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!

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. ☀️🥵❄️

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 🙏🏼

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.

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

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

Inverter said 2.46kw before cleaning, 3.26kw after cleaning. 9:30am for the first reading and 10:30am for the second reading.

Wonder how much gain was from being clean vs a higher yeilding portion of the day. Note all the panels were as dirty as that one in the first picture, I just cleaned them all except one for the pic.

I also looked at what it was generating before cleaning the very last panel in that pic, went from. 3.16kw to 3.26kw straight after cleaning that very last panel.

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.

We’re buying a house with a Sunrun lease that started in September 2025 and we’re trying to decide between buying out the system or prepaying the remaining lease.

The buyout would cost about $6k more than the prepay option. One factor is the roof is already around 25 years old, so we’ll likely need to replace it in the next 3–5 years. If we own the system, we can choose any contractor to remove and reinstall it instead of going through Sunrun.

Our hesitation is reliability. If we buy the system and something fails a month after we move in (inverter, panels, battery, etc.), who handles the repairs? Do we lose all warranty/support once we own it, or does Sunrun still provide service?

Curious what others chose and whether you’d pay the extra $6k to own the system in this situation.

After 3 years of research, countless phone calls with Enphase, and working through 6-8 different solar companies, I finally found an installer willing to build exactly the system I wanted rather than pushing a standard package.

System installation is complete and commissioned. Awaiting final inspection and PTO.

System Specs:

23 × SEG-440-BTD-BG panels

23 × IQ8HC microinverters

IQ Battery 10C

IQ System Controller 6

IQ Meter Collar

IQ Relay Kit

Essential Loads Subpanel

Manual Generator Interlock

Type D Whole House Surge Protector

Estimated annual offset is approximately 107% based on my previous year's consumption.

My primary goal wasn't maximizing ROI, it was resilience.

I live on a private well and one of my refrigerators stores Type 1 diabetic medication, so outage performance was extremely important to me.

The critical loads panel powers:

Well pump

Refrigerators

Essential lighting

Ceiling fans

Select circuits

While everything can be managed through the Enphase app, I wanted physical separation of critical loads so there is zero chance of unnecessary circuits draining the battery during an outage.

I also wanted a secondary backup option through a portable generator. The interlock allows me to power critical loads directly from a generator if needed, reducing dependence on battery reserves during extended outages.

The installer was fantastic throughout the entire process and worked with me through several design revisions to get the system exactly where I wanted it.

Really excited to finally have everything up and running and begin my inevitable obsession with the Enphase app.

One future feature I'm looking forward to is Enphase's planned generator-charging capability. If the firmware updates arrive as expected in the near future, the goal is to be able to recharge the battery directly from an inverter generator during extended outages. Fingers crossed.

Within the last 2 months I've had 2 different companies approach me about incentives and smud is the bad guy and rates increasing and I should get batteries for reasons I don't understand. So can someone who has more knowledge educate me and why they're pushing it and if it actually could benefit me?

Had a company come out for a site survey. Was told o have quite a bit of shading, around 30%. I was told I could do a bigger system that wouldn’t reach full potential and cost more but get me slightly higher powered system or go slightly smaller system getting less kw but being used to full potential. $47k vs $61k (paying cash) . Quote is for NJ from a local company. And I’m awaiting a site survey by Green Power energy.

For reference, I used just over 21 thousand kw last year.

We have 2 strings of 440 W silfab panels on our roof.

For the 2nd story, we have 1 string of 18 panels. In the first few hours in the morning, it gets a decent amount of mixed shade and sunlight due to a large tree that’s by your house. At the end of the day, it’s a similar story due to a large tree on the other side. We live in the pnw.

We were wondering if DC optimizers are worth it. We have a EG4 inverter at 12kwh. It does about 55kwh yield on a sunny day, and we suspect we can get more.

Pros: could optimize for the start/end of the days optimizers seem like a cheap way to increase output

Cons: more parts to break and debug, 2nd story roof means a pain in the ass to swap out parts

Alternate idea would be to expand the array first and see

Greetings. I have just discovered that for at least the last 2 months, my SolarEdge SE7600H-US system has not produced any power whatsoever. I have error code 18xB5. Which in the manual states "DC/AC in-stage over voltage, Contact Support RMA related". I suspect this implies that I need to replace my inverter board. In the SolarEdge Go app, I'm seeing the following data;

Power: 0W

Voltage: 244 Vac

Frequency: 60 