Solar install turning out really bad - looking for some help/advice please.

[HX_Guy]

A sincere thank you Dusty, I appreciate it! It was a crazy crazy experience but you know what, I'd do it all over again because of everything I learned.

I think I may have mentioned it earlier but because of this, I have actually started my own solar business with another two partners about a month ago. We're not doing installs right now (contracted out to a very capable installer) but we've already got several sales and our first is being installed within a week or so.

I even made the full commitment with a new license plate...


(Company name is Sun Solar Solutions)

[Alisobob]

Thats bad ass... all the way around the block.

Good luck with everything, and do your customers well.

[Ian S]

I bet I know one installer you haven't contracted with! Best of luck in the venture.

[oilerlord]

After reading this 77 page thread, I've learned a lot. Thank you. From all of it, the strongest visual was the picture of the solar panels up in flames due to an improperly installed PV project. Good luck with
your new solar venture, but honestly, the fact that you've been comfortable with and/or accepting of the installer's incompetence for so long, tells me that I wouldn't want any of said drama within
100 miles of my house or family. I suppose kudos are in order for finally straightening out the mess, however you had multiple opportunities stop the bleeding. That alone shows bad judgement, and in an odd way,
I think you actually enjoyed this ordeal. Others are absolutely correct that should anything go sideways in the future; the installer will, without a doubt, blame YOU for altering / modifying his "work".
Hindsight is always 20/20 but I (and I'm sure 99% of people reading this thread) would have simply written off the initial $1450 deposit, hired a reputable solar installer to give a written assessment of the damage,
and then started from scratch with that firm. We aren't talking about repercussions of having a few pieces left over by incorrectly assembling patio furniture - incorrectly installing PV has the real potential of burning
down your house.

We all like saving money but in all candor - peace of mind is priceless. Thank you for all of your posts, and for reminding all of us about what NOT to do along with the potential dangers involved. I have a project
going up next month, and you've clearly illustrated how it shouldn't be done. Again, thanks for that.

[MikeInRialto]

Where did I misses the catching fire? I think many of us learned a lot from this thread.

[foo1bar]

Where did I misses the catching fire?

I think they are referring to a picture of a different installation (not HXGuy's) with obvious fire damage to the panels

[oilerlord]

Yup.....

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5617[/ATTACH]

I'm not kidding around with this photo.... your install issues just got very serious.

Here you go. Thankfully, this didn't happen with HXGuy's install, but very well what might have happened if he didn't take matters into his own hands and rewire his setup.

[Volusiano]

Where did I misses the catching fire? I think many of us learned a lot from this thread.

Nothing caught on fire, but the OP found some loose wiring that he was able to easily yank out of the connectors because they weren't crimped in properly -> potential for catching fire.

[Alisobob]

... very well what might have happened if he didn't take matters into his own hands and rewire his setup.

Yup.

Could have got real nasty, real quick.

[Volusiano]

To give the OP some credit, how many solar owners bother to go up on the roof to check for workmanship of their contractors anyway? Even city inspectors don't bother go up the roof to check for workmanship. They just assume that everything was done properly on the roof and all they check for is proper installation that meet codes on the ground.

At least the OP takes the initiative to check for these things that most solar homeowners don't. Even the loose wiring was kind of an accidental discovery by him, not that he was looking for it on purpose. So this kind of thing could have happened to anybody. Just because you hire what you "think" is a "quality" contractor and your inspections pass on first tries doesn't mean that you're guaranteed quality workmanship. This kind of thing could have easily happen to others as it did happen to the OP. At least the OP went on the roof to poke around and found out about these things, while most other homeowners don't and they "think" they got a quality install, but they never know for sure. Maybe they do, maybe they don't. You just don't know until a leak or a fire or a malfunction happens.

Remember that the OP did ask 4? previous solar owners who hired this bad contractors and all 4? of them said they were happy with the install. Obviously they were all blissfully unaware of how bad this contractor is. At least the OP didn't just rest on these 4 feedbacks and went up on the roof to check things for himself.

I wonder what's worse? The OP "knowingly" hire a bad contractor and double checking on his work, or the 4 previous owners who unknowingly hired this bad contractors and blissfully thought that they had a quality installation and gave the OP good referral on the contractor.

[oilerlord]

To give the OP some credit, how many solar owners bother to go up on the roof to check for workmanship of their contractors anyway? Even city inspectors don't bother go up the roof to check for workmanship. They just assume that everything was done properly on the roof and all they check for is proper installation that meet codes on the ground.

At least the OP takes the initiative to check for these things that most solar homeowners don't. Even the loose wiring was kind of an accidental discovery by him, not that he was looking for it on purpose. So this kind of thing could have happened to anybody. Just because you hire what you "think" is a "quality" contractor and your inspections pass on first tries doesn't mean that you're guaranteed quality workmanship. This kind of thing could have easily happen to others as it did happen to the OP. At least the OP went on the roof to poke around and found out about these things, while most other homeowners don't and they "think" they got a quality install, but they never know for sure. Maybe they do, maybe they don't. You just don't know until a leak or a fire or a malfunction happens.

Remember that the OP did ask 4? previous solar owners who hired this bad contractors and all 4? of them said they were happy with the install. Obviously they were all blissfully unaware of how bad this contractor is. At least the OP didn't just rest on these 4 feedbacks and went up on the roof to check things for himself.

I wonder what's worse? The OP "knowingly" hire a bad contractor and double checking on his work, or the 4 previous owners who unknowingly hired this bad contractors and blissfully thought that they had a quality installation and gave the OP good referral on the contractor.

I absolutely give the OP credit...To everyone's benefit, he pretty much gave us a play-by-play of everything that went wrong with his project, and the steps he took to fix it. IMHO, he was WAY to patient with that idiot installer. I can't speak for homeowners that are "blissfully" unaware of the quality of their solar installations, but if I was spending upwards of $30K - I'd be very much involved every step of the process. I still don't understand how or why he paid that bastard anything when it appears he basically installed (and re-installed) everything on his own.

[HX_Guy]

I see my thread is alive and well!

Oilerlord to answer your question...all I ended up paying the installer was barter dollars, to the tune of about $15k and while my hard cost on that barter is around $10k, I had it sitting in my barter account collecting dust...it's not like I could have cashed it out...so to me the monetary value I got from the tax credit on that $15k was worth just leaving it to the installer vs doing a chargeback on it, which I could have easily and successfully done.

[oilerlord]

I see my thread is alive and well!

Oilerlord to answer your question...all I ended up paying the installer was barter dollars, to the tune of about $15k and while my hard cost on that barter is around $10k, I had it sitting in my barter account collecting dust...it's not like I could have cashed it out...so to me the monetary value I got from the tax credit on that $15k was worth just leaving it to the installer vs doing a chargeback on it, which I could have easily and successfully done.

I have to admit that I read all 77 pages but missed that part about you being into the project for only $10K. Reading your posts was kind of like watching a train wreck in progress - tough to watch but at riveting at the same time. Considering all the blood, sweat, and tears you had to endure, I'm not sure you got a bargain. Anyway, good luck in the future and thanks again for sharing your experience with everyone.

[HX_Guy]

Oh I'm into it a lot more than that...parts alone were like $22k. But remember its a pretty large system at 12.4kW using SolarEdge.

[tatumjonj]

Very informative thread.