If you’re like most solar shoppers, you prefer two or three bids on a substantial home improvement project, enabling you to sanity-check pricing, design options, and find the overall best contractor fit for your needs and desires. Included in these comparisons is the Warranty. Most solar systems come with 3 warranties:
- Solar module (panel) manufacturer’s warranty: typically 25 to 30 years
- Inverter(s) manufacturer’s warranty: usually 10 to 25 years (inverters convert DC energy to usable AC energy)
- Workmanship warranty: Think of this as our promise to stand behind our work. While product and manufacturer warranties protect the equipment itself, our workmanship warranty protects how it’s put together, from the design to the final installation. If an issue comes up because of the way we installed it, we’ll make it right, (at no cost to you?), for the full coverage period we guarantee. It’s our way of making sure you feel confident long after the job is done.
The Industry Standard
As the popularity of solar has increased, so has the number of competing contractors. All solar contractors should include a workmanship warranty in their proposals. What will differ is the length of the workmanship warranty. Until recently, the standard workmanship warranty for a residential solar system was between 5 and 10 years. Then, a few years ago, some contractors began offering an eye-catching 25-year workmanship warranty. Sounds amazing, right? On paper… absolutely. But as with most things, the details matter, and the fine print can tell a very different story.
Compete Only to Beat
The truth is, a 25-year workmanship warranty is only as good as the company behind it. If the contractor goes out of business, that warranty goes with them. No matter how impressive it looked in the sales pitch. With over 40 years in the solar industry, it’s fair to say we’ve seen a lot of solar installers come and go, especially in the last five years. The “going” usually brings with it a slew of phone calls to our service department as solar system owners panic about no longer having their contractor around to honor the workmanship warranty, particularly those looking to resolve existing issues. Ironically, these are sometimes homeowners who chose that contractor over us due to a difference in the duration of the workmanship warranty offered. We have stuck with the industry-standard of 10 years, whereas some other installers have increased to 25 years to match the manufacturer’s warranties.
So, the big question – and the reason for this current article is – Why? If some of our competitors are offering a 25-year warranty, why don’t we? Seems only natural, given the fact that we’ve been in business for longer than 99% of them – greatly increasing the probability that we’ll be around to honor an workmanship warranty.
The Big Answer (In Two Parts)
- We’re Keeping it Real: Understandably, a 25-year workmanship warranty is attractive to a homeowner because – by design – it matches the 25-year solar panel warranty. This does not change the fact that a workmanship warranty exists entirely independent of the installed equipment warranty(s). What really matters is the installer’s track record, financial stability, and commitment to standing behind their work for the long haul. Given this, we avoid inflating the language in our contracts to provide misleading comfort to a home or business owner, with the sole purpose of beating out the competition at contract-signing time.
- We’re Still Keeping it Real: Of all the orphaned solar projects we’ve come across – we cannot cite a single known instance where a homeowner has taken legal action over an abandoned workmanship warranty item; it’s simply not worth the court fees or the hassle. Most exert their energy on finding a contractor who will fix the problem as soon as possible and get their solar system restored to full working condition. Hence, the true value of the workmanship warranty is contractor integrity and the likelihood of whether they both intend to and actually do remain in business to honor their contractual agreement. For most solar contractors, the standard ten-year commitment reflects a realistic forecast of longevity and commitment, avoiding the temptation to head off into fairytale land to beat out the competition.
