We started Essential Solar because homeowners deserved better.

Essential Solar exists for one reason: too many good people were being sold bad solar. We'd watch a friend or a family member get an eye-watering quote from a household-name installer, or a shoddy install from a firm that would vanish six months later, and think — this shouldn't be this hard.

The problem is that the industry's incentives are misaligned with the customer's. Installers are paid to close sales. Lead-gen websites are paid to feed leads. Finance companies are paid to originate loans. Everyone in the chain has a reason to nudge you toward "yes" — even if "yes" isn't what's right for you.

What was missing was a professional whose only incentive is your outcome.

That's what a consultant is, in every other field. When you're buying a house you use a solicitor. When you're planning your finances you use an independent financial adviser. When you're building an extension you use an architect. Solar was oddly the exception — an expensive, complicated purchase people were mostly making with only the seller's advice to go on.

So we set up Essential Solar to fill that gap. We charge our clients a flat fee, we don't take commission from installers, and we don't sell anyone's details. We use our contacts in the industry to negotiate better prices than a homeowner could get on their own, and we use our knowledge of who does good work to make sure the install is actually done properly.

It's a simple model, and it works because it's honest. If solar isn't right for someone, we say so. If a quote they've been given is fair, we say so. If an installer is doing better work than the market rate, we tell them and pay them properly. Everyone knows where they stand.

We'd love to help you get solar right.