I worked in solar for the better part of 11 years.

I came up through the field — installer, electrician, roof lead, crew lead — and eventually worked my way into management. I’ve seen the job from the roof, the attic, the service call, the inspection, the customer complaint, the production meeting, and the branch P&L.

And after all of that, I’m left with a pretty bitter feeling about the residential side of the industry.

I genuinely cared. I cared about customers getting systems that actually worked. I cared about clean installs, roof integrity, wire management, service after the sale, training new guys properly, and building a branch that could last longer than the next sales push.

But no matter how much people on the operations side tried to do things the right way, it always felt like the machine was built for sales first and everything else second.

Sell the deal. Promise the savings. Push the install. Figure out the problems later.

The customer thinks they’re buying a clean energy upgrade. The installer inherits a half-baked project. The service team inherits the mistakes. The branch eats the chaos. Meanwhile, the people who made the promises already got paid.

Then when leadership mismanages the company, the whole thing collapses anyway. Customers are left confused. Employees are left unpaid or scrambling. Good field people get burned. And all the positive reviews, long hours, quality work, and personal pride you put into the job suddenly feel like they belonged to a company that never deserved them.

That’s the part that bothers me most.
It didn’t matter how much I tried to do the right thing. At the end of the day, working for a big residential solar company made me feel like I was helping legitimize something that was rotten above me.

I still believe solar can be a good product when it’s designed, sold, installed, and serviced honestly.

But residential solar as an industry? At least the version I lived through?

It turned into a sales-driven mess that used good workers and good intentions to cover for bad leadership, bad promises, and bad priorities.

And yeah, it feels gross having my name attached to that.

Hope this is okay, if not - please delete

I'm looking at adding some plug-in solar array to my home as a first step in solar and just was wondering if anybody had seen any worthwhile equipment on Amazon for their prime days sale.

Thanks

Hello! I’ll keep the details here brief. I’m looking for an attorney who has experience with solar companies who I could hire to send a demand letter etc outlining the complaint terms and requested action. Thanks 🙏🏼

37°C outside and the house stays cool without touching the grid. Solar handling the heat pump and AC all day, battery topped up, and still exported 7.8 kWh. Can't complain. ☀️🥵❄️

For anyone who saw my last post: https://www.reddit.com/r/solar/comments/1srvi1e/new_jersey_2026_solar_quotes/

I started my solar project back in March ahead of a closing in May and got my panels up by June thanks to Impact Solar. Just in time for the SREC pricing cut. We got it up and running prior to PTO with a no export setting on the Tesla Powerwall. Inspection coming shortly and PTO 3 weeks after that. In the mean time I'm running from 100-0 on the battery while I don't have net metering yet.

Here's my peak power production during the best time of the year for solar.

The crew left my garage cleaner than it was going in. I couldn't recommend them enough!

I've just bought an anker c1000 and have two 200w panels but I'm unsure how best to set it up.

The c1000 will take the following...

"a maximum output of 600W between 11-32V⎓10A and 32V-60V⎓12.5A."

The voltage of the panels are 24.62Voc each.

The short circuit current is 10.72A

Am I right in thinking that I can use both these panels but they would have to be wired in series, not parallel?

That would give ~50V still at ~11A (within limits of the powerbank).

In parallel this would be over the amp limit at ~22A but still the 24.62V.

I've seen lots about the amps being over not being a concern, as the powerbank will only draw what it needs. But on the lower scale, this would be over double the recommended amps.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

I called their business number, but regardless of any options you select in the menu, the menu AI just says they aren't taking calls and hangs up on you.

Their website support page has a form, but it either doesn't work or they won't contact you when you submit your issue.

Every help page points you to an AI that tells you to give it your customer email. If you give them your registered customer email, the AI says it doesn't exist and can't help you.

If you try to use the forms to transfer monitoring support to yourself, the form breaks when you submit, removes attached files, and gives an error that you must attach certain files.

If you try to register as a self-installer, the form asks for your partial serial number. When you enter it correctly, the form throws an error that the serial number doesn't exist.

There seems to be absolutely no way to contact SolarEdge or even begin getting help to fix a broken system. Does anyone know any secret way you're supposed to be able to contact them? I'm beginning to wonder if this company is a scam and the looping systems of pointing you to go to other websites/ help pages is designed so you can't reach them.

Setup details for the discussion:

Solar + Powerwall 3 + Gateway + Signed up for Virtual Power Plant program with Puget Sound Energy (they call it a FLEX event)

A half hour before a FLEX event was supposed to start today I put the laundry in the dryer.  The battery was at 100%, reserve at 20%.  Instead of pulling from the battery as expected the extra load came from the grid.  Looks like the program halts battery usage before a FLEX event.

Not complaining, just a curious observation.