Solar Nerd articles about: Warranties

A home solar installation has many components, and it’s a big investment - one that you’ll want to make sure is covered by a good warranty. With some exceptions, there isn’t a single warranty that covers everything. Instead, each component in the system will have its own warranty. On top of that, the solar installer should provide their own warranty which may cover different aspects of the installation, such as the workmanship, solar production, and even roof leaks.

Solar panels don’t have any moving parts and they rarely fail. But when they do, it can be a real pain. Relative to the total cost of your system, one solar panel isn’t that expensive. A budget panel might retail for $200, while a premium one might cost twice as much. But if you have a panel failure on your roof, not only do you have to worry about the cost of replacing the part, but the labor cost of having a technician come to your house, diagnose the problem, climb onto your roof, deinstall the bad panel and install a new one.

Trying to find the best solar panels for your home can be an intimidating process. It’s not like buying a car, where you can go to the dealer and take a test drive, or taking a trip to the home center to peer inside refrigerators and pick out the one that fits best in your kitchen. One solar panel looks an awful lot like any other solar panel, and the manufacturers’ data sheets are long lists of acronyms and numbers.