gregersonke
Active member
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2011
- Messages
- 26
AndyH said:Thanks Greg - good advice.gregersonke said:Good luck with the Evergreen, I'd make sure to keep a few around for replacements as warrantying them is a pain. Also, make sure whatever installer you use does a Site Audit first and gives you all the construction plans before installing on roof this way if you decide to upgrade later you have a set of plans that details out your previous construction and makes it a lot easier to repair when your inverter takes a dive (which it will). There are some that are better than others but even the best have tendencies to fail. We have a lot of data on this from the last 5 years.
I got my first Evergreen panels about 10 years ago from Sunelec. Sunelec continues to have fantastic service, and the Evergreens are still at near rated power. I have zero concerns about either of these companies.
I have plans/diagrams already as I'm designing the system and will be installing it when I build the house. The central Outback inverter has an excellent track record and won't require moving any panels if it fails. This will be a passive solar/off grid building so the energy needs are very low, and each room will have a DC feed, so the house will still operate if the inverter goes down.
I'm glad you're happy with the company you work for! I'm pretty happy with my installer as well. :lol:gregersonke said:Nice thing about SolarCity is that they are in a better position to upgrade the panels and inverters later when new tech comes out. They'll have the site audit information already in the system which cuts down the engineering time needed to upgrade your system cleanly.
Also a good idea to keep the blueprints and design to the system in an easy to access place for future homeowners. I've had a few customers who've purchased homes with solar on them that was broken and they hired several people to check it out only to find that none of them could fix it because it was too complicated. With the designs easily accessible, it makes repairing the system a lot easier in the future.
I can't say anything to the experience of Sunelec warrantying products as I've never personally or known someone who's dealt with them.