees. Well, now you made a change.

SPEAKER_02 6:18

We have an employee that you know, his initials are DR. I don't want to say his name's Daniel. But anyway, when they got solar, I'll never forget this. His wife was like, Hey, we've got solar. Yep. And the thermostat went down to 72. Yep. And they couldn't he couldn't understand why the bill was so high.

SPEAKER_01 6:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

Well, you were using twice what you used to use.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

Right. A lot of people will argue with me and they'll say, Well, nothing's changed. Everything in my house is I've done I haven't done anything, nothing's changed. Well, the data doesn't lie, Ralph. Right. So what I do is like, well, I can I can see all the data. I can see the change. So then when I go into the utility account and I see, hey, this is what you were using before, and this is what you're using now, regardless whether you had solar, this is how much you are using, I can see that there has been an increase now. And so so people will still deny it. Like, hey, you before you got solar, you were using 20,000 kilowatt hours. Now you're using 25,000 kilowatt hours. Right. Where did that extra 5,000 kilowatt hours come from?

SPEAKER_02 7:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

It came from the grid.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

And it also, uh, when are you using it too?

Proving Changes With Monthly Data

SPEAKER_01 7:22

Right. That's big. So if people are still denying it, I go, I dive deeper and deeper. Wow. I go, okay, well, let's take a look month by month. I go, oh, looks like in July and August your usage went up compared to last year. So that tells me what. If your usage in July and August went up, you're using more AC. Right, obviously. It's hotter in the summer. Like, oh, well, yeah, I guess I did put my thermostat down a couple degrees. That's a change. Or if I take a look at, you know, like, oh, I noticed, you know, last winter um your usage was low and this one was higher. Maybe it's not the heater. What happened last winter compared to this this winter? Oh, we were we were gone for uh a month or two in the winter and now we're back. Well, that would be a change. That's right. So, you know, all these little things you can you can see from the data. I can't tell exactly what is causing that change. So that's why I have to kind of pry into like, well, you have to get personal. I gotta get personal with you. So I gotta figure out, you know, hey, based off of this, you know, I I see increases on these days or this month. What is happening during those times? And that's usually when people start to confess and they go, you know what? Oh, yeah, this did happen. Oh yeah, I did have a house guest that stayed with me for three months. Did you put a light on them? Tell me the truth. Where were you on the night of April 15th?

unknown 8:39

That's funny.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

Um, yeah, so once I get, you know, I I dive deep into it, then it it really tells me everything. And I can confidently say that 100% of the time I've figured it out. When people say, Hey, my you know, my bills have gone up and nothing's changed. I've never in my entire life seen a situation where the solar system is working and their usage did not go up, but magically their bills did. It doesn't work that way.

SPEAKER_02 9:07

I I would say most people probably their their usage does go up when they get solar. Yes. It's a matter of how extreme they get.

SPEAKER_01 9:15

Yeah, you see that a lot with, you know, not not our installs from from our our sales, but you see that a lot because uh the salesmen will say that. Yeah, they'll they'll design the system and they say, hey, now that you got this, you can run all your appliances when your their solar system is working, you know, set your thermostat to whatever you want and you'll be fine. And then people get those high bills and go, wait a minute, this is this is not right. I'm paying the same thing with solar.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

Well, you're also using more power.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

You're using more power.

SPEAKER_02 9:42

Don't you? I I remember when you're dealing with people sometimes, you actually show them, hey, if you wouldn't have gotten solar with this new amount of usage, this is what your bill would be.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

Yeah. So what I do there is I take a look at what is what's the rate that they're paying before solar, and I just multiply that rate by their usage. And it's like, oh, hey, this is what you're paying before solar. And if you never had solar, this is the rate that you were paying. I just multiply it by your current usage, this is what you'd be paying now.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

So I could have been paying 180 a month, and because I got solar, and if I didn't have it because the new usage, now my bill at 180 bill would have actually been 240. Yeah. Right? Instead of now it's it's still 180 or 170. Yeah. Because I have solar, so it saved me.

SPEAKER_01 10:24

Right. Right. There's we we we call that an implied savings. Implied savings. Like, hey, because your usage went up, this is your implied savings. If you never got solar and your usage went up, this is what you would have paid.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

That makes sense.

Misleading Sales Promises And Reality

SPEAKER_01 10:36

Yeah. Um, a lot of people think that because they have solar on the roof, they can magically just produce as much as they're use. It's a very common misconception, actually. Um, and that's not the case because if that were the case, we would just put one panel on your roof and let it produce everything.

