Originally published on Solar Love.
SolarCity last week unveiled a new app that improves the solar customer experience, just for SolarCity customers of course.
SolarCity customers can schedule appointments, track SolarCity crews headed to your house, track electricity production from their solar power systems, track their home energy use, as well as interact with the SolarCity community via the app.
Members of the Solar Ambassador program and other customers can also share their photos and stories on a private social network via the SolarCity app.
The Ambassador portion of the SolarCity app, “allows anyone in the U.S. to spread the word about the power of solar and earn rewards by referring new customers. There are educational resources as well as a leader board to see how you’re doing compared to others. More than 30,000 Solar Ambassadors have signed up since the program was launched in May,” SolarCity writes on its blog.
Regarding your energy use, SolarCity writes: “When we survey your home for installation, we also do an energy usage analysis. The results are fed into EnergyExplorer, which performs millions of calculations to forecast your home’s energy consumption. For example, you could discover you’re spending more than 20 percent of your energy bill cooling your home.”
And another portion of the app provides an interactive map of people around you who have solar power systems.
All in all, it looks like a lot of fun! And also potentially useful.
You can download the app via Apple’s App Store or Google Play.
Related:
SolarCity Improves Solar Carport Offering
Nearly 6,000 Homes To Get Solar Power In San Diego Area
SolarCity & NREL Team Up In Hawaii
Wow the big brother of solar. I don’t think that I’d want some solar company and their customers knowing all about my family’s location and our energy usage. No thanks!
Ron, the only thing customers can see is a map showing where other SolarCity customers are in the area…no other personal information.
Dom, ignore Ron Winton…every time theres any article about SolarCity on any website he comments negatively…and as this latest comment of his proves, he does so often without knowing all the facts. Usually he then peddles the solar products he sells from his ittty bitty solar company that gets no press (surprised he didn’t this time).
Poor Ron, he has to wait for a SolarCity news story before he can market his own stuff. If Ron’s stuff was so good, why is his company not as big as SolarCity and why does his company not generate it’s own headlines???
Ron you don’t want a solar company to know where you live? Guess they won’t be able to install a system on your home then or service it when needed. I guess you and your company just drive around randomly and hope you stop at the right house when you’re installing your itty bitty company’s panels?
As for energy usage…your electric company already knows how much energy you use and being that you work in the solar industry you must know in order to size a system appropriately you have to get someone energy usage history. So giving customer’s insights into their own power usage to just them is hardly giving away state secrets
I guess you live off the grid Ron? That’s the only way for you to keep your kWh usage a secret.
Sorry your itty bitty solar company has no budget for marketing or the resources to build an app for your customers to use.