AI Estimate and Intake Assistant for Solar Installers in Fort Worth, TX

What your estimator should know before opening the design tool

Most residential solar jobs stall in the gap between a promising first conversation and a proposal. The designer has an address and a name, but not the roof age, not a readable photo of the panel label, and not the twelve months of usage that sizing depends on. So the rep calls back, the homeowner digs through email for bills, and the proposal slips a week. An intake assistant closes that gap by collecting everything a design and a site survey need, in a fixed order, the first time.

It is a narrow tool on purpose. It does not score leads, pick appointment times or produce a price. Its output is a file: site facts, labeled photos, usage data, constraints and a short list of open questions, arranged the way your estimator already works. Whether a homeowner arrives through your website, a text reply to a mailer, or a rep who met them at a home show, the assistant takes over the paperwork portion and leaves the selling to people.

For Fort Worth installers, that file has to answer a few questions that weigh more here than in many markets: whether the roof has come through recent hail seasons intact, whether an older house near the city’s core has an electrical panel that may need work, and whether the property sits on acreage past the city limits, where a ground mount and a cooperative utility change the whole scope.

Hail country puts the roof question first

North Texas sits in one of the most active hail regions in the country, and Tarrant County homeowners know the routine: a spring storm, a row of roofing signs in front yards, an adjuster visit. For a solar installer, the worst outcome is a new array on a roof that needs replacing a year later, which means removal, storage and reinstallation work nobody budgeted for. So the assistant asks about the roof before anything else.

• Age and last replacement. The year the roof went on, or the year the house was bought if the owner is unsure. A range is accepted rather than forcing a falsely precise answer.
• Material. Composition shingle, standing-seam metal, concrete or clay tile, or something else. Tile and some metal profiles need different attachments and more survey time, so the estimator sees it up front.
• Storm history. Whether the home has had hail or wind damage, whether an insurance claim is open, and whether a roofer is already scheduled. An open claim becomes a sequencing flag, not a lost lead.
• Active problems. Leaks, ceiling stains, missing shingles or a tarp, each with a photo.

Your company sets the rule that turns these answers into a flag. One installer might mark any shingle roof past a certain age for inspection before design; another might send every open claim to a person who coordinates with a roofing partner. The assistant applies whichever rule you choose, consistently, and writes down why a file was flagged so the estimator is not left guessing.

What it never does is judge the roof itself. It will not tell a homeowner their shingles are fine, that hail damage is cosmetic, or that a claim will be approved. Those calls belong to your surveyor, a roofer and the insurer.

Core neighborhoods, new subdivisions and acreage: three intake paths

Fort Worth is not one housing market, and a single fixed questionnaire either asks too much of some homeowners or too little of others. The assistant branches as soon as it knows what kind of property it is dealing with.

Older homes near the center of the city

Neighborhoods closer to downtown include many mid-century houses, some considerably older, and several historic districts where exterior changes can require design review. Here the assistant asks whether the home is in a historic district, requests photos of the roof planes visible from the street, and puts extra weight on the electrical panel, because older homes are where estimators most often find undersized service or equipment an electrician will want to replace. Mature shade trees are common, so it also asks for photos looking up at the south- and west-facing roof sections from the yard.

Newer subdivisions on the growing edges

North Fort Worth and the fast-building areas on the far north, south and west add a steady stream of recently built homes with homeowner associations and builder-installed roofs. For these, the questions shift toward HOA approval, the builder’s name, how long the owner has lived there, and whether the panel already carries an EV charger or pool equipment.

Acreage beyond the city limits

West and south of the city, toward Parker and Johnson counties, properties with several acres, a detached shop and a well pump are common. Those owners often want a ground-mounted array, which the assistant treats as its own path: the rough distance from the array site to the house or shop, what lies between them (driveways, septic fields, fences), whether a property survey or plat is available, and whether the building receiving the power has its own meter. Many of these properties are served by electric cooperatives rather than a retail electricity provider, so the assistant records the utility name exactly as printed on the bill and leaves interconnection questions to your team.

The service panel photos that decide the electrical scope

The panel is where many solar estimates grow unexpectedly, so the assistant is strict about it. It asks the homeowner for three photos: the closed panel showing where it sits, the panel with only the outer door open so breakers and labels are visible, and the electric meter. Each request comes with short, specific guidance, and the assistant tells people plainly not to remove any cover or touch anything inside. Safety instructions come before convenience.

Every photo is checked before the conversation moves on. If the label with the amperage rating is blurry or cut off, the assistant asks for a closer shot. If the picture shows a different panel from the one described, it asks whether the home has a second panel, a subpanel in the garage, or separate service to a shop. Your electrician can add brand-specific flags too, such as panel lines your team always replaces, so those files arrive already marked for electrical review.

Backup is the other electrical question that comes up constantly in North Texas. The February 2021 winter storm left a lasting impression, and many homeowners now ask about batteries before they ask about savings. The assistant does not size a battery. It asks what the household would want running in an outage: a gas furnace whose blower needs power, a well pump, a freezer in the garage, equipment someone in the home depends on. It also asks whether a portable or standby generator is already in place. That list gives your designer a starting point instead of the phrase “the whole house.”

What arrives on the estimator’s desk

The packet follows the order your team already works in. A typical layout looks like this, and every heading can be changed:

For usage, the assistant accepts uploaded bills or walks the homeowner through authorizing interval data on Smart Meter Texas, which covers homes in the competitive retail areas that Oncor serves. Cooperative members get a different prompt, since their data comes from the co-op itself. Either way, the numbers go into the file untouched. The assistant does not forecast production, estimate an offset or comment on what a plan pays for exported power.

How EVOTECH puts it together for a Fort Worth installer

We start with a free consultation by phone or video and one concrete question: what does your estimator ask for when a file comes in incomplete? Those callbacks are the specification. From there the work runs in stages, all of it remote.

1. Map your survey checklist. Your existing site-survey form and design requirements become the assistant’s question set, including the branches for acreage, older panels and HOA homes.
2. Agree the flag rules. Roof age thresholds, claim handling, panel brands and ground-mount triggers are written down with your team, not guessed.
3. Connect the destination. The packet lands where your people already work, such as a HubSpot or Salesforce record, a shared drive folder, or a project in Aurora Solar or OpenSolar where your plan’s integration options allow it.
4. Test against real inquiries. We replay the kinds of conversations you already receive, including the awkward ones, and adjust until the packets read the way your estimator wants.
5. Hand over and support. Your team gets controls to edit questions and rules, and we stay available for changes after launch.

Spanish-language intake is part of the design conversation from the start rather than bolted on later, since plenty of Tarrant County households are more comfortable answering in Spanish. Every project is quoted in writing with a fixed scope before work begins. EVOTECH has been in business for more than twenty years and is rated 5.0 on Google.

If intake is one piece of a larger system, our AI automation work covers the surrounding steps. You can also see the statewide picture on the estimate and intake assistant for Texas contractors page, browse AI chatbots for Fort Worth contractors, or compare notes with solar intake for Arlington installers.

Related services

Frequently asked questions