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I used to think home solar was a scam until my buddy's inverter died and proved me wrong
Three months ago I told my neighbor Dave he was throwing money away on those panels on his roof. I really believed it too. Then his inverter quit on a Sunday in July, right in the middle of that heat wave. He called the company and they had a tech out Tuesday morning. Here is the part that got me. The fix was covered, and while it was down his meter still barely moved because of how the system is wired. I went over there that week and looked at his last 12 months of bills. He paid $41 total for the whole year. I have been paying around $140 a month. I still have questions about the upfront cost and what happens when the roof needs work, but I was wrong about the basic math. Has anyone here had panels for more than five years and hit a repair like that? How did it go?
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robert_craig3d ago
My brother in law has had his panels for seven years now out in Arizona and his first inverter went out around year four. The replacement itself was covered but he still had to pay for the labor, which ran him about $600 out of pocket, so that "covered" part can be a bit of a gray area depending on the warranty terms. He also ran into a real problem most people don't bring up, which is that his home insurance company gave him a hard time when he needed a new roof last spring because they wanted the panels taken off and put back on and nobody wanted to pay for that part. The savings on his monthly bill are real, that part I won't argue with, but the fine print on what's covered and who pays for removal during roof work is where the math can get ugly. Dave's deal sounds solid and I'm glad it worked out for him, but one good repair story doesn't mean every company handles it that way. I'd want to see the actual contract language on labor and roof access before I'd call the whole thing a slam dunk.
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