Twelve warranty questions to ask any Tampa solar installer
Product, performance, workmanship and roof penetration warranties are four different things. Ask about all four.
"25-year warranty" is not one thing. It's shorthand for at least four separate documents, usually from different companies.
The four warranties
- Module product warranty — the panel manufacturer covers defects.
- Module performance warranty — the panel will still produce a stated percentage of nameplate at year 25.
- Inverter warranty — often shorter than the modules. This is the part most likely to need replacing.
- Workmanship and roof penetration warranty — from the installer, covering mounting, flashing and leaks.
Number four is the one that fails homeowners, because it depends on the installer still existing.
The twelve questions
- Who holds each warranty, by company name?
- How long is the workmanship warranty, in years?
- Does it cover roof penetrations and leaks specifically?
- Who pays labor on a module replacement in year 10?
- Who pays labor on an inverter swap?
- Is monitoring hardware covered, and for how long?
- What voids the workmanship warranty?
- Does a future re-roof void it, and what's the process?
- Is the warranty transferable at sale, and is there a fee?
- What's the response-time commitment on a no-production call?
- Is the company licensed in Florida, and under what number?
- Who services the system if the sales company is a dealer and not the installer?
Question twelve matters most in Florida. A lot of national sales organizations subcontract installation. When something leaks in year four, you want the license number of a local crew, not a call center.
Origin installs under Florida license EC13012465 with our own crews.
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