SPEAKER_02 10:53

I think that misconception, you kind of touched on it. I I think that comes from uh a lot of these salespeople. Sure. Where they just tell them covering all your power, you're good to go, you'll have no other bill. I just heard it again this week talking to somebody. I'll cover all your bill. You're not gonna have any bill.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

They use the term offset loosely.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

Yeah, 100% offset. It's gonna cover everything. Matter of fact, I'm gonna give you an extra 10% to make sure we cover everything. Well, really, yeah. So when seven o'clock hits and it's dark outside, where's that power coming from? Right.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

Yes. This is the big thing that we see in the summertime. And you know, you Phoenicians know in the summertime at night, it's still 105 degrees. Yep. You're still running your AC, and those solar panels are not working at night. So where does that power come from? It has to be pulled from the grid.

SPEAKER_02 11:37

You will always have a bill with the electric company. Yeah, there's no way around it. You've even done a study where you had a 200% offset person where they were the solar was producing twice what their usage was, right? And they still had a bill.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

They still have a yep, still had a bill. It's almost impossible. It was a low bill, but it's still a bill. So if you have a salesperson that's saying you'll never have a bill, get that in writing or you know, challenge them or tell them you're lying.

SPEAKER_02 12:04

There's gonna be times in the year where your solar cannot keep up with your usage because of where we live, guys. Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

And that's usually that's usually in the summertime. Um, you know, now because of how electric rates work and the export rates and all that stuff, if you are producing a lot more than you're using, usually in the springtime, like right around now, you'll have you know somewhat of a negative bill. Um, same thing like in the fall, you'll have you know a negative bill, but in the summertime it's usually positive. You know, there's a net savings year-round, but you still have a bill.

Monitoring Failures Versus Real Failures

SPEAKER_02 12:34

Yeah. I yeah. So people are calling you up. That this is the problem. I mean, is there anything else? What other kind of troubleshooting issues do you deal with, or is that basically it?

SPEAKER_01 12:43

I mean, um, a lot of times I the the troubleshooting is that they say, hey, my slower's not working, but they we find out that it actually is working, it's just a monitoring thing. And my the best analogy that I tell people is monitoring and actual production are two very different things. It's like you're driving down the freeway with a broken speedometer. Just because a speedometer says zero miles per hour doesn't mean you're going zero miles per hour. Just your monitoring aspect of how fast you're driving is broken.

SPEAKER_02 13:11

I better fix my wife's speedometer.

SPEAKER_01 13:13

So that that's another issue, too. So obviously that's something that we can come out and fix, but a lot of people say, hey, my solar's not producing. And I tell them, no, it is producing because I can verify it on the utility side. It's just not showing what you're producing on the inverter side. So we'll come out and fix that issue so you can see what you're producing, but it is you're still producing.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

Okay, that's pretty common, huh?

SPEAKER_01 13:35

That's very common. Yeah, we we see a lot of that typically when people change their router, change their Wi-Fi password, um, loss of communication, you know, things like that.

SPEAKER_02 13:45

I would say that's a big one. When people are constantly when they change their router or they do something that impacts their router, the system goes down. Right. Doesn't mean the system's not working. Right. Just the mantra. Communication goes down. Just the mantra. And then we that typically we can I think sometimes we can actually fix that over a phone call.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

Usually it's a phone call, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:00

Right. It's pretty simple. It just depends. But yeah, I do hear that one a lot. And I see the emails on the service side. Oh my gosh, it's not diversity. Yes, pop the brakes. It's working.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

That's why I always tell people that you know, have those two fail-safes, you know, look at the production on the inverter side and compare it to the production on the utility side. If both of them are reading zero, then you probably have a production issue.

SPEAKER_02 14:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

If one's reading zero and the other isn't, then it's a monitoring issue, and that's different.

Active Monitoring And 90 Day Trial

SPEAKER_02 14:28

And for monitoring, we can talk about something that Harman's doing now. We've been doing it now for a while, is we offer active monitoring. With active monitoring, what that means is we actually are monitoring your system real time 24-7 through software and other things, right? Yep. But we can we can see what's going on with your system. And if something goes down, it instantly alerts us that there's something going on, and we can start looking into it and even contact you. And those of you out there that have been using this and you've gotten that call from us, I love the response. Yeah. What's the response?

unknown 14:57

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

What is this response?

