| Q&A | |
|---|---|
| Do customers like Vivint Solar or Blue Raven Solar better? | Vivint Solar has received a 3.1/5 star rating from over 1,100 reviews and Blue Raven Solar has received a 4.4/5 star rating from over 700 reviews. Overall, customers seem to have more positive experiences with Blue Raven Solar. |
| Does Vivint Solar or Blue Raven Solar have higher quality solar panels? | Vivint Solar and Blue Raven Solar both install high quality solar panels. Blue Raven Solar installs panels from SunPower, whose most efficient panel is slightly better than Vivint Solar’s at 22.8% efficiency.
However, the more efficient panels are the most expensive. Both Vivint Solar and Blue Raven Solar offer affordable panels that operate at very similar efficiencies and are manufactured by high quality brands. |
| Who installs better home batteries, Vivint Solar or Blue Raven Solar? | Blue Raven Solar does not offer a battery backup solution at this time.
Vivint Solar installs the Brightbox Solar Storage service, which includes the Tesla Powerwall, a high quality battery that can store up to 13.5kWh. |
| Are payment options better through Vivint Solar or Blue Raven Solar? | Vivint Solar and Blue Raven Solar offer completely different payment options. Vivint Solar has PPA, lease, loan, and purchase options, whereas Blue Raven Solar has their own payment plan called BluePower Plus+ that combines the benefits of a lease and a loan.
If you are looking for a variety of traditional financial plans, Vivint Solar is a better fit for you. If you are open to try BluePower Plus+, it gives you the first 18 months of solar power for free. After that, you can make monthly payments or pay the loan off early with no penalty. |
| Who offers better warranties, Vivint Solar or Blue Raven Solar? | Vivint Solar and Blue Raven Solar both offer 10-Year Workmanship Warranties to protect homeowners from damages caused by installation.
Vivint Solar has a 25-Year Linear Performance Warranty and Blue Raven Solar has a Production Guarantee. Both assure homeowners that their panels will perform well or the company will fix it. Vivint Solar has a 10-Year Manufacturer Warranty for their inverters and Blue Raven Solar has a 25-Year Manufacturer Warranty for any part or component. Before choosing a company, we recommend reading their warranties in depth. |
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Get StartedAbout
Vivint Solar
Vivint Solar is based in Lehi, UT and was founded in 2011 by Vivint, the smart home security company. They were acquired by Sunrun in 2020 and now share the same vision “to create a planet run by the sun.”Vivint Solar is available in 21 states:
- Arizona
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Illinois
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- North Carolina
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- Texas
- Utah
- Wisconsin
Blue Raven Solar
Blue Raven Solar was founded in 2015 and is quickly expanding. Their mission is to “make homeowner’s lives better” by providing them with the wonderful benefits of solar power. Blue Raven Solar is a SunPower company, so they have access to SunPower’s unique equipment.Blue Raven Solar currently operates in 22 states:
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- Colorado
- Florida
- Georgia
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Missouri
- Nevada
- North Carolina
- Ohio
- Oregon
- South Carolina
- Texas
- Utah
- Virginia
- Washington
Customer Reviews
Vivint Solar
Vivint Solar has received over 1,100 verified reviews and has earned an overall score of 3.1/5 stars. It is pretty evenly split between customers reporting positive and negative experiences. 52% gave Vivint Solar a 4- or 5-star rating, while 46% gave them a 1- or 2- star rating.
Those who enjoyed working with Vivint Solar consistently mentioned:
- Professional installation crew<
- Respectful sales representatives
- Saving money on monthly utility bills
- Flexible payment options
The other half of customers were upset with Vivint Solar and referred to:
- Poor customer service
- Aggressive sales tactics
- Higher utility bills
- Issues with re-roofing and transferring ownership
Blue Raven Solar
Blue Raven Solar has received slightly less reviews than Vivint Solar, but they are overwhelmingly more positive.
With over 700 verified customer reviews. Blue Raven Solar has a 4.4/5 star rating. 85% of reviews are 4- or 5-stars and only 11% are 1- or 2- stars.
The positive reviews rave about these company qualities:
- Easy and smooth installation
- Friendly and knowledgeable staff
- Great communication and customer service
- Incentives and referral bonuses
Those who were disappointed with Blue Raven Solar complain about the following:
- Damages to home during installation
- Long delays throughout process
- Issues in energy production
Solar Panels
Vivint Solar
Since Vivint Solar is a Sunrun company, they install LG solar panels like Sunrun does. Sunrun claims that LG solar panels strike the perfect “balance between quality, efficiency and affordability.”
The most efficient panels manufactured by LG are 440W and operate at 22.3% efficiency. More affordable options have efficiency ratings of 15% to 20%.
LG solar panels vary in appearance from the popular black-on-black style to a more classic look.
