Doctor Trevor Green has been thinking about solar for some time. In March of 2024, Net Zero Solar installed a solar and energy storage system for him and his family.
Trevor told us, “I had been looking at solar for a decade easily before I finally pulled the trigger, but I had always wanted the ability to have storage. I understand there's obviously a concern for the environment, and that's great and that's fantastic. But honestly, my higher motivation was I just wanted my own energy independence. It's not just control, but it's also information too."
Reflecting on his conversations with Trevor before he decided to install solar, our president Chad Waits said “When I met Trevor, I knew that he knew what he wanted, and my job was to listen to that and then formulate something for him that was going to meet his goals. And at the same time, create a little bit of trust with him about who we are and what we bring to the table."
Even before choosing to work with Net Zero Solar, Trevor knew he wanted to work with a local company: “It is important to me to support local companies, for what I would consider very obvious reasons. They live in the same community where they install the equipment, which to me has to foster some level of accountability that's greater than if you're a national company. And I would much rather support people who live here so that they can have a better life because they're making my life better as well."
But not all local companies bring the same attention to detail, Trevor noted: “Chad, in contrast to everybody else, he actually climbed up on my roof and went into my ceiling, and he had a much, much more intricate look at my energy usage than anybody else did. Nobody else looked at my roof. Nobody looked in my ceiling. Nobody else actually opened up my breaker box. And then when he looked at my usage in a much more detailed manner, it also let me know, okay, when he's talking about, here's what you're going to get out of this system relative to the way you already use energy. Then I felt very good about Net Zero."
He continued, “All of [the other solar companies] were giving me quotes on what they thought something was going to cost, and none of them had paid attention to the actual logistical approach that was going to be necessary to put something on my house as an energy production facility."
Having energy storage in batteries for backup and independence was critical to Trevor: “I had always wanted the ability to have storage. I think times have changed now, but in the past, without storage, the panels were only working while the sun was up, and when the sun was down, you had nothing.
And if the grid went down, you had nothing. I wanted the ability to continue to have my own energy when the sun was up and the grid is down, or to have my own energy when the sun is down."
In addition to a solar electric system and energy storage, Net Zero Solar also installed a SPAN smart panel on the Green's home. This ability to monitor and shape energy use in his home is important to Trevor, who continued, “I have energy generation on the roof, and battery storage in the garage, and every single circuit on those smart panels I can look at and I can see what each circuit is drawing, just right there on my phone, or my tablet, or my computer. And that provides anyone who's interested info. Knowing how you use energy, but two, if they want to make adjustments in how they use energy, it gives you the information, and arms you with the ability to use that information to make those adjustments."
His experience with the system is “The grid isn't all that reliable, and sometimes the grid goes down. The system's been in place for nearly a year. We've been sitting in our home, the grid goes down and it's almost imperceptible. which is great. The only way that we know that the grid is down is that my smart panel has been programmed to turn off circuits that we've told it to turn off because we wanted to prioritize other electric loads."
As we wrapped up our conversation, we asked Trevor about his experience with your installation team. He shared “The installation team was fantastic. They were all great. They were very professional. They were very polite. They were prompt, they were respectful of the property. They were respectful of the members of the household, the dogs as well. You know, those are not small considerations when you're evaluating a team that comes to do a complicated job that requires a lot of work.
They were working in hot conditions, they were there for long hours early in the morning and in the heat of the day. Everything was cleaned up afterwards. And the final product looks great and functions great."
If you're thinking about solar and/or storage for your home, Trevor says, “I live in a world where a lot of people have material means to do these kinds of projects, and in my world, we all talk amongst each other. So when solar comes up, I let people know, yeah, stick with Net Zero. They know how to install it so it works the way it's supposed to work."
System Details:
See More Photos of Trevor's Solar and Storage System:
945 W Silverlake Road
Tucson, AZ 85713
520-207-4053
ROC# 248710, 259756