A Las Vegas woman who spent tens of thousands of dollars to install solar panels on her home had to jump through multiple hoops after she realized there was a massive problem.
According to KLAS-TV, Eve Kaganovitch had the panels installed on the roof of her home in the Hillcrest Manor neighborhood of the Las Vegas Valley.
Kaganovitch paid $73,584 for the solar panel system, KLAS reported. Her monthly payment on the loan she received for the panels was about $260.
Kaganovitch said her power bill dropped to about $13 per month in the summer months. But in the fall and winter, she said, it went up as high as $200 or more per month.
A simple look at the solar panels showed her the problem: They were shaded by trees already in her yard at the time of installation.
“These trees have been here for 30 years,” Kaganovitch said. “No source of sunlight during the fall and winter months to produce any energy for me, and therefore, I’m incurring all of the costs of the power bill about half of the year.”
When she realized the solar setup had been installed under trees and therefore was not working properly, Kaganovitch said she contacted both companies and asked them to move the panels to a part of the roof where they could get adequate sunlight.
However, she told KLAS that both companies blamed each other for the mistake and did not fix the problem for months.
Kaganovitch reached out to investigators from KLAS and asked for help.
“I just want [the panels] relocated,” Kaganovitch said.
At first, KLAS experienced similar difficulties when attempting to get the issue resolved.
“Repeated attempts to reach both companies on the phone revealed it was difficult to reach a human,” the outlet reported. “Emails were returned, however. Both companies provided lengthy responses and appeared to blame each other.”
In one statement by KLAS, LGCY said it used to have a business relationship with Titan Solar Power but no longer did.
Finally, Titan agreed to move the solar panels to a better place on the roof.
“Titan was under the impression it had been resolved by the sales company LGCY Power,” a Titan spokesperson told KLAS on Sept. 6. “A Titan team will be out tomorrow (Sept. 7) to relocate the panels for Eva.”
The crew arrived as scheduled on the morning of Sept. 7, and Kaganovitch said she was very thankful to KLAS for helping her.
“I can’t express how happy I am,” she told the outlet. “I feel like I’ve been fighting for over a year and trying to get somewhere, and I can’t believe what you guys have been able to do in just a week or two.”
While Kaganovitch was finally able to get her issue resolved, her story does highlight the drawbacks of some alternative energy methods. Solar and wind power rely on the weather to work properly, which can cause major issues when the weather is not ideal.
