As a consumer, how many 25 year warranties have you been offered? Probably none! So why are there so many 25 year warranties in solar and what do they really cover?
Many solar manufacturers offer 25 year warranties. However, don't be misled by the 25 years.
I will walk through a few scenarios to give you a basic idea of what is being offered.
Solar Edge optimizers and inverters. Example coverage.
Solar Edge is a leading manufacturer of optimizers and inverters in the world. The optimizers work maximizing each solar panels production, reduces power losses from shading, and offer the ability to see each individual panels performance at all times.
They also utilize a central inverter that converts DC to AC and is typically located near your service panel.
They offer a 12 year warranty on the inverters and this includes labor as well as materials. However the materials are pro rated. This means if their inverter fails at year 11, they deduct the use you received for those years and allot you 1/12 of the actual replacement for just the invereter.
The optimizers are a 25 year warranty with the same process for depreciation as their inverters. In all fairness the depreciation states "at solar edge's" discretion. But a few years from now and some inflation will probably dictate their "discretion" option.
They also will upgrade the inverter warranty to 25 years for an additional fee of approximately $300 for each inverter.
Although labor is included, there are some Very Important nueances that you need to be aware of.
Solar Edge will repair or replace their products with refurbished/new units at their discretion. This is fine as some products may not be available in the future and refurbished units may be all that is available.
Labor is another issue altogether and is the major portion of any warranty.
There is no labor included with your new solar edge system in and by itself. The labor is a "reimbursement" to the contractor. The rate of reimbursement is dictated by Solar Edge.
Currently, most contractors are honoring solar edge's reimbursement rates.
However, these reimbursement rates will not cover the actual labor costs associated with rolling out a truck with typically two employees needed to perform the repair.
They also make the contractor call in the warranty request while on the job. It is typical to be on the phone for between one and three hours waiting for approval before work can commence.
This is not an issue if you have a few thousand units installed and 1% failure is realized. But when you get over 100,000 units, everything changes. Contractors could go from one repair crew to four crews real easy. If current rates are not covering costs, a consumer could only imagine the financial losses by the contractor 15-25 years later. Don't expect contractors to honor the manufacturers labor warranty down the road. They just won't be able to afford it.
THIS LABOR WARRANTY IS ONLY ISSUED TO THE INSTALLING CONTRACTOR!
So if your contractor goes out of business or just refuses to honor the labor reimbursement rates, you the consumer has No Recourse on collecting on your 25 year labor warranty.
Keep in mind that the consumer does not have a direct labor warranty from Solar Edge to do the work outside of the installing contractor and solar edge does not have a contract with installers to honor their reimbursement rates.
Most consumers would never think this is how the warranty works so would naturally not think to ask for the contract to include a clause that all reimbursement labor rates from manufacturers be honored by the contractor for a period of 5 to 10 years. Keep in mind that all labor warranties offered by solar contractors are for their workmanship only unless otherwise stated.
Now lets toss in the 800 lb Gorilla to the equation.
What if the contractor has left the area and is still in business. You call to get service on an optimizer or inverter. And lets assume for a minute that he has properly installed the original unit. If he refuses to do the work at all, and you hire someone else and pay them directly, the original contractors warranty is typically null and void. Also, the homeowner will not be reimbursed by Solar Edge being the "installing contractor" did not accept Solar Edges reimbursement rate or do the repair! You must pay for the labor portion of the warranty.
Sounds bad, but I am predicting these scenarios will occur.
I am not trying to pick on Solar Edge. They make great products and we have installed many tens of thousands of units but this is how we have found their warranties to work.
The above listed scenario is not unique to solar edge. Enphase has a whopping two year labor warranty from the manufacturer.
Still, a 25 year warranty was advertised and believed by customers to actually cover their products for 25 years.
We have an agreement from Panasonic to wrap Enphase with the Panasonic 25 year warranty.
What this warranty does is include the labor and warranty of enphase for both labor and material for a full 25 year warranty like the Panasonic solar panel warranty.
This program is for the authorized "Premium" installers. The Enphase units must be installed and tested by Panasonic at their New York facility.
This is a great option for customers interested in adequate solar warranties. So options for better warranty coverage are available but not all contractors have these offers for a variety of reasons.
To overcome the inadequacies of solar manufacturers warranties we have developed the Beyond Power Warranty that includes everything from materials, labor, vandalism, fire, hail, etc for a period of ten years. This is proprietary to Nova West Solar. We can only offer it on the premium product lines that we have had an excellent track record of warranty coverage being honored. This warranty is an additional cost to this warranty.
Again, I am using Solar Edge as an example, but they are not the only manufacturer to operate this way.
Tier 1 solar panels: Some solar panels have been impossible to get any warranty coverage on at all and we have paid to purchase and install failing units to make customers happy.
Typically we have done this on units that fail when we initially installed the job.
If warranty coverage terms seem to good to be true they may be too good to be true.
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