Solar installations come with three warranties: product warranties, power production warranties, and installation warranties.
Product warranties guarantee the physical integrity of your solar panels and inverters. For example, should a soldered connection on one of your panels fail (adversely affecting its electricity production), that panel would be replaced under the product warranty. Product warranties are offered through the manufacturer, not your installer.
For solar panels, most manufacturers offer a 10-year product warranty. Some high-end panel manufacturers offer longer product warranties, up to 25 years. Inverters come with product warranties that range from 10 to 25 years. Central (or string) inverter manufacturers offer 10- to 15-year product warranties, while microinverter manufacturers offer 25-year product warranties.
Next, the power production warranty guarantees that the solar panel will produce at least 80 percent of its nameplate capacity for a minimum of 25 years. Just like the product warranty, the power production warranty is offered by the panel manufacturer. While details vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, the power production warranty assures that your system will continue to produce power over its lifetime. In practice, identifying whether your system is experiencing a drop in performance that violates this warranty is difficult without the assistance of an installer. Despite that, production warranties serve as a proxy for the expected performance degradation of your solar panels over time.
Finally, the labor warranty covers the installer’s workmanship, including their electrical wiring work and any roof penetrations they make to attach your solar array to the roof. Unlike the product or power production warranties, the labor warranty is offered by your installer. Labor warranties vary among installers and regional markets. That said, they typically range from three to 10 years. Some installers will offer an option to upgrade to a longer labor warranty.
Most solar arrays are grid-tied, meaning they are connected to the local power grid. This allows solar homeowners to use their solar electricity when the sun is shining, and to switch seamlessly over to utility electricity on cloudy days or at night. For grid-tied solar arrays, it’s important to understand how a power outage will affect your solar panels and your home. Firstly, when the power grid goes down, your solar panels will automatically stop producing electricity. This is a required safety feature, designed to prevent your panels from feeding electricity onto the grid and injuring the utility linesmen who are servicing the wires. As a result, when the grid is down and your solar panels stop producing electricity, your home will not have power (even if the sun is shining).
If you want your solar panels to continue producing electricity even when the grid goes down, you will need to pair your solar array with batteries. This pairing – called solar + storage – allows your panels to produce electricity while remaining isolated from the grid, avoiding any safety issues. Your solar electricity will be stored in the batteries and can be consumed by your home when the grid is down, allowing your home to remain powered during a grid outage.
You will earn credit for the solar electricity you generate through a policy called net metering. Net metering allows you to offset your utility electricity consumption with the solar electricity your array produces. When your system generates electricity, that electricity flows into your home or building and is consumed on-site. When your solar panels produce more electricity than your home or building needs, the excess electricity is sent out to the local grid, where it is consumed by your neighbors. Through net metering, you receive full credit for the excess electricity you feed onto the grid. Once you install solar, your monthly electric bill will be calculated to reflect: the total amount of electricity you consumed minus the total amount of electricity you produced (i.e., the solar electricity you fed onto the grid).
It is common for solar arrays to produce surplus electricity during certain times of the day, months, or seasons. Consider, for example, a sunny summer day. Your panels will produce a high volume of solar electricity during the day, but you are likely away from home and not consuming any of that electricity. In that case, the solar surplus will flow back out to the grid. Net metering enables you to receive credit for these seasonal or daily surpluses. Your utility will then apply those credits to your monthly bill, covering the electricity you purchase at night or during periods of low solar production. Should you have excess credit at the end of a billing cycle, you’ll be able to roll it over to the next month.
By allowing you to offset your utility electricity consumption with your solar electricity production, net metering helps you reap the full financial value of your solar array. Most states have passed laws enabling net metering. If you live in a state with net metering legislation, you are guaranteed the right to net metering, regardless of where you live or who your utility company is. Learn more about state-specific net metering laws.
Yes. You are essentially trading your electricity bill for a smaller bill. Your savings amount may be impacted by the price of electricity and active solar incentive programs. For most homeowners in California, the cost of electricity has doubled in the last ten years.
View our cost savings analysis here
1. Cost-Effective: Reduced electricity cost and makes a predictable electric bill.
2. Tax Savings: Financial incentives for installation which may include Federal and State tax credits.
3. Home Value: Can increase the property value when it’s a solar panel system purchase. Wouldn’t you be willing to pay more for a home that had a lower cost to maintain? Imagine if your home’s value increased by 3.74% if you added solar to your home.
4. Sustainability: By reducing our dependence on fossil fuel-based energy from the utility company, we can prevent the release of air pollutants that are harmful to both the environment and public health.
5. Provides Protection: Solar panels can provide protection for your roof, and from the sun. Solar carports, for example, can provide shade and a covered parking lot for cars.
6. Power Grid Demand: By going solar, you can reduce your energy demand on your power grid during peak demand times.
7. Low Maintenance: Solar systems typically require very little maintenance; they are incredibly durable and easily accessible for service and repair
Solar panels are built and installed to endure harsh and unpredictable weather conditions, even in situations with lots of snow, rain, and wind. Only in the most extreme cases like places with lots of hurricanes, solar panels may not hold up very well. But that could also be said for the condition of the home as a whole.
For most places with strong winds or harsh weather conditions, counties and cities will require a specific way to design and install the solar panels to accommodate for different wind uplift speeds. These speeds can range anywhere from 3-5 seconds at 130 MPH in areas like Upload, California and Rancho Cucamonga, California. CAD designers and Engineers will make be sure to take these factors into account as they do the load calculations for your home.
Solar panels are typically guaranteed to last for 25 years but can last for more than 40 years. Even after 25 years, your solar panels would still produce 75-80% of its original performance. Not only will your solar panels last for decades, but it will also continue to perform highly.