Solar Edge Help Please

[whinmoor]

I agree it could well be a faulty bypass diode. If so, it’s not something an installer could easily repair (unlike a bad connector) so you’d probably need a new panel. But this one’s not dead, it’s just under-performing.

Do you have the datasheet for the Siliken panel? Does it mention anything about being insurance-backed?

I think your first course of action should be to check whether you actually have a warranty that is valid. You mentioned you have an insurance policy in case your installer ceased to trade. Are you 100% sure it’s valid?

I think a phone call to the CPA could help. I expect when they hear the story, and that you are only losing about £20 a year, they will simply offer to pay you £20 a year to make up the shortfall. Over 25 years, that would only equal £500. You may have to send them screenshots each year of your monitoring software and you can do some basic calculations to work out how much lower this panel performed than its neighbours and therefore how much it has cost you in cash terms.

The cost of a scaffold might be close to £500 in your area before adding in labour and the hassle of finding and paying for a replacement panel. Most installers would rather avoid work completed by others as any faults later might be pinned on them.

You would obviously need to monitor the situation to ensure the panel doesn’t lose more generation but this would seem to be the most sensible way to proceed from a financial perspective.

 

[dazzapsj1]

Hi,
Thanks everybody, I can see everything you are saying, but I do feel a little aggrieved that if anything goes wrong with your system others do not want to get involved with some other company's work, even if they have ceased trading. This leaves customers with a bad taste and maybe telling others not to bother with Solar/PV because of this. I do understand this stance but it does leave me as a customer at a lost. I just hope other panels or optimisers do not start dropping off as I am truly up s*** creek. A big thank you to everyone for all your advice, Solar Edge have said they will do all they can to help. So I will keep you in touch.
Thanks again Dazzapsj

 

[Worcester]

We will happily help solve a problem, you just need to bear in mind out costs! - If it not ours, we aren't going to do it for free.
We will cover workmanship liability on OUR work, we won't pick up responsibility for future faults, if we haven't installed it. And would only warrant the bit of work that we have done.
Everyone here has been trying to help you solve it the least expensive way. If you need scaffolding that could easily cost £600 to start depending upon roof size - we have one job starting Monday, it's only 3.5 kW on multiple roofs, with pooches, verandahs, conservatories on the way - scaffolding was over £1100...

For problem solving, it's going to start at £300 / day plus travel costs, because it is not your usual installation electrician that will be coming out, and we can't do it off a ladder!

 

[dazzapsj1]

Worcester I understand that, sorry if I gave the impression of complaining, it is more a feeling of frustration, the warranty body say get a quote, I am not naive to even ask someone to fault find and then give a quote as this would be business suicide, it just leaves me in a bad situation. The point I was making is that a lot of customers have had installations from firms that now no longer trade and all their warranty companies are going to say the same to them, and companies will not come out until guaranteed a payment which is fair, but it still leaves the customer in a position of not knowing how much and will the warranty company reimburse. I think this could give the whole industry a bad reputation, I just wonder if there is a better way of addressing problems with installations where the installation company no longer trades, any ideas.

 

[MCS Renewables]

The customers who had installations done by companies who are no longer trading should have chosen more carefully then!


We quoted for a job in 2011 and were told we were £1200 dearer than the chosen installer. Customer phones us in 2013 as we offer a local renewable rescue service. We went through the whole job and wrote a detailed report about the faults. Ten facing modules East, six facing South on a single string inverter, 2.5 mm cable, inverter in loft mounted on timber, DC cables straight under tiles, etc etc. Basically it needed removing and starting again.
We told him that it would cost nearly £3K to put right, twin tracker inverter, scaffolding, etc etc.
The customer chose his original install based on price with a company with a fancy Solar name, who had no history, were not tradesmen, used subbies and had hard sale tactic sales teams.
This repair has not been done as this customer thinks we are ripping him off !!!
So he has to sit back and get his appalling return until he finds someone else to do it.
IMO it's his own fault for not doing enough research in the first place !


IMO the industry is better off now that some of these train jumpers have gone back to wherever they came from. However the damage has been done, we are all going to be classed as rogues just because we have solar on our vans.
Part of the blame lies with REA / RECC who were only interested in membership fees and not standards and the same applies to ELECSA/NAPIT/NICEIC and others who put quantity of membership above quality of members.

