REIDSVILLE, N.C. — Barry Livesay was looking for a slower and quieter kind of life. About eight years ago he decided to move out to Reidsville.
“Very nice, pleasant neighborhood, schools are close, everything is local,” Livesay said.
The move to Reidsville has been great for Livesay and his dog who has a much bigger space to run around in. Life is pretty good.
“I like it a lot,” Livesay said.
Then about a year ago Livesay started to get tired of paying what he considered to be a high electric bill. He had never really thought about going solar but now might be the time.
“I started looking around, I went to the internet to see how solar would benefit me,” Livesay said.
After doing his research Livesay decided to purchase a solar panel system for the house. Last year 13 solar panels were installed on top of his roof.
“I was excited about it,” Livesay said.
Once installed Livesay figured it would just be a few weeks until the system would start to generate power.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go as he’d hoped.
The company was having some issues getting the system to pass inspection and get up and running.
“They kept talking about permits, we need permits,” Livesay said.
One month of waiting for the system to be up and running turned into two and then three. Livesay said he would call the company, but it didn’t help. After waiting around for about four months Livesay called WFMY News 2 for help.
“(It was) very frustrating, I want to take the panels off and tell them I don’t need them anymore, I don’t want (them),” Livesay said.
Even though the solar panels weren’t working Livesay was having to pay a monthly payment to the finance company along with a normal electric bill.
Once Livesay called us we contacted the solar company and told them we were investigating the matter. A representative told us someone would investigate the case and call us back.
It didn’t take too long before a representative reached back out to let us know the system would be up and running within a day or two.
“That meant quite a lot to me get the system up running because I waited months and months and months,” Livesay said.
The system is working well and while Livesay would like to see a lower electric bill it is much less than it was.