{"id":26801,"date":"2019-02-05T14:57:50","date_gmt":"2019-02-05T04:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=26801"},"modified":"2019-02-07T15:58:51","modified_gmt":"2019-02-07T05:28:51","slug":"solaredge-is-furious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solaredge-is-furious\/","title":{"rendered":"A Solar Installer Questioned SolarEdge’s Reliability And SolarEdge Is Furious"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"angry

Spat over inverter review intensifies as SolarEdge go legal.<\/p><\/div>\n

At 3:15pm on Christmas Eve, when most Australian families were kicking back with a drink and looking forward to at least 2 days with family, friends and no work worries, Mark Cavanagh1<\/a><\/sup>, owner of the highly regarded solar installation company, MC Electrical2<\/a><\/sup> received a five page letter from lawyers acting for $1.6 billion Israeli inverter manufacturer, SolarEdge.<\/p>\n

I have not seen the letter, but it asked him to remove certain parts of a blog he posted on his website<\/a> reviewing SolarEdge inverters and optimisers<\/a>. Possibly they didn’t like the part that outlines his personal experience of SolarEdge hardware failures: 45 optimisers failing out of 130 jobs – in just over 3 years.<\/p>\n

Having had plenty of experience over the last 10 years of companies, big and small, threatening to sue me for stuff I’ve published online, I can understand how that letter would have made Mark feel. These letters are cleverly written to scare you into acceding to their demands. And the ones I have received have been pretty damn scary. When you get them you feel sick to your stomach.<\/p>\n

Scenes flash through your mind of judges banging their gavels and crying “Guilty!”. You imagine the bailiffs at your door taking everything you own. You imagine what it’s like to be destitute, losing everything, and people laughing at you for being such a fool. You get paranoid that you’ve inadvertently written something that is untrue or stupid. You feel very anxious and alone.<\/p>\n

So I’m guessing Mark didn’t have the best Christmas with his family this year.<\/p>\n

On December 28 Mark posted this on an industry FB page:<\/p>\n

\"Mark<\/p>\n

Clearly he’d been feeling the pressure for 4 days and was reaching out for support.<\/p>\n

The responses from the Australian solar community to Mark’s post were mostly very supportive. But there were a small number of folks who believed if he ‘poked the bear’ he should expect a ferocious response, and others who believed that a solar installer should not post product reviews on his website.<\/p>\n

Why does Mark Cavanagh review solar products on his blog?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I know Mark, and I know how passionate he is about sharing information that he feels will help everyone in the solar industry – customers, suppliers, installers and manufacturers. The experiences he relays are real and the opinions he expresses, while not always popular, are honest. He will be positive or critical depending on what is warranted by the circumstances. He doesn’t have an agenda and doesn’t run vendettas against particular companies or products.<\/p>\n

Mark’s reviews aren’t static pieces of writing. He is always prepared to reconsider his opinions if his experiences with a product change or new information is available. If the performance of a product gets better, or worse, he will say so.<\/p>\n

In my experience, here’s what drives Mark to publish warts and all reviews of products:<\/p>\n