Blue Raven Solar
Blue Raven Solar is a SunPower company, which means that they have access to the solar panels that SunPower installs.
SunPower and Maxeon Solar Technologies have developed a series of highly efficient solar panels. Their most efficient panels are between 355W and 440W and operate at between 22% and 22.8% efficiency.
While these are great quality, they are more expensive. Blue Raven Solar also offers panels at a slightly lower wattage and efficiency, varying from 315W to 335W and 18% to 20% efficiency.
The black-on-black design of their solar panels is also aesthetically pleasing.
Home Batteries
Vivint Solar
Vivint Solar installs the Brightbox Solar Storage service provided by their parent company, Sunrun, to ensure homeowners have clean energy stored in case of any emergency or to use during the night.
The battery installed for the Brightbox system is the Tesla Powerwall, which can hold 13.5kWh.
Blue Raven Solar
Blue Raven Solar does not currently offer a home battery solution.
Vivint Solar Review: Is It a Good Company? Blue Raven Solar Review: Is It a Good Company? 3 Types of Solar Panels: Which Should You Buy? Compare Sunrun vs. SunPower: Which is Better?
Monitoring
Regularly monitoring your system can also help to catch any potential problems in the system and get a tech team to come to your home to fix it right away.
Vivint Solar
With the mySunrun app and website, Vivint Solar customers can monitor their solar panels and how much energy they’re producing.
Sunrun also offers 24/7 monitoring, so if they notice something wrong with your solar panels or backup battery, they’ll send someone to fix it.
Blue Raven Solar
The solar panel systems installed by Blue Raven Solar are connected to a mobile app that allows homeowners to monitor energy production at their fingertips.
Financing Options
Vivint Solar
Vivint Solar offers a large variety of financing options to fit your unique need as a homeowner.
First, Vivint Solar pioneered the PPA (power purchase agreement). With this option, homeowners enter into a long-term contract and only need to pay for the power produced by their system through the length of the contract. The system is owned by Vivint Solar/Sunrun in this situation.
Next, they offer solar leases, which allows the homeowner to make a monthly payment to Vivint Solar/Sunrun with little to no upfront cost. The company owns the system in this case too.
Vivint Solar also offers solar loans. This option allows the homeowner to officially own their solar panel system and pay the loan back overtime to the loan provider.
Last, homeowners can also purchase the solar panel system in full upfront. This is for those who want to own their system and avoid monthly payments.
Blue Raven Solar
Blue Raven Solar does not offer leases or PPAs. Instead, they have a financing plan called BluePower Plus+.
According to Blue Raven Solar, BluePower Plus+ combines the benefits of a lease and a loan. With this unique plan, homeowners receive the first 18 months of solar power for free. After those 18 months, homeowners must begin paying back the loan.
Blue Raven Solar believes that with the savings from free months of solar and from federal tax incentives, homeowners should be able to pay for 33% of the system.
If you don’t want to make payments, you can pay it off early with no penalty.
Warranties
Vivint Solar
Vivint Solar offers a few different types of warranties on their products. These warranties are for customers on a solar loan or solar purchase plan, since the homeowners own the system.
- 10-Year Workmanship Warranty: Guarantees that installation will have no defective materials for 10 years.
- 25-Year Linear Performance Warranty (Panels): Guarantees that your solar panels will operate at a certain level of performance for 25 years, and if they don’t, Vivint Solar will fix it.
- 10-Year Manufacturer Warranty (Inverters): Any defective part from the manufacturer will be fixed at no cost to the homeowner for 10 years.
Blue Raven Solar
Solar panel systems installed through Blue Raven Solar come with a few different warranties.
- 25-Year Manufacturer Warranty: Any part or component that is defective because of the manufacturer will be replaced or repaired free of charge for 25 years.
- 10-Year Workmanship Warranty: Homeowners will not be liable for any damages caused by installation for 10 years.
- Production Guarantee: Blue Raven Solar will upgrade your solar panel system for free if it produces less than 50% of the original estimate over a period of three-months or it produces less than 85% of the original estimate over a period of 18 months.
Our Recommendation
Both Blue Raven Solar and Vivint Solar install highly efficient solar panels, so your decision can be made based on other factors.
Unfortunately Blue Raven Solar does not offer home backup batteries at this time, so if you need a battery, Vivint Solar is the better option.
We also understand that each homeowner’s financial situation is different. If you are looking for a traditional solar financing plan, like a lease, PPA, or loan, Vivint Solar offers those payment options. However, we recommend trying Blue Raven Solar’s BluePower Plus+ plan.
All things considered, we recommend Blue Raven Solar because of their customer service. The majority of positive customer reviews reference how supportive and professional the entire staff is, from the sales representatives to the installation crew.
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