Major players in the residential market vs. local installers - which is better?

[Calsun]

Either way you are going to want to have a local dealer doing the installation and providing any warranty work. The panels are likely to outlive you but inverters seldom make it more than 10 years. Most important is the choice of inverter in terms of its features and capabilities. Solis for example provides wifi and a smartphone app whereas with Sunpower they resell inverters with RS485 which dates back to the 1980's.

[Rade]

We went with Generac. Several of my neighbors have had the "door-knocker" solar companies slap systems on their roofs. One did that "we want to lease your roof and send you a check each month", two others financed the installations. The first one with the leased roof option, her panels stopped working after a couple weeks (this was in April), and she has been dealing with a lot of finger-pointing about who is responsible for problem determination on the panels and inverter. Last I heard, it's still offline. Of the other two, one has had a similar experience, but at least got the issues resolved after a period of time following a round-robin of phone calls. Both of them have the aluminum pipes running all over the roof line.

In early 2022, we shopped around before making a decision; talked with several regional / local installers. Looked at various bids. Watched every YouTube video on the various products (Generac, Tesla, etc.). Took all of the above into consideration and came to the conclusion that we're too old to want to deal with grass-roots problem determination, so we went with Generac. One company, Generac's logo is on everything. Panels, inverter and batteries. The installation went well; REALLY nicely installed. Panels tight to the roof, no God-awful wiring pipes running all over the place. No third-party anything. We have had a couple of issues, but one phone call or text to our regional rep and the problems were resolved. One required a tech visit, the others were resolved OTA. System seems to be working fine. We're in our 4th month.

What also really impressed us was our regional rep. We knew beginning of 2022 that we wanted to get solar installed. Met with the various reps, but needed to put the project on hold while we had an addition built on our home. The addition linked a garage to the main house, and we wanted to use the garage roof and house roof for panels. Of the reps, the local Generac rep returned our calls. He coordinated information between our building contractor and the Generac electrician so that we were able to pre-wire the addition with the cable runs for the garage solar. They really went above and beyond. Very pleased with the service from the local rep and with the installation.

[stellarbrooks]

Go with the local guys. If you look at SolarReviews.com of both reputable local companies and big box national companies, you'll find that the big guys have overwhelmingly worse reviews. The big guns seem to just do crappy installs, so if you're looking to get your roof punctured then go with them.

[Jacksonv]

Hey guys, here's my interest: I have no intention to DIY solar for my place. I will go with a company.

My main question is in the subject line. Tell me your thoughts on the benefits of going with a national company or a local installer.

Also, what criteria are most important for you when considering solar?

Hey Gwelty,

I'd say that it all depends on where you're located.

Some of the downfalls of a national company are: They deal at scale, meaning there isn't always the customer experience that--well--that there should be quite frankly. Also, there isn't a customer connection, it's a more commercial environment, you don't generally receive the same treatment you would from a local installer.

Now, some of the cons with mom&pop shops are that they: Might not always have the experience (have heard horror stories of borderline mal-practice), and it may not be as professional.

That being said, I prefer the local companies generally. I'm out of Jacksonville and went with solar company in Jacksonville a local company that I'd heard advertising on the radio. They did a fine job, quoted me lower than the big boys did, and the service was fine. Overall, they probably weren't as timely as say a national brand would've been most likely, but at the end of the day, I'm willing to sacrifice that to give some locals the business.

MOD NOTE. Please do not attach any links to other solar companies.

[ncs55]

Very true, and Velux did the same with their systems and left my customers and me with no replacement parts for future replacements. On top of that most of their system parts are metric and cannot be obtained over here in a timely manner. Both were top of the line engineered systems and are working fine currently. But in the end I whole heartedly agree. I sold these systems with the promise of both companies would be around to stand behind their product. Oh were here to stay is what they were telling us.

[rsilvers]

I would just go by who I thought would do a better job, regardless of their company size, and not factor in if they are national or not.

[J.P.M.]

