{"id":22454,"date":"2018-06-27T15:39:28","date_gmt":"2018-06-27T05:09:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=22454"},"modified":"2018-06-28T10:24:47","modified_gmt":"2018-06-27T23:54:47","slug":"solar-panel-performance-warranty-crap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-panel-performance-warranty-crap\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad News: Your Solar Panel Performance Warranty Is Probably Crap"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Solar

I’ve actually read the solar panel warranties for most of the major solar panel brands. They are almost universally full of crap clauses.\u00a0Thankfully you are protected by Australian Consumer Law no matter what the warranty says.<\/p><\/div>\n

SALESMAN:<\/strong>\u00a0 Hi everybody!\u00a0 I’m Ronald Brakels and have I got a deal for you!\u00a0 Right now, for a limited time only, I am selling Brakels LED lights.\u00a0 And let me tell you, they’re the best.\u00a0 We have all the best LEDs here at Brakels Incorporated.\u00a0 If you install these LED lights you will cut your electricity use, protect the environment, and reduce your electricity bills.\u00a0 And what’s more, we have such faith in Brakels LED lights, they come with a 25 year performance warranty.\u00a0 Buy a pack of 10 today!\u00a0 Don’t Delay!<\/p>\n

LITTLE OLD LADY:<\/strong>\u00a0 Excuse me young man, but I bought 10 of your LEDs and 2 of them have stopped working.\u00a0 I’d like them replaced under their 25 year warranty.<\/p>\n

SALESMAN:<\/strong>\u00a0 I’d like to help you, I really would, but it’s a 25 year performance warranty and bulbs that don’t work at all have no performance and so aren’t covered.<\/p>\n

LITTLE OLD LADY:<\/strong>\u00a0 But that’s ridiculous!\u00a0 You said they had a 25 year warranty!<\/p>\n

SALESMAN:<\/strong>\u00a0 No, I said they had a 25 year performance warranty.\u00a0 It’s right there in its name.\u00a0 You over there, blondie!\u00a0 Can I help you?<\/p>\n

NORWEGIAN WOMAN<\/strong>:\u00a0 My name is Helga<\/a>.\u00a0 I am coming from Norway.\u00a0 I bought 10 of your LED lights and three now only provide 70% as much light as when they were new.\u00a0 This makes me SAD.\u00a0 Literally.\u00a0 The lack of light has given me Seasonal Affective Disorder.\u00a0 Your 25 year performance warranty says it applies if their output falls below 80% of their original brightness, so I would like all three replaced.<\/p>\n

SALESMAN:<\/strong>\u00a0 If you look at your copy of the 25 year performance warranty you’ll see it says I only need to provide you with sufficient replacement LEDs to increase the light output to 80% of what the original 10 were producing.\u00a0 So I will give you one new LED light as its extra light will be more than sufficient to do that.<\/p>\n

NORWEGIAN WOMAN:\u00a0<\/strong> But that makes no sense at all!\u00a0 I don’t have a spare light fitting I can just screw it into!\u00a0 Even if I did I want brighter light in three rooms, not just one!<\/p>\n

SALESMAN:<\/strong>\u00a0 Sorry, but the terms are all written there in your performance warranty.\u00a0 I know I didn’t make this clear when you bought them, but it’s your own fault for not reading it.<\/p>\n

CONSUMER LAW MAN:<\/strong>\u00a0 Excuse me, sir.\u00a0 I’m not a lawyer, but I am a superhero<\/a>, and according to my understanding of Australian Consumer Law, since any reasonable person would conclude that a performance warranty would cover LED lights that don’t work at all, you must provide either a repair, replacement, or refund for them.\u00a0 Also, any reasonable person would conclude that a warranty means you promise to repair, replace, or refund each light that under performs and not simply provide one new light to make up for the reduce illumination.\u00a0\u00a0 Furthermore…<\/p>\n

SALESMAN:\u00a0<\/strong> Wait!\u00a0 What’s that over there!\u00a0 (Throws smoke bomb and disappears.\u00a0 The smoke clears.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

CONSUMER LAW MAN:<\/strong>\u00a0 Where’s my wallet?<\/p>\n

\n

The scenario I wrote above is obviously absurd.\u00a0 The idea that a performance warranty would only cover products that are performing poorly and not those that aren’t working at all is nuts.\u00a0 And it’s just as nonsensical to think that it is okay to make up for the loss of brightness from three under-performing lights in different rooms by providing just one additional light.\u00a0 Clearly, no one would ever accept a performance warranty like that.<\/p>\n

