Wipomo

Wipomo did a great job getting my solar system designed to keep costs down while at the same time making sure that I had adequate capacity. The owner, Mr. Charlie Johnson, is an affable, bright, and thoughtful person. Somebody with what seems to be a conscience, which is becoming rarer and rarer these days.
There’s a million companies out there nowadays pitching residential solar installations in California. And now, everybody is rushing to get grandfathered under the original net metering program, which SDGE hates. How dare we threaten their exploitive monopoly?!
Don’t hesitate to call Wipomo with questions about energy efficiency. Charlie will be glad to help point you in the right direction — it’s more than just solar photovoltaic.

Although Green Energy EPC did our solar installation (see review under their name), it was Charlie Johnson of Wipomo who first met with us to survey our needs and recommend the size and type of installation to fulfill those needs. Charlie and Sam (of Green Energy) worked seamlessly together with us during this process.
In addition to a «plain» roof-​top installation, Charlie also told us about other things Wipomo has developed: (1) provide batteries for a totally off-​grid system if we needed that, which we did not; (2) install electric car charging stations; (3) change hybrid cars into more-​efficient plug-​in hybrids by installing batteries; (4) make a simple modification to a gas water heater to preheat the water with solar-​produced power; (5) provide a limited amount of electricity directly from the solar panels in the event of a grid power outage (normally, if the SDGE grid is off, the house does not receive power from the solar panels).
Other companies I called for bids did not impress me. One salesperson wanted only to talk about financing. I told him I wanted system details or he could leave. He had to talk on the phone with his boss for ten minutes before returning and discussing our energy needs. He still did not want to even look at what type of roof we had or see how far it was from the roof to the electrical breaker panel.
Another, well-​known, company gave us a bid without even making a visit.
Wipomo and Green Energy looked closely at our flat roof to determine how they could best install the mounting points. They examined our breaker panel to determine if it would have to be replaced which it did not. They of course also looked at our electrical usage history to determine what size installation we needed.