"I had a little trouble parsing that when I was on a phone call at the same time, so I ran your text in a reading difficulty calculator and it scored a 51 (30-50 is considered difficult to read). I then put in some text from a long Facebook post I recently made, and it was a 75 (fairly easy to read.). "

Wow I am thrilled by your insightful commentary and its applicability to this thread. My assumption is that most folks are here for the content and graduated from high school with reading skills but I guess I must be wrong, Holding Facebook posts up as an example of writing quality is not something I would be proud of . Probably a good example why some folks sign leases that they haven't read, don't understand and are clueless when they get taken for a ride. I guess the commenters expectation is the Theodor Geisel approach is required for all posts. The reality is that if folks aren't financially literate, they had better find someone they trust who is or plan on getting taken for a ride.

As the prior poster commented even if everything was done right, the little guy still can get burned.

Yea. +1. Welcome to a 3d world future full of knuckle dragging mouth breathers.

[peakbagger]

"I had a little trouble parsing that when I was on a phone call at the same time, so I ran your text in a reading difficulty calculator and it scored a 51 (30-50 is considered difficult to read). I then put in some text from a long Facebook post I recently made, and it was a 75 (fairly easy to read.). "

Wow I am thrilled by your insightful commentary and its applicability to this thread. My assumption is that most folks are here for the content and graduated from high school with reading skills but I guess I must be wrong, Holding Facebook posts up as an example of writing quality is not something I would be proud of . Probably a good example why some folks sign leases that they haven't read, don't understand and are clueless when they get taken for a ride. I guess the commenters expectation is the Theodor Geisel approach is required for all posts. The reality is that if folks aren't financially literate, they had better find someone they trust who is or plan on getting taken for a ride.

As the prior poster commented even if everything was done right, the little guy still can get burned.

[ncs55]

Lets substitute a major company building solar panels who walked away and left their customers high and dry when they decided not to play the solar game anymore, Arco, Shell, Siemens, Schuco, Evergreen. Same thing will happen with big names, they will figure out a way to sell the division to shed any liability.

My prediction is that the long term financial instruments may remain but the servicing companies will change. SolarCity just leases and installs the product and then resells the lease to their shell company Terraform Power. Solarcity will go bankrupt but Terraform will be holding the paper. After the inevitable bankruptcies, someone will end up with the leases at a steep discount. The new owner will then try to figure out a way to monetize them. One method is make it impossible for a person selling a home with a leased PV system to transfer it to a new owner. The original owner will be stuck having to pay an overinflated fee to buy out their lease, which the current leaseholder bought at pennies on a dollar. The new firm wont have a lot of interest in any long term service and I expect the fixed price for removing the system when the owner needs to reroof is long gone.

A consumers choice is to buy know brand equipment installed by a local installer with a long resume of installations. There are extended warranties available for inverters and at least one solar panel company, Canadian Solar, has their warranty coverage backed up by an independent insurance company, even if they go under, the insurance company has to cover the warranty. Even that has its issues as if a panel fails and there is no inventory, the insurance company is most likely going to cut a prorated check for the one failed panel and leave the owner with a partially functioning array. The other thing out of the owners control is a good local building inspector. If the inspector is thorough and doesn't accept shortcuts, the local contractors will know it and ramp up their game a national firm will most likely just take their chances and send someone back to correct what they were caught on. If on the other hand the inspector is overworked or just plain lazy, the locals will know what shortcuts they can get away with.

I understand exactly what was said here, and it is pretty much spot on. Currently I am trying to help a customer warranty a complete array of 64 modules that have serious problems. This company was a major player in the module manufacturing industry before they realized that they had problems in the marriage process of their module assembly. They stopped producing the modules as soon as they realized that they had hundreds of thousands of modules out in the field that were and are failing. This is what they want for warranty process, VOC readings, ISC readings, remove each module and photograph front and back showing the complete frame, with serial numbers, then reinstall. And they want the customer to pay for this. It is obvious from the readings we have taken on over 1/3 without removal, that they are under the production that they should be for a 9 year old array. We also supplied the global readings from each inverter VOC, VMP, and IMP. The condition of the modules and what is happening to them could easily lend to the module catching on fire during the removal process from flex while handling them. This is what this manufacturer wants, that has gone out of business, to try and avoid replacement. On top of that, if you get the warranty they want to substitute their modules with the cheapest modules available in the same wattage. To get a cash settlement involves the customer threatening court action. Also note this customer is living on retirement and has limited income, and depends on his system working as warranted. Simply cannot afford an uninstall and reinstall for warranty then another uninstall and reinstall after the warranty.