Buy local and buy from tradesmen who have a good local reputation would seem to be a good way for customers to protect themselves.

 

[Earthstore]

May I just ask, What made you choose the company that you did?

 

[Worcester]

This is a good one to take up with RECC - after all this is precisely what they are there for..
The challenge is that if it's not a workmanship issue, and it's faulty components, then there is the labour and incidental costs associated with fault finding and replacing the components may not be covered.
I know that our insurers offer an 'extended' warranty insurance when our client is issued with their Deposit and Warranty insurance that we raise for them:

Additional covers are available for Solar PV installations:
Product Failure - Cover for up to £20,000 for up to 5 Years to protect you should the installation fail due to a product failure which would have been covered by the manufacturer’s warranty but due to the manufacturer no longer trading they cannot replace the product
Loss of Feed in Tariff – Cover for up to £2,000 per year for 5 years to reim-burse you for loss of feed in tariff should the system fail to operate and you do not receive your feed in tariff
Incurred Electricity Cost – Cover for up to 5 years to reimburse you for additional electricity costs, should the system fail to operate and you incur additional electricity costs
Legal Expenses – Cover for £25,000 of legal expenses for 1 year to protect you from disputes relating to the installation of the system

Not sure what the small print and (one off) premiums are though!

I'll ask them for the details - we aren't allowed to sell it directly as there are all sorts of (really heavy) regulations about selling insurance products - think PPI

 

[MCS Renewables]

Note to Worcester :

Is it now an MCS requirement that we scaffold over pooches. LOL

 

[Earthstore]

Note to Worcester :

Is it now an MCS requirement that we scaffold over pooches. LOL

Unless it is a Great dane, you can safely work under those, but terriers are a must...

 

[MCS Renewables]

Try Virginia Graham , CEO of REA

here is her personal email : [email protected]

She loves it when I dish out her email in cases like this

 

[dazzapsj1]

Hi all,
The reason I chose Ethical Solar the company I did:
They were a local company
They had carried out over 300 installations
They had been trading since January 2010
They seemed to be doing Solar for the correct reasons
They were not pushy
They were one of a couple that could help with a two orientation, three pitch system
They had experience with Solar Edge
They had done a lot of Bristol City Council work.

I thought they ticked all the correct boxes, I now know this was wrong.

 

[MCS Renewables]

Ethical Solar still have a live website at : Ethical Solar - Solar Panel Installation and Solar Panel Systems- Solar PV- solar feed-in tariff

and they are still showing on the MCS installer database using DN37 7AU

According to Duedil they are still active.

 

[dazzapsj1]

There is an Ethical Solar in Grimsby who I have spoken to and they said Bristol Ethical Solar is nothing to do with them but I think used to be part of the same company but by all accounts the Bristol ethical Solar was folded and Consumer Protection Association checked this. I think they were all part of the same company once, I found out once installed that the Directors of the Bristol Ethical Solar were only in it for the money and once the cut in feed in tariffs came in they just laid all their staff off and ceased to trade, I heard they even tried to sell the business on.

 

[MCS Renewables]

As they share a web site they must be connected. Did the Bristol lot have the same MCS registration details as the Grimsby lot.

Check your MCS certificate and see the installers details.
If its the Grimsby lot ......bingo you have them they cannot deny responsibility.

Print out the web site pages with the dual details showing before it disappears !

The Bristol director is / was Mr J.Whiten
his director details show as Grimsby :
JOHN WHITEN director information. Free director information.

He is also involved with this lot :
Home page | Commnity Power Ltd

If its the Grimsby lot then the threat of a REA / RECC investigation will probably be enough to get them to come and sort it.

However do not expect RECC to actually do anything .......

Its all about spelling. RECC consider themselves to be important most of us actually working in this industry consider them impotent.

 

[dazzapsj1]

Mcs renewables, you are a industry Sherlock Holmes, thank you.
I have looked on the MCS site and nothing at all coming up for Ethical Solar even though they are still trading, very strange, My installers mcs number is cor 119 and I think they had this planned all along as the installers name is strange, 1 Ethical Solar, so if anyone comes across this number please tell me I am on the hunt now. Thank you all again for your help.