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The world of residential solar warranties is complex. This guide will help you understand the various warranties offered by Goldin Solar and our providers. These include warranties on the solar panels, the inverter, the roof penetrations, and workmanship.
The Importance of Solar Warranties
Home solar installations include hardware such as racking on your roof, a new electric meter, an inverter, the solar panels themselves, and batteries if you choose a home backup system like Tesla Powerwall. In most cases, rooftop solar also requires making penetrations of your roof.
While very few of our customers have to make warranty claims, with all of these components, it is important to make sure you are covered in case something does go wrong. This is where the various warranties offered by your solar installer and their hardware providers come in.
Note: Damage to your solar array that isn’t covered by one of the below warranties is likely covered by your homeowner’s insurance. We suggest you consult with your insurance agent to make sure.
The Basic Categories of Solar Warranties
There are two types of warranties that cover your home solar system: product warranties and installation warranties.
Product Warranties
Product warranties of a home solar system cover the hardware used. They are offered by the hardware manufacturer and guarantee the product for their expected service life. The primary product warranties are those for the solar panels, the inverter, and the battery should you choose to install battery backup.
Installation Warranties
Installation warranties are offered by Goldin Solar to cover any defects in your solar system that result from our workmanship. One of the installation warranties also covers any labor required to service the product warranties. This warranty also names Goldin Solar responsible for coordinating with manufacturers to service their product warranties.
Solar Panel Product Warranties
At Goldin Solar, we currently install Hanwha Q Cell G6 solar panels. These panels are covered by a 25-year product warranty and a 25-year power production guarantee. The product warranty covers any defects in the panels that would cause them to break or stop operating altogether. The power production guarantee guarantees that the panel will produce at least a given wattage during its service life. The power production guarantee ensures the panels do not degrade rapidly over time. The power production guarantee for these panels guarantees that the panels produce, under standard test conditions, at least 98% of nominal power (335 watts) during the first year. Thereafter the panels may experience a maximum of 0.54% degradation per year. This means that after 25 years, the panels are guaranteed to be producing at least 85% of their nominal power.
Inverter Product Warranties
Goldin Solar exclusively installs SolarEdge HD Wave inverters for our residential solar installations. These inverters are the most advanced technology available. SolarEdge offers a 12-year product warranty for the inverter itself and the DC optimizers which sit beneath each solar panel. This warranty can be upgraded to 25 years.
Battery Product Warranties
Goldin Solar exclusively installs Tesla Powerwall as a home battery backup solution. The Powerwall has a 10-year warranty from Tesla. Tesla warrants that Powerwall will maintain 70% of its capacity to hold energy during that period.
Goldin Solar Workmanship Warranties
Goldin Solar is proud to offer best-in-class warranty durations, a highly responsive service department and fast turnaround times for warranty requests. Our workmanship warranties begin following the conclusion of installation, on the day that the authority having jurisdiction grants final inspection approval. These warranties do not cover force majeure, damage caused by falling trees or branches, power outages, or normal wear and tear or the roof, roof shingle failure, substructure failure, siding or electrical system failure. The warranty does not cover damage caused by animals or by improper maintenance of the structure. Some of these damages may be covered by your homeowner’s insurance.
There are three Goldin Solar workmanship warranties. Their duration varies based on the project.
Electrical & Structural Warranty
This warrants against defects in any workmanship in work performed by Goldin Solar for electrical work and/or structural racking. Below are examples of items that would be covered by the electrical & structural warranty:
- Wires becoming loose at the point of connection and needing to be reconnected
- Issues with structural racking such as a solar panel improperly clamped to rail or rail improperly clamped to bracket
Roof Penetrations Warranty
This warranty warrants against water intrusion through the roof penetrations required to anchor the solar system. Water intrusion through a roof that is unrelated to the solar roof penetrations is excluded.
Warranty for Service Work to Service Product Warranties
This warranty covers the labor cost to perform a physical replacement of a system component that is covered under a manufacturer’s warranty. This includes working with the manufacturer (Hanwha, SolarEdge, or Tesla) to ensure they comply with their warranty guarantees.
Kevin Arnold