SPEAKER_02 14:58

Oh, come on, you talk to them. I actually had a phone call today. You were probably listening to it.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:03

This is great. You actually called me. I was curious to see if you were gonna call me.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

Yeah, yep, yep. I've had one guy that knew a guy. One guy was testing us, he purposely disconnected it to see if we would actually call him. And he I did call him, say, hey, I noticed this is not working. So was he lonely?

unknown 15:18

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 15:19

He might have been lonely. We're coming over for later for a barbecue. No, um, yeah, I actually, like I was telling Ralph, I actually had a phone call today. Um, it wasn't a production issue, it was a monitoring issue. But I got the notification, I reached out and said, Hey, I noticed this happened, let's get it fixed, and we fixed it right away. Did not involve paying for a truck roll or any service fee or anything like that. It was just a five-minute phone call and got it got it fixed from pretty easy. It's awesome. Saves you a truck roll.

SPEAKER_02 15:45

It's it solves the problem. And just so you guys know, we're actually we're offering, we do this now for everybody. Is uh we'll give you three months of free active monitoring so you can experience it, right? We don't ask you for a credit card, we don't ask you for anything. There's no obligation. Like truly, when I say no obligation, there's zero. Yes, right? We just we get you set up, you you log into the portal and you get your system set up. And for 90 days, you'll have this monitoring service, and you'll see on a monthly basis you get a report that shows you your consumption, it shows you your production, it shows everything, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:16

Yeah, it alleviates a lot of those phone calls where people will call in, like we mentioned earlier. Well, they'll say, Hey, I think my solar production's not working because my bills will come, you know, bills will be high. What this does automatically for you every month it says, Hey, your production's supposed to be here, it's right here, so it's good, but your usage went up.

SPEAKER_02 16:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:33

So it tells you, you know, you're everything's fine, you're just using more power. So you don't have to make that phone call to me. And even though I do like talking to you guys, it just gets old me saying everything, you know, there's two reasons and only two reasons why your bill would be higher. It's either production or usage.

SPEAKER_02 16:49

But this is a great for free for 90 days. Why don't you have this? You don't have to be a Harman customer either. It's everything. No, it's no matter you have I have a lease, so yeah, do it on a lease. Do you want to see what your consumption looks like? Do you want to make sure everything's working? I mean, you should have this. I mean, it's free for 90 days. And then after 90 days, if you really like it, so we've give you the reports for three months, you experience it and you're going like, I really like this. This makes a lot of sense. It's what nine bucks a month or whatever it is? It's it's cheap.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

Well, here's another thing. I don't know if you know about this. With that program, too, even if you don't have solar, it'll benefit you. Because it eliminates the sales guy. With that program, you can go in there and say, if I had solar, what would my bills be like? If I had a 10 kilowatt system, what would my bills be like? If I had a 12 kilowatt system, what would my bills be like? You can run different scenarios to figure out if I got solar, what's my actual savings based off of my consumption? Because I know those shady sales guys will go in there and be like, you'll have no bill. You know, get this solar. It's a 500% offset. You're never gonna have anything. What this does is it takes your actual data and actual production information and says, no, this is what your bills are gonna be like.

SPEAKER_02 17:56

Ooh, I like that. Yeah. Protection. Yeah. And some people just they're energy geeks. They like to see what they're using and again, free. Hold hold it, you know, hold the utilities accountable. Yeah. Make sure the bills line because it does it tell you this is what your bills are.

unknown 18:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

Yeah. Runs in little scenarios for you.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

90 days free, active monitoring. If you haven't called us to get that, I'm not sure about you. You've got some problem. I mean, if you were at the home show, we gave you a little card with a QR code on it. You just click on that code and you we should put that QR code on our website.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

Everywhere. I'm sure we can put it on the podcast, right?

SPEAKER_02 18:28

People can I'm gonna put that QR code on this podcast right now.

SPEAKER_01 18:32

It's gonna be right there. There. There. I don't know. It's right there, I promise you. It's gonna be in this area.

SPEAKER_02 18:38

Click on this QR code, sign up for this free active monitoring. Why wouldn't you do that? Yeah, it's not gonna cost you anything. We're not gonna ask for any financial information, and you're gonna put your information in, log into the portal, and you're gonna start getting daily active monitoring. And if you have a problem, Ben will call you.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

Yeah, unfortunately, the uh if you do respond to that email, it's it's me. I get it. So you will now have my contact information.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

You want to talk to Ben? This is how you do it. There's Ben's QR code. This isn't no dating site or anything, but you can call that, you can click on that code. I would. I think it's a great idea. Yeah, it's it's one of the best services that we offer, and it's free for the first 90 days. Try it out. If you don't like it after 90 days, okay. No harm down. Then you don't have to have it anymore. Yeah. Well, it's just like if you were to go out with Ben after the first couple of dates, you're like, I don't want to be with this guy anymore. Then you just don't call him. You ghost him.

