46
Trust
Score
WattBot

Sunternal Solar reviews

CALIFORNIA / SACRAMENTO
Sunternal Solar
75 Reviews • 2 Locations 9,975 Data Points Processed

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The Verdict

Don't trust this company with your money. We found a pattern that should alarm any homeowner: one customer paid $30,000 in full and waited over a year for a working system, then discovered pending lawsuits and unpaid subcontractors. Another paid for a complete install only to receive annual true-up bills near $4,000 because the salesperson miscalculated system size, then ghosted them when the roof needed work he'd promised to cover free. The sales-to-support gap is stark. Nearly two-thirds of feedback about sales conduct was negative, centered on broken promises and high-pressure door knocking that ignores No Soliciting signs. Post-sale, 23 reviews mentioned communication breakdowns or vanishing project managers, and workmanship scores sit barely above average despite 7 complaints about roof leaks that took years to fix. We did see 19 stories of smooth installs and reliable performance, all from 2017 to early 2023. But recent reviews describe a company allegedly preparing to 'cut and run,' leaving customers with liens from unpaid subs and threats to shut off systems over payment disputes the homeowner already resolved. One reviewer joked they wished they could give less than one star. We wish we could too.

If you value your deposit and your sanity, skip Sunternal. The gap between what salespeople promise and what the company delivers has widened into a chasm, and you risk joining the customers still fighting for a working system years after paying in full.

3 Stories That Stood Out

1. Justin B.
Yelp | Nov 23, 2024 |

Justin B. signed up for a rooftop solar installation, paid more than $30,000, and 1½ years after the contract he still doesn't have functioning panels. He ended up with equipment sitting on the roof but no activation: the company never completed the PG&E application and he discovered they had lied in writing about the reimbursement rates he'd qualify for if he rushed the project. Over a year after paying in full he faces higher electric bills while subcontractors—who he found to be decent—left him with inactive hardware. He also unearthed signs the company isn't paying its workers and flagged pending lawsuits against Sunternal, and received repeated promises of a fix—“any day now”—from employees who later left the firm. His lasting image is a paid invoice, dead equipment, and the chilling possibility that legal recourse evaporates if the company folds.

2. Alexander R.
Yelp | Oct 13, 2023 |

Alexander R. bought his first home with an aging roof and hired SUNTERNAL CONSTRUCTION INC. after a salesperson, Ron Monatlik, kept reassuring him that roof work wouldn’t be a problem — even promising to remove and reinstall panels at no charge if the roof needed replacing. He hesitated at first because of the roof, but after repeated assurances he signed the contract, paid in full, and ended up with a 26-panel system. He also asked to be completely off-grid, which never materialized, yet he still sent referrals to Ron. When billing time came, Alexander discovered a nearly $4,000 true-up tied to the system sizing; Ron shrugged it off, blamed the homeowner’s electricity use, and told him to take it up with PG&E, turning a tense and unhelpful conversation into a dead end. Months later, when a roof replacement became unavoidable, Ron quoted about $5,000 to pull and reinstall the panels and, when reminded of his earlier promise, answered “Not My Call” and went silent. What sticks is how an explicit, comforting promise about future roof work evaporated into a five‑thousand‑dollar surprise and unreturned assurances — the detail that shaped the entire relationship.

3. Daniel A.
Yelp | Apr 18, 2022 |

Daniel A. had a rooftop solar system installed in 2019 and soon discovered a small roof leak originating from the installation. He watched the company return again and again to attempt repairs — calling them annually to reopen the issue — but the fixes never held. After rain in November 2021 he called once more; a promised visit got stretched out into months (he notes a five-month wait for a crew), and by then the roof and interior had accumulated more water damage. Two months have passed since the last repair attempt and the company still hasn’t come back to finish the job. On paper the system carries a solid warranty, but he experienced that paperwork as hollow when service delays left a minor leak to become years of unresolved damage. He left a one-star review and wished he could give less; the takeaway is stark: a small installation problem became prolonged water damage because repeated service visits were delayed or ineffective.

