Considering a Solar Installation? How to Choose the Right Contractor...
/Six Things You Should Know before signing that contract…
Thinking of having solar installed on your roof? Be careful when choosing your contractor. Here in Nevada, there's hardly a week that goes by without one of the local news stations reporting on a disreputable contractor who did a shoddy solar installation. Some recent stories cited a contractor that absconded with the customer's deposit, and another installer that left a 2'x2' hole in the side of the house, and who then claimed that the contract specifically stated that some damage might occur to the building in the process of installing the system, for which the contractor wasn't responsible. Then there are those contractors that cause leaks in the roof, either by damaging the shingles or not sealing the drilled holes well enough - then claiming it wasn't their fault. Beyond these major issues, there are also a number of other things that differentiate a reputable contractor from one that does only what's necessary to pass code. Here are a few things to check out about your contractor before signing the contract.
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1. Contractor Competence
There must be a couple dozen solar installation companies in our area. When choosing which company to install our system, we didn't have the time or inclination to interview every one of these companies, so we started with a few criteria that were important to us:
Locally owned and operated. Several of the solar companies in our area are part of large, national corporations, and we'd be dealing with a local office. I'm sure some of these companies are great, but I think, in general, they have a higher turnover rate than small, locally owned companies. It's quite likely that the foreman and crew that got great reviews a year ago have been promoted or moved on, and the crew doing our house today is just learning the trade.
The company has been in business at least ten years. Of course, just because a company is local owned and operated doesn't make it a good bet. If it has been in business for a decade or longer, however, it's more likely that they are doing something right.
Good reviews. Any company that's been installing solar systems for ten years or more is going to have a slew of reviews. I checked out Yelp, Next Door, Reddit, the Better Business Bureau and Solar Reviews when deciding on which contractor to use. It would be great if a company had only 5-star reviews, but most will have a few bad reviews, and it's important to read these as well to see how the problem was handled.
2. Warranty
You should get several warranties - one for parts, labor and workmanship from the contractor, another for the solar panels, and one or more for the other associated electronics such as the inverters. In our installation, the contractor covers all parts and labor for ten years. After this, the solar panels and most of the other electronics are warrantied for an additional fifteen years. Since our contractor has been around for 27 years, odds are they will be around long enough to honor their ten year warranty.
3. Permits and Utility Compliance
It goes without saying that the contractor must acquire all the necessary electrical permits and arrange for whatever inspections are needed during the installation process to comply with your city and/or county electrical requirements. Beyond this, assuming your house is connected to the electrical grid, the contractor should also coordinate with your electrical utility company to arrange for connection of your solar array to the grid. If your utility has a net metering plan (meaning they will buy the excess energy your solar array produces), the utility will need to install a special meter that keeps track of how much energy your array feeds back into the power grid. Your utility also requires that your system has a controller that will either shut your solar system down or disconnect it from the grid if grid power is turned off… a lineman working on a transformer could be hurt, or worse, if your solar system is feeding power back into what he assumes is a de-energized grid. With our installation, the contractor took care of everything. All we had to do was sign a few documents that the Nevada Energy required.
To get this permit, our contractor had to submit about 30 pages of supporting documents
4. HOA Compliance
If you live in a community with an HOA, you will probably need approval from their Architectural Review Committee (ARC) before installing the solar system. While in most states, an HOA cannot prevent the installation of a solar system, they do have some control over how it looks and is installed. For example, our HOA has several reasonable restrictions and requirements relating to the mounting styles, color matching, pigeon guards, and visibility. A reputable, experienced contractor will ensure its work meets your HOA requirements. Our contractor provided a complete HOA submission package that we submitted to our HOA, and approval was granted without issue.
One page of the HOA Submission PAckage
5. Structural Integrity
Wherever you live, it is important that the installation is robust enough to withstand whatever mother nature sends your way, not only now, but ten or twenty years down the road. While we don't get tornados, blizzards, or hurricanes here in the desert southwest, we do, on occasion, get hail storms, gale force winds and heavy rains. In our case, the rack system and solar panels are rated to 110 MPH. Your system may need to be rated for higher winds and/or be able to withstand whatever snow loads it may encounter, and your contractor should provide assurance that their installation materials and methods will be up to the task. Also of concern is that your roof doesn't develops leaks caused by the installation process. Our contractor provided us with a video showing how they add flashing, caulk and, in general, weatherproof the places that bolts or conduit pierce the roofing. Our contractor also replaced any tiles that were damaged during the installation - and even a few that, unbeknownst to us, were already broken.
6. Aesthetics
The finished look of the installation is also important. A few years ago when we were looking at homes to buy, we visited one that was a cable installer's delight. It had two satellite dishes bolted to the side of the house, neither of which was being used (the installer was apparently too lazy to remove the old one when installing the newer one), about 6 miles of cable nailed to the house, at least 500 couplers and tees connecting them all, and probably 50 or more holes drilled through the exterior walls. Maybe I exaggerate a bit, but suffice it to say that it was a real mess. After looking at some of the solar installations around our neighborhood, I suspect this cable installer later moved on to a solar installation company. To avoid having an eyesore atop your house, here are some things to require of your installer before signing that contract:
Pigeon Barriers. Our HOA requires a pigeon barrier be placed around the edges of all the solar panels to keep pigeons from nesting under them. Some installers in our neighborhood skipped this part, which is fine by me, because the local pigeons really prefer roosting on their houses rather than ours. Other installers used chicken wire as a barrier, which is effective, but not especially aesthetically pleasing. Our installer used a black, scalloped sheetmetal skirting around the edges of the solar panels which fit nicely over our roof tiles and gave the system a nice finished look.
Conduit Runs. To make the electrical connections between the panels and between the panels and the breaker box, the wires are routed through conduit - metal tubing that protects the wiring from the elements. Most of the contractors in our area run the conduit across the roof, over the eve overhang, then down the side of the house. In some installations, the contractor painted the conduit to match the color of the roofing and house paint, while other contractors just left the conduit unpainted. A much more aesthetically pleasing method, is to pass the conduit down through the roof and inside the attic. It is then routed out through the side of the house under the eves, and down to the main electrical inlet. The downside to this approach is that more holes are drilled in your roof, increasing the possibility of leaks, but this is a minimal risk if done properly. A good contractor will give you the option of choosing which method you prefer.
Our Experience
When we were in the process of selecting our contractor, we used the criteria of #1 above to narrow the field down to three companies and made appointments with each. They all looked good, but after we checked out a few installations done by each company, we eliminated one of them. I'm sure either of the remaining two would have been fine, but we gave Robco Electric, here in Las Vegas, a slight edge.
The entire project went flawlessly. All we had to do was submit the HOA ARC package to our HOA, sign a few documents, and be around for the two days it took to do the installation. To give you an idea of how customer oriented our contractor, Robco Electric was, when everything was all completed, their QC manager, while doing one last check, noticed that one of the panels was slightly shaded by a nearby vent in the late afternoon. He brought this to our attention and asked if the crew could come back and move the panel to better location - all at no charge.
Hopefully, your solar installation will go just as well, and you never see the Channel 8 news van parked in front of your house…