How To Spot Shady Proposals

SPEAKER_01 19:27

Back on topic here. Speak speaking of, I don't know if I should be saying this, but speaking of uh, you know, try it out and see how it goes. There's times where I will talk with customers and be like, you know, your solar is working, you are saving money. Here's proof, here's all the data, everything. And they're like, Oh, I still don't believe you. Okay. I I tell them, all right, well, go outside, turn your solar system off for a month and then come back. Come back and tell me what your bill's like. And you usually when I say that, they're like, all right, never mind. Like, yeah, because you know it's working.

SPEAKER_02 19:56

Point being is we have no reason to tell you not the truth. I mean, we're gonna tell you the truth.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

Right.

SPEAKER_02 19:59

It's just we're it's data.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

Whether you like it or not, I'm telling you the truth.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

Data is king.

SPEAKER_01 20:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:04

Right? So we're gonna give you the data and then you do what you want with that data. But the one thing you can guarantee with Harman is that we're gonna always be up front with you, whether it's good news or bad news, you're gonna get it straight.

SPEAKER_01 20:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:13

We're not gonna tell you what you want to hear to make you sit on a dotted line just to make you upset later.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

Yeah, and I I do get those calls from customers who were installed by some shady company that went out of business and said, they always tell me, well, my salesman said it I wasn't going to pay a bill or my savings was gonna be this. I'm like, I'm sorry to break it to you, but you are saving money, it's just not what you thought it would. And here's proof. Here's your implied savings, here's how much you've saved so far. I'm sorry it wasn't what he said, but it's better than nothing.

SPEAKER_02 20:42

You know, and since we're on that road, I know this is a troubleshooting thing, but if a salesman tells you what you're gonna save, number one, he's probably gonna show hopefully he shows you a proposal, but remember you can manipulate a proposal to say whatever you want. Sure. But what I've noticed in the industry right now is a lot of people don't even show proposals. Yeah, they're basically just telling you.

SPEAKER_01 21:00

Yeah. Why do they do that, Ralph?

SPEAKER_02 21:03

Because they know the reality of what a proposal would say, right. And they don't want you to see that.

SPEAKER_01 21:08

Right. Because if you have it in writing as a customer, you can call them out on it.

SPEAKER_02 21:12

Right. Exactly. So um be careful of that. I mean, the reality is you're always gonna have a bill. If someone tells you that you're not gonna have a bill, that should be red enough flag for you to go, okay, this guy's lying to me. Yeah, I don't care who he is, you can bring him on this podcast. We can sit him right here, and I'm gonna look at him and call him a liar because you will always have a bill.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

Yeah, and finally.

SPEAKER_02 21:31

There's no way around it. 200% offset. We still saw bills. Yeah, not every month, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:35

But they still had a idea of going solar is that your utility bill is reduced dramatically, not to zero for the net for the year, but reduced dramatically for a savings.

SPEAKER_02 21:46

That's all you Phoenicians, remember where you live. And remember how hot it gets. And we're a 24 7 air conditioned community for many months a year. Yeah, really hard to not have a bill during that period.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

Right.

SPEAKER_02 21:55

In the winter, yeah, I can see not having a bill. If you have a type if you have a 200% offset, yep. Yeah, you're not gonna have a bill. Yeah, but that offset will not, I don't think it will counter the amount that you're gonna need in the summer.

When A Truck Roll Is Needed

SPEAKER_01 22:06

Correct. That's the difference. I've always seen a net positive bill for the year. Right.

SPEAKER_02 22:12

And remember, when we talk financial, we talk annual. We always look at the annual numbers and say, what does it look like for you year over year? We can't ever go month to month because months change. They're too drastic, especially in Phoenix. It's an annual financial proposition, and that's how you have to look at it. So technically, when a sales guy says you won't have a bill, he's correct for a few months. Right. But you will have a bill in some months.

SPEAKER_01 22:33

Yeah. The days of net metering, um, you know, like an APS, those are gone. Now it's net billing. So, you know, the the days of not having a bill, though those were actually the golden years of solar, like not having a bill and getting a check at the end of the year. Yeah, um, those are gone. Those are gone. They don't do that anymore.

SPEAKER_02 22:48

Um, so critical to make sure that your system is working the way it's supposed to, which is one thing that we'll do instantly with the troubleshooting. And then if that's not the issue, we're gonna show you why it near in your mind it's not working. It's because your usage has changed, most likely.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:03

That's probably 95% of the reason why people.