Platforms Monitored

Yelp
73 Reviews · 1 Location
2.9/5
SolarReviews
1 Reviews · 1 Location
3.8/5
Google
1 Reviews · 1 Location
5.0/5
EnergySage
Tracking
N/A
BBB
Tracking
N/A

Performance by Work Type

SOLAR
SOLAR
Installation, permitting, and grid connection.
3.1/5
SERVICE
SERVICE
Repairs, maintenance, and ongoing system support.
2.1/5
ROOFING
ROOFING
Repair or replacement, before or after solar installation.
2.1/5
BATTERY
BATTERY
Energy storage for backup savings and independence.
N/A
ELECTRICAL
ELECTRICAL
Panel upgrades and wiring for system readiness.
N/A
COMPLEX PROJECTS
COMPLEX PROJECTS
Multi-trade installations requiring co-ordination.
N/A

How We Got To Trust Score 46

No Red Flags

Unauthorized Activities

Passed screening

We checked for:
Unauthorized charges
Undisclosed loans
Identity theft
Forged signatures
Fake contracts
Falsified permits

Misleading Claims

Passed screening

We checked for:
Bait & switch
Overstated savings
Hidden fees
Misrepresented specs
False performance
Misleading warranty

Background Check

Serving customers for 10 years

Operating longer than most installers in the market.

BBB Rating: A+

Excellent BBB standing. Strong complaint resolution.

Natural Review Patterns

Reviews were posted naturally over time.

What You Can Expect

01

1. Donovan M.
Yelp | Mar 22, 2023 |

Donovan M. spent a lot of time wading through sales pitches while planning a rooftop system to power a small wine-cellar AC that runs around the clock. He had been leaning toward Tesla batteries, but a chance search led him to Sunternal and a conversation with Brian that changed everything. Brian listened, answered hundreds of questions across multiple calls, and even arranged a sit-down with the battery company's engineers so Donovan could be sure the storage would handle his continuous-load needs. He learned about Enphase batteries — a different chemistry that runs cool and lowers the fire risk he’d worried about after seeing news about Walmart suing Tesla over battery fires. Comfortable with that trade-off, he partnered with Brian and Sunternal on a system tailored to his house: 24 solar panels, three 10 kWh Enphase batteries, and Enphase IQ8 microinverters. The IQ8s add a modern benefit Donovan hadn’t expected — the panels can keep producing power during an outage, something older setups don’t do. Installation and permitting moved quickly, the hardware has performed reliably, and the batteries stay cool in operation. When a rainstorm produced a small drip in the garage, he叫

2. Justin B.
Yelp | Nov 23, 2024 |

Justin B. signed up for a rooftop solar installation, paid more than $30,000, and 1½ years after the contract he still doesn't have functioning panels. He ended up with equipment sitting on the roof but no activation: the company never completed the PG&E application and he discovered they had lied in writing about the reimbursement rates he'd qualify for if he rushed the project. Over a year after paying in full he faces higher electric bills while subcontractors—who he found to be decent—left him with inactive hardware. He also unearthed signs the company isn't paying its workers and flagged pending lawsuits against Sunternal, and received repeated promises of a fix—“any day now”—from employees who later left the firm. His lasting image is a paid invoice, dead equipment, and the chilling possibility that legal recourse evaporates if the company folds.

3. Kris H.
Yelp | Jan 31, 2024 |

Kris H. started a residential solar installation that turned into a one-and-a-half-year ordeal marred by delays and back-and-forth. They watched the project stall repeatedly: just before crews showed up the company demanded a last-minute change order saying more panels were required, then discovered the original plans didn’t match site conditions and had to be redrawn and resubmitted. Longer stretches of inactivity followed while approvals and corrections dragged on. Subcontractors who finally came to the property complained that the company hadn’t paid them for previous jobs, leaving Kris feeling caught between wanting the work done and worrying about subcontractors’ unpaid bills. When the installer finally invoiced, Kris paid immediately through bank bill pay and saw the money leave their account — yet the company continued to send multiple daily texts demanding payment, and an employee named Melissa even threatened to turn off the system. The clearest takeaway: be prepared to chase paperwork and payments. Prospective buyers should insist on plans that accurately reflect the site before work begins, get written confirmation that any bank bill-pay has been received, and secure sub

02

1. Tom Y.
Yelp | Jul 27, 2017 |

Tom Y. followed up a year after his solar installation and discovered the system has performed so well that his August true-up with PGE should result in a zero balance — a result that exceeded his expectations. He remained pleased with the overall outcome and credited Bay Sun Solar and Nexus Energy for their hard work during the installation, linking that effort directly to the strong performance.

