Thanks, arcticpineapplecorp. Another BH posted a link to this piece. It's my understanding that most of these issues occur when people lease panels rather than buy them up front. The installers I am looking at are vetted by Energy Sage, and have customer comments/ratings posted on the Energy Sage website so you can see if/how many issues they might have had. While I know this isn't a guarantee, I believe it does provide a measure of safety.just heard this interesting Planet Money podcast on solar panels, link below. They say these problems affect about 5% of homeowner's, but still...i wouldn't want to be part of that 5%. Enjoy:
https://www.npr.org/2024/07/12/11979610 ... -marketing
"4.5 million households in the U.S. have solar panels on their homes. Most of those customers are happy with it - their electricity bills have just about disappeared, and it's great for the planet. But thousands and thousands of people are really disappointed with what they've been sold. Their panels are more expensive than they should be, and they say it is hard to get someone to come fix them when they break.
It turns out this sometimes crummy customer experience is no accident. It ties back to how big, national solar companies built their businesses in the first place. To entice people to install expensive solar panels, companies developed new financing models which cut upfront costs for customers. And they deployed lots and lots of salespeople to grow their businesses. But in the drive to get more households installing solar panels, consumer costs went up and the focus seemed to shift away from making sure those panels actually worked. All of this left some consumers feeling like they've been sold a lie.
On today's episode, we look into how the residential solar business model has turned some people sour on solar. And we'll try to figure out where the industry could go from here."
Statistics: Posted by WoostaGal — Tue Aug 06, 2024 2:29 pm — Replies 64 — Views 5124