SPEAKER_01 23:07

The hardest troubleshoot that we do over the phone is when it's not our install.

SPEAKER_02 23:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

And I look at what it's supposed to be producing and what it's actually producing, if that production is lower than what it's supposed to be. Because then we have to then we have to actually get eyes. We have to roll a truck and get out there and figure it out. Because there could be 15 different reasons why, you know, it could be.

SPEAKER_02 23:28

And one of them being they could have given the wrong production estimate.

SPEAKER_01 23:31

Yeah, it could be a wrong production estimate. Sometimes it's it's an easy as like the you know, this string wasn't plugged in.

SPEAKER_02 23:37

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

Like we have to go out there just to go. I've heard that one a lot. It's plugged in now. But you guys can't go on the roof and do that, don't you? I know, no, no, no, don't do that. But yeah, there, I mean, there's there's a lot of things that we can't solve over the phone where we actually have to go out there and figure out. But we try to do as much as we can, you know, for free over the phone to troubleshoot it. But again, if we can't, we gotta go to take a look.

SPEAKER_02 23:58

Guy calls it, I got a 10k system and it's supposed to be producing 45,000 kilowatt hours. No, it's not. No, it's not. I've seen those before, too. And it's all north. No, it's not. It's underground. Produce about maybe 11,000. So if you're lucky. But anyway, okay. So I'd say that's it. That's our show. That's that's troubleshooting in a nutshell. Troubleshooting one-on-one. But this is really important to know. It's just it's simple stuff, it's good stuff, and it makes you understand don't right away assume your system's not working.

SPEAKER_01 24:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:25

Just because you get solar doesn't mean you can go crazy. I mean, you can. If you want to keep your bill where it's at now and just use more power, that's that's a great option too. You can do that.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:34

But understand that you are saving money, just not it doesn't look that way, but you are, you're using more power.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Not to uh toot my own horn.

SPEAKER_02 24:42

Oh, here we go.

SPEAKER_01 24:42

Which I actually will. Which is But I feel like a lot of solar companies don't have these tools in place.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

They don't have a band.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

They don't have a band. You'll call them and say, Hey, can you do a production analysis? Can you figure out why my bills are high? A lot of them will go, Well, talk to your sales guy. Or the sales guy will go, well, talk to the installer. I don't a lot of people like to pass it off instead of solving the problem.

SPEAKER_02 25:04

You know, when you become a member of the Herman Service Club, which we have, um, and we have the limited, the smaller membership, I can't remember what it's called, just the basic membership. Um being able to evaluate your issue is part of that service. I mean, it's free, it's part, it's included in the service. So think about that, right? I mean, there's no companies out there that want to evaluate this stuff because I don't think they want to have that conversation.

SPEAKER_01 25:27

Yeah.

How To Reach Harman Solar

SPEAKER_02 25:28

Right. So if you're selling right from the get-go and you're doing it the right way and informing customers the right way, then it's always okay to have those conversations. But when you're sitting there trying to take advantage of people to put money in your pocket, this is not a conversation you ever want to have. So we want to have the conversation. We want to help you. So reach out to us. If you're having an issue with your bill, reach out to us and we can we can definitely help you. I mean, we're here for that. We're not going anywhere like a lot of people have gone lately.

SPEAKER_01 25:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:52

Uh, we're still here if I'm going strong. So um, that's it. That's troubleshooting. I hope you guys got something out of it. It's quick and simple. Uh, if you have any questions, you know, you can email us, you can give us a call, 800-281-3189. Gio will answer your phone call and say, hey man, I need to talk to Ben. I got it. I got an issue with my system. There you go. Or that QR code. I'm gonna flash it again. There's the QR code, active monitoring. Click on that code, get your free active monitoring. It's it's access to Ben. Access to Ben. No, it's just a great thing to have. Yep. So we'll we'll be coming back to you soon. We've got a few more um podcasts to go through. We've got some good stuff. We got some new, I got a new partnership we want to get um out here, and we're gonna talk to you guys with our new partner that's gonna offer an exciting thing for our customers. We're thrilled about it. And just some other things going on, too. So we will see you again very soon. Thanks for spending some time with us. Take care.

SPEAKER_00 26:42

You've been listening to the Harman Solar Podcast with Ben and Ralph, bringing clarity to the intersection of solar power and smart home ownership. If you found this episode helpful, don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe, and also share the show with others navigating the solar journey. For questions and topic suggestions, call 800 281 3189 or visit harmonsolar.com. You can also connect with the team on social media. See you next episode.