2. James R.
Yelp | Mar 23, 2025 |

James R. purchased a roof‑mounted solar system through Bay Sun Solar (later rebranded Sunternal) with Nexus handling the installation. As a retired building inspector who had done several solar inspections, he admired the quality of the electrical and conduit work, the array installation, and the way the conduit was painted to match the roof and walls — most of the job looked excellent. One striking snag kept nagging at him: he had asked whether the crew would use clips but accepted plastic zip ties if they were UV‑rated; under pressure to finish before the city building inspector arrived that afternoon, the crew instead used gray duct tape to hold cables under the array. The inspector even pointed out a cable touching the shingles, which the crew temporarily secured with that tape; James collected the duct tape roll and pieces that later dried out and ended up in the rain gutters. Sunternal came back to resecure cables twice after the initial install, and when he recently noticed another loose cable he contacted Amber at Sunternal, who had Christian return and fasten things properly. He appreciated that Sunternal continued to honor the installation warranty and handled the follow‑

3. Marshal M.
Yelp | Mar 2, 2023 |

Marshal contracted Sunternal in early 2022 to install a residential 5 kW solar array paired with 20 kWh of batteries. He found the hardware to be excellent and the system now works as promised, but the installation dragged on far longer than expected. What started with an agreement in February 2022 and a signed contract in April turned into panels going up in August, permission to operate arriving in October, batteries installed in November that initially didn’t work, and everything finally functioning in January. Along the way he was repeatedly pressed for payment before the job was complete, which became the most frustrating part of the experience. He advises future buyers to build a 10% holdback into the original contract and only release it after you have permission to operate and the batteries are demonstrably working — otherwise it can be hard to get timely attention from the crew.

03

1. Masa S.
Yelp | Feb 10, 2023 |

Masa S. ended up with a pleasant surprise: during the sales-to-install process Sunternal switched to a newer panel model that produces more energy, but the quoted price never changed. They arranged the rooftop install in August 2022 and the system went live in November 2022. Pricing felt transparent from the start, and the crew moved through the job smoothly, with only a couple of minor adjustments required after inspections. They also liked the Emphase app for checking exact daily production, which made it easy to track the extra output from the upgraded panels — the thing that stood out most about the whole experience.

2. R G.
Yelp | Feb 3, 2023 |

R G. had been mulling over solar for years, but the time commitment kept pushing the project off. Once Ronnie M. got involved, that hesitation disappeared: he turned a long-delayed idea into a finished system, with his installers handling the permits and the whole process moving forward without R G. having to chase the details. The payoff came quickly on the utility bill, where the new setup started saving hundreds of dollars a month. What stands out most is how a project that had sat on the back burner for years finally got over the finish line with the paperwork handled and the monthly savings already showing up.

3. Daniel A.
Yelp | Apr 18, 2022 |

Daniel A. had a rooftop solar system installed in 2019 and soon discovered a small roof leak originating from the installation. He watched the company return again and again to attempt repairs — calling them annually to reopen the issue — but the fixes never held. After rain in November 2021 he called once more; a promised visit got stretched out into months (he notes a five-month wait for a crew), and by then the roof and interior had accumulated more water damage. Two months have passed since the last repair attempt and the company still hasn’t come back to finish the job. On paper the system carries a solid warranty, but he experienced that paperwork as hollow when service delays left a minor leak to become years of unresolved damage. He left a one-star review and wished he could give less; the takeaway is stark: a small installation problem became prolonged water damage because repeated service visits were delayed or ineffective.

Long-term Satisfaction

Long-term satisfaction for Sunternal Solar drops to 1.9 ★ compared to early reviews. This decline is worse than 75% of installers we looked at.

Long-term reviews carry the most weight in our methodology because they are most representative of what you should be paying for: a system that will perform for years.

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