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Solar Installer GuildUnited States · independent

Sun First Solar

Solar energy company · San Rafael, CA

What the listing shows you

4.4★

32 Google reviews

What it doesn’t

16%

rated 1–2★

typical in California, 1%

Newest review held

Mar 2026

newest held review 5 months old

Google's rating breakdown · all 32 reviews

Rated 1–2★
16%
typical in California, 1%
Posted an update
2 years ago
the company posting to its own Google profile
Replies to reviewers
44%
of the 32 reviews we hold

Its one and two star share is 15 points above the typical installer in California. Across California, 312 of the 1,529 installers whose breakdown Google has published carry a higher share than this one.

The percentages are Google’s own arithmetic over every review it holds, not a sample we assembled. Separately we hold 32 review texts for this company, quoted below. Google publishes review ages rather than dates, so every date here is approximate.

Every company we hold in California, on one axis

none

1–5%

6–10%

11–20%

over 20%

Every company we hold in California whose Google breakdown has been read, grouped by their share of one and two star reviews. Sun First Solar is in the highlighted group.

What reviewers said

  • 1★ · around August 2022 · the company replied

    Their salesman will completely lie to you to make the sale. Payments are higher than stated and higher than my electric bill ever was. He lied about a tax rebate we could put toward paying the panels off. Could not get a hold of anyone to cancel in time. Very predatory and shady practices and I've seen others post the same issues in my area.

  • 1★ · around August 2021

    I decided to work with local company to support local businesses. This was the biggest mistake!!! This project started July of 2019 and is still not finished. They have made mistake in designing, last minute asking me to cut tress, installing the panels wrong place under the trees, costing me over $1600 in 2019 tax credits, forgetting the finance paper work, not delivering the power the told me, and now that I am stuck with them I decided to add more panels and havent heard back in months!!!!

  • 1★ · around August 2018

    Stay away from this company! They destroyed roof on commercial building, were unwilling to repair damages for a mistake they made. Had to hire another solar contractor to clean up Their horrible mess. Lost over $10,000 in power bill and took 12 months to clean up their mess.

  • 5★ · around March 2026

    Hello Megan, Thank you for the reminder to write up a review, which I just completed. Now I see that there is a link to “click into Google” to past my review. We sometimes have difficulty interacting with Google. So just incase I am not able to submit my review via Google, I am including a copy of here. Kind regards, William Prince Sun First Solar did an EXCELLENT JOB installing our solar system. Wyn Hoag and the rest of the folks at Sun First Solar kept us informed every step of the way thru the installation process, including removing our old updated solar system, and then installing the new

  • 5★ · around August 2025

    Braden has a "non-sales" approach focused on providing information. He ensured that I could get what I needed on time for PG&E regulatory changes, and he was very easy to communicate with via email, text, phone, and in person. Best of all, he was unbiased and equally attentive in communicating with my wife. If you're serious about getting solar power, you should talk with Braden. From start to finish, Sun First Solar distinguished themselves with insight into solar design, installation, and maintenance. Their services team was professional and hardworking. Very good communication, great docume

  • 5★ · around August 2025 · the company replied

    Sun First was outstanding with my solar system installation which included 2 Tesla batteries. The crew worked efficiently installing 21 panels and exterior conduit with great workmanship and teamwork. Courteous and responsive to a few special requests. Armando and Jose followed up with the batteries, control panels, internal wiring and operating instructions. Their quality of work was excellent and their skills matched. A fairly complex configuration which required extraordinary physical efforts from Jose to access various crawl space locations. Armando's skills in electrical, plumbing, constr

Reviewer names are not published here. Negative reviews are shown first because they are the ones a listing hides, not because they are more representative.

What reviewers keep mentioning

  • excellent team 8
  • solar system installation 4
  • panel installation 3
  • quality of work 3
  • responsive staff 3
  • efficient installers 3
  • new roof 3
  • grid outages 2
  • backup battery 2
  • no power bills 2

Topics Google derives from the review text, with how often each appears. A frequent topic is not a good one: “price” turns up in praise and in complaints alike.

What the company says about itself

Taken from its own website. We have not checked any of it, and a sentence on a website is not evidence.

  • Financing

    “First, we offer a variety of flexible financing options tailored to your unique solar energy…”

  • Family owned

    “all kinds of businesses — from small family-run companies to large corporations —…”

  • Established

    “the Northern Bay Area solar industry since 1984. As a locally owned and operated…”

  • Better Business Bureau

    “systems to fit your individual needs A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau…”

Its website also mentions warranty and free estimate, but not in a sentence we can quote cleanly.

Elsewhere

When they say they are open

Sunday
Closed
Monday
8 AM to 4 PM
Tuesday
8 AM to 4 PM
Wednesday
8 AM to 4 PM
Thursday
8 AM to 4 PM
Friday
Closed
Saturday
Closed

As Google published them when we last read the listing, not a live check. Ring before you drive anywhere.

Who Google shows alongside them

Google’s own “people also viewed” set, in Google’s order. It is Google’s comparison, not ours.

The ones without a link have no page here, either because Google does not categorise them as solar businesses or because we could not match the name to a listing with confidence.

Other installers around San Rafael

1–2★3★4★5★gauge 0–20%typical here, 1%

Ordered by how much we can tell you about each, which is not an order of quality. We do not know which of these is better and would not say if we did.

What we don't know

  • The date above is the newest review we hold, which is not necessarily the newest that exists — we hold a large share of Google's reviews, not all of them.
  • We do not verify licences, insurance or bonding. Nothing here has been checked against a state licensing board.
  • We cannot tell you what an installation costs, and we hold nothing about the equipment they fit.

Something wrong here? Tell us and a person will read it.

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