Sunrun Solar Review: Is the Biggest Company Your Best Deal?
Sunrun has been the US's biggest solar installer by market share for several years. If you're considering a lease, few companies have done more.
Sunrun Solar
Like
- Choice of batteries
- Tons of experience
- Excellent warranties for leases
Don't like
- Warranties for purchase could be stronger
- No price match guarantee
Among residential solar installers, one company has captured more of the market than any other. Sunrun's 12.5% market share was nearly triple any other company in 2022. The residential solar industry has experienced huge shifts over the last few years: the Inflation Reduction Act, which extended and increased the solar tax credit; the weakening of net metering in California, the largest residential market; and high interest rates, which increased the cost of a solar loan.
With all that uncertainty, some in the industry are pointing to the stability a large, national installer can provide. Even the biggest solar companies can disappear (Sunrun bought out the then-second-largest solar company, Vivint, in 2020), but some argue that larger companies stand a better chance of being there to service your panels and honor warranties a decade down the road. Sunrun has a footprint in 18 states, Washington, DC and Puerto Rico.
Most of Sunrun's business is in solar leases. That means you can rent panels from it for a monthly fee, although it'll sell you solar panels too. While there are dozens of solar panel providers and installers around the country (experts recommend getting multiple quotes), it's worth looking at the major players. Sunrun compares favorably with that group.
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Sunrun offers solar installations in 18 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.
Sunrun's warranties are top of the line if you're going the route of the power purchase agreement or lease and it installs tier-one panels, a company spokesperson said. It also offers strong solar battery options.
Warranties for people who buy a rooftop system from Sunrun aren't as strong as those offered to lease and power purchase agreement customers. That, and the fact that it doesn't appear to offer a price match guarantee, keeps its score a bit lower.
CNET scores solar companies on what we think makes a difference to you. You should always take a company's score from any reviewer with a grain of salt because the best solar company for you is the one that fits your needs, not the one that scores the highest in even the most conscientious rankings.
That goes double for the above score for Sunrun. Because Sunrun didn't return our most recent interview requests (after we reworked how we evaluate companies in April 2023), we weren't always able to score them on their actual offerings -- which for most solar companies aren't well-defined online. Instead, for many of the components of Sunrun's score, we had to use the average score for the rest of the companies we've reviewed.
What do I get from Sunrun?
Sunrun's bread and butter is solar-as-service. This means the vast majority of people who use Sunrun (80 to 90%, according to a 2021 presentation to investors) buy power from or rent the Sunrun-owned solar panels on their roofs.
What solar equipment does Sunrun install?
If you're going to buy panels from Sunrun, you're likely to get quality equipment. In 2022, a Sunrun spokesperson confirmed the company works "with their other module manufacturing partners to supply tier one panels." "Tier one" is technically a measure of whether or not projects using those panels are safe investment bets, but they're typically quality panels that come from established companies. They should have high-efficiency ratings and strong warranties.
Sunrun offers Tesla Powerwall for whole-home backup and an LG Chem battery, which the company says can back up "just the essentials," or four circuits (a circuit is everything connected to a breaker in your breaker box or electrical panel). Sunrun also offers battery storage to its solar-as-service customers through its program called Brightbox. Both battery options come with a 10-year manufacturer's warranty. Sunrun has also invested in Lunar Energy, a battery startup, and will install Lunar batteries.
Sunrun also has a partnership with Ford to install the equipment needed for the new F-150 Lightning to charge from your solar panels and act as a backup battery for your home. Bidirectional charging, as it is known, is still in its early days, but has potential as a more flexible source of backup power. An F-150 Lightning has a 98-kilowatt-hour battery, while most individual home backup batteries are between 10 and 20-kilowatt hours (though they can often be stacked into more powerful configurations.
Powerwall holds 12.2-kilowatt hours of usable energy, while the LG Chem batteries offer 9.2 to 16kWh of usable energy, depending on the model. (LG Energy Solutions has recalled some of its batteries for possible fire risk.)
It's not clear which inverters Sunrun will use now that their preferred option, LG again, is no longer available.
What warranties does Sunrun offer?
Sunrun offers "bumper-to-bumper" coverage, maintenance and monitoring for its solar-as-service customers. If you purchase solar panels from them, you're left to rely on manufacturers' warranties. Those warranties are typically 25 years, although some are starting to push to 30 years. Sunrun also offers a 10-year workmanship warranty against damage to your roof or installation problems.
Does Sunrun offer monitoring services?
Sunrun has an app through which you can monitor your system's production. Since I'm not a Sunrun customer, I wasn't able to test it out. The mySunrun app gets 2.2 stars and 2.6 stars on Apple's App Store and Google Play respectively. You'll typically have the opportunity to monitor your solar production through an app from the manufacturer of the solar inverter in your system.
Does Sunrun use subcontractors?
As you might expect from the largest solar companies, Sunrun uses subcontractors alongside its in-house installation teams.
The majority of Sunrun's business is in third-party ownership.
How much do Sunrun solar panels cost?
Most solar companies don't give you any pricing information upfront, and it's hard to know exactly how accurate the estimates that do exist are without getting an actual quote. This is part of the reason CNET doesn't consider price in its scoring and you should always get multiple quotes from installers in your area. Being able to compare quotes is your defense against agreeing to a price that's way too high.
National averages for residential solar costs range. Wood Mackenzie reported a price of $3.28 per watt for the beginning of 2023. The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Tracking the Sun report found an average cost of more than four dollars per watt. The map below draws data from Find Energy. States in gray are lacking data.