Both options for home solar panels have their advantages, and the best option will depend on your individual circumstances. You may find it better to pay for the solar panels upfront, or prefer to spread the cost over a few monthly installments.
Last summer after purchasing a house in NC, I looked into getting a solar energy system with a battery backup. Quickly realized that the Tesla Powerwall 3 would be the best fit for my needs, so then looked into a good installer. Checked out a few, and 8MSolar stood out at the top with the best price for the Tesla Powerwall 3 as well as solar panels from Canadian Solar. I also needed a new main breaker panel as well as a new sub panel, and 8Msolar quoted for that as well with a highly competitive price.
On the strength of the competitive pricing, good outreach, and numerous good reviews, I went with 8M. This was a large and complex installation (in my opinion), which ultimately included 2 Powerwall 3's, 2 additional Tesla battery expansion units, about 11kW of panels, a new 200 amp main panel, and a new 200 amp sub panel in the garage. The job took 2 days, however the team was large, worked hard, and honestly it was a massive undertaking with all the new solar circuits as well as a new 200 amp feed from the main panel to the sub panel. The quality of installation was superb, the conduits were run perfectly in alignment with clean bends, all the battery units aligned perfectly, and wiring inside the new panels was some of the best I have seen - perfectly straight with clean 90 degree bends into the breakers. These are things that are kind of behind the scene and maybe nitpicky and many may not care about but I do, and it is a demonstration of a quality ethic that extended through the entire job.
The paperwork with the utility and county was all handled by 8M, and the system has been up and running for about 8 months now. I later added a Tesla Universal Wall Connector into the system and everything integrates seamlessly into the Tesla app which itself has great control capability. We have already experienced one power outage that put our home off grid and we maintained full AC, lights, and home function while the rest of the street was dark - and hot - and from my perspective the system paid for itself then and there. The only things I would perhaps have changed if I could would have been to add more panels and another battery expansion unit (or 2) to give us more off grid capability for power outages, and establish a separate circuit for the Universal Wall Connector that was outside of the Gateway so that there would not be battery drawdown when charging an EV. But that would have made the installation even more complicated and I didn't think about it until later. I should also mention that I had my system set up with the 64 amp per Powerwall setting - it requires a larger size wire and some other small changes but well worth it imo to have 128 amp output potential (if there is adequate solar). I also had 8M install the "critter guard" mesh screens, they did a super neat and clean installation for this, far better than I could have done myself after the fact and it keeps all the leaves and other junk away.
Highly recommend 8MSolar, Tesla Powerwall, and Canadian Solar panels.