Unless of course you have bought solar panels.\u00a0 In that case, the accompanying 25 year performance warranty is almost certainly that bad.\u00a0 Most panel manufacturers appear to think they have no obligation under their performance warranty to do anything about solar panels that have completely failed.\u00a0 Also, according to the terms of their performance warranties, they can often make up for multiple under-performing panels by providing a single new solar panel if its capacity is equal to or greater than the total decline below the permitted limit of all the under performing panels in a system.\u00a0 But this makes no sense because:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. In most installations an under-performing panel will drag the performance of all the panels on its string (electrical cable) down to its level.\u00a0 This means poor performing solar panels need to be removed because they are a liability.<\/li>\n
  2. There is no place to add additional panels to a normal solar power system.\u00a0 They can’t hover in the air next to existing panels and magically boost the system’s output.\u00a0 They need to go where the under-performing panels are and replace them.\u00a0 And there needs to be one new replacement panel for each solar panel that doesn’t meet its performance warranty.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The good news is Australian Consumer Law gives protections that go beyond what is in written warranties.\u00a0 While I am no lawyer, in my opinion, if a company says they give a performance warranty and don’t clearly explain it doesn’t apply to items that don’t work at all — and they never do — then it has to cover items that stop working entirely and not just ones that perform poorly.\u00a0 Also, they have to fix problems under warranty in a reasonable way.\u00a0 They can’t just give one panel to make up for loss of performance across multiple panels because solar systems don’t work that way.<\/p>\n

    The bad news is, some makers of solar panels may decide they’d rather not live up to their obligations under Australian Consumer Law and pack up shop and leave Australia altogether.\u00a0 This will leave installers on the hook for the performance of panels they have installed for up to 25 years.\u00a0 While they were not responsible for the manufacturer’s warranties, they are required to provide products that are lasting and it seems likely that solar panels will be expected to last as long as their 25 year performance warranty.<\/p>\n

    The Two Types Of Solar Panel Warranties<\/h2>\n

    Solar panels come with 2 kinds of warranties:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. The Product Warranty:<\/strong>\u00a0 This covers defects in materials or workmanship.\u00a0 It is for 10 or more years.\u00a0 Or at least it is for any solar panel that’s worth buying.\u00a0 For the love of god, don’t go getting panels for your roof that have less than a 10 year product warranty.\u00a0 This is the warranty that is the strongest and most useful to households.<\/li>\n
    2. The Performance Warranty:<\/strong>\u00a0 This promises a panel’s performance won’t deteriorate beyond a certain point.\u00a0 Generally they promise a panel will still provide a little over 80% of its rated output after 25 years.\u00a0 Some higher quality and more expensive panels guarantee a higher percentage and there are a few that guarantee performance for 30 years rather than 25.\u00a0 This is the weakest warranty and the one that is least useful to householders.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      If a panel fails while under product warranty, those responsible for it will usually offer some sort of solution.\u00a0 Usually this would be a replacement but it could be a refund.\u00a0 But if a solar panel fails while it is only covered by its performance warranty, then to get a satisfactory outcome it may be necessary to use your protections under Australian Consumer Law and take the responsible party to a consumer tribunal or small claims court — or at least tell them you’ll do that if they don’t live up to their obligations.<\/p>\n

      The Responsible Parties<\/h2>\n

      If a manufacturer has an office in Australia then they have a responsibility to fulfill the warranty they provided.\u00a0 But if the manufacturer doesn’t have an office in Australia, the responsibility for the warranties lies with the importer of the solar panels.<\/p>\n

      If the manufacturer has packed up shop and departed Australia or the importer has gone out of business, then responsibility for the panels lies with the installer.\u00a0 This is because while the product and performance warranties are provided by the manufacturer or importer, retailers — in this case solar installers — have a responsibility to ensure consumer guarantees are met.<\/p>\n

      There are a number of consumer guarantees and you can read about them here<\/a>, but one is that products must be of acceptable quality and this means that, among other things, they must be lasting.\u00a0 Here is what the Australian Consumer & Competition Commission specifically says:<\/p>\n

      \"Australian

      Image: ACCC<\/p><\/div>\n

      So a product must be lasting and just how lasting it should be depends on what would be expected for that product.\u00a0 I strongly suspect a consumer tribunal or small claims court would expect a product to last for at least as long as its original warranty, which for solar panels would be its 25 year performance warranty.\u00a0 This means installers could be on the hook for the performance of solar panels for a very long time.<\/p>\n

      The Good Guys<\/h2>\n

      There are a few manufacturers out there that are very unlikely to give you any problems when it comes to replacing either a non-functional or poorly performing solar panel for the full length of their performance warranties.\u00a0 This isn’t because their performance warranties are necessarily better written than average, but because their product warranties are as long as their performance warranties.\u00a0 There are two manufacturers with product and performance warranties of identical lengths of 25 years:<\/p>\n