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ilities. Licensed installers should be able
to deal with the city. If an installer asks a
customer to take care of the permitting
process, they may be trying to skirt the
law – either by working without a license,
or by avoiding warranty requirements by
categorizing the customer as the »owner-
builder.« Make sure you ask questions if
an installer does this.
(4.) Getting technical
In a perfect world, installers make no
technical mistakes. In the real world, they
make mistakes all the time. And while,
given a proper contract, it’s the installer’s
responsibility to fix those mistakes, no
customer wants to deal with the hassle of
a legal battle.
There is one resource that can help cus-
tomers determine whether an installer is
on target – most established inverter com-
panies offer free software on their websites
for checking a system. It takes just a few
minutes to put in the proposed inverter
and panel models and run the software.
Thus it doesn’t hurt for a curious con-
sumer check the proposed system design
online. Needless to say, if the inverter’s
software rejects the proposed system, the
installer has some explaining to do.
A seemingly more straightforward,
but far more difficult question is whether
the number of modules in the planned
system actually fits the roof on which
they are to be installed. While it’s hardly
standard practice, some installers make
models – using sketches or rooftop images
from Google Earth – to show consumers a
scale drawing of what the installed system
should look like. Brooks says this should
absolutely be done before a system is in-
stalled, so it might as well be included in
the proposal. And again, any smart install-
er will do this on their own accord – the
more the installer has in writing, the less
leverage the consumer has to complain, or
ask for changes.
(5.) Warranties
There are three basic safety nets to
look for when reviewing proposals: man-
ufacturer warranties, service warranties,
and damage or theft insurance. The last
The contract should be for a fully
operational, installed system that has
passed both local jurisdiction and utility
inspections. Period. No hidden costs.
of these, in almost every case, is tied to
homeowner’s insurance. In this case, it
is the customer’s responsibility to ensure
your homeowner’s insurance covers storm
damage, theft, fire, or any other casualty.
The other two warranties are the installer’s
responsibility.
A good installer, Brooks says, will make
it easy for you. Proposals should include
details on warranty duration, options for
extension, and whether this warranty in-
cludes repair or a system availability guar-
antee for each component. This way, should
something go wrong, there is no confusion
about who should address the problem.
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Then, you have the service guarantee
– and this can be trickier than it sounds.
Start by checking the law in your state.
Most states have regulations about how
long the installer is responsible for the
system after installation, that is to en-
sure that the system is free of defects of
workmanship. Once that period expires,
installers offer service packages – usually
a 5-year guarantee followed by an option
for yearly renewal.
One important thing to check for
in this service package, says Brooks, is
whether it comes with a guarantee of sys-
tem availability. If the inverter fails, and
the installer doesn’t come to replace it for
an entire month, make sure you know
who is to compensate you for lost yield.
(6.) Getting what you pay for
One item that really should be stan-
dard, says Brooks, is a guarantee that the
system will produce within the estimated
yearly yield in kWh. This is a simple way
to formulate what can be a complicated
guarantee structure, since it encompasses
component failures as well as miscalcula-
tions on the part of the installer.
Many installers don’t offer this option,
rather they simply tell their customers that
irradiation is too difficult to predict. »That
is the most wrong, fallacious argument that
there is, and it shows that they fundamen-
tally do not understand solar energy,« says
Brooks. »Of all the things on the planet
Rolf Schulten / photon-pictures.com