[rsilvers]

I had a little trouble parsing that when I was on a phone call at the same time, so I ran your text in a reading difficulty calculator and it scored a 51 (30-50 is considered difficult to read). I then put in some text from a long Facebook post I recently made, and it was a 75 (fairly easy to read.). Interesting.

^This above text scored an 81.

[peakbagger]

Don't expect SolarCity or the other big companies to disappear after the tax credit expires. They will mostly cut back their operation, but they are still going to be around for a long time.
Many people point to their losses every year, but in reality, their structure is set up with high expenses up front, followed by 20 years of steady income. If they went out of business, then thousands of people would end up with an almost free system on their roof.

Lets substitute a major company building solar panels who walked away and left their customers high and dry when they decided not to play the solar game anymore, Arco, Shell, Siemens, Schuco, Evergreen. Same thing will happen with big names, they will figure out a way to sell the division to shed any liability.

My prediction is that the long term financial instruments may remain but the servicing companies will change. SolarCity just leases and installs the product and then resells the lease to their shell company Terraform Power. Solarcity will go bankrupt but Terraform will be holding the paper. After the inevitable bankruptcies, someone will end up with the leases at a steep discount. The new owner will then try to figure out a way to monetize them. One method is make it impossible for a person selling a home with a leased PV system to transfer it to a new owner. The original owner will be stuck having to pay an overinflated fee to buy out their lease, which the current leaseholder bought at pennies on a dollar. The new firm wont have a lot of interest in any long term service and I expect the fixed price for removing the system when the owner needs to reroof is long gone.

A consumers choice is to buy know brand equipment installed by a local installer with a long resume of installations. There are extended warranties available for inverters and at least one solar panel company, Canadian Solar, has their warranty coverage backed up by an independent insurance company, even if they go under, the insurance company has to cover the warranty. Even that has its issues as if a panel fails and there is no inventory, the insurance company is most likely going to cut a prorated check for the one failed panel and leave the owner with a partially functioning array. The other thing out of the owners control is a good local building inspector. If the inspector is thorough and doesn't accept shortcuts, the local contractors will know it and ramp up their game a national firm will most likely just take their chances and send someone back to correct what they were caught on. If on the other hand the inspector is overworked or just plain lazy, the locals will know what shortcuts they can get away with.

[ncs55]

Yeah, try getting a warranty out of Home Depot from a past install of a contractor who has gone out of business. It is a battle to the death. I do not know Costco's fine print, but I would bet they will not be responsible in the long run.

[ncs55]

oops sorry. That is what is distracting about posts, as there was no reference to whom you were replying to and it was right after mine, well.

[rsilvers]

ncs55 - I was not replying to your post. I didn't read your post.

[ncs55]

Well, I never referenced maintenance anywhere in my comment, but since you were so kind to bring that up, you should consider that PV needs at least 1 service per year, wash the modules and check out all of the components, regardless of what you may hear as a system that is maintenance free, they are not. And anyone cannot service your PV system, they have to be licensed for this and most of all qualified. If or when the inverter and or modules fail, the manufacturer will not perform the uninstall or reinstall or the troubleshooting involved to determine if you have a valid claim under their warranty. They will tell you to have a contractor check these things out. Hmm, I think, you will need a service orientated contractor that is specific in that field, A homeowner is not qualified for this. I was only referring to other considerations for choosing an installer based on their type of license. check what each license can and cannot perform for solar applications and you might understand what my post is about. And by the way a C-46 will address all of your issues as that is what they are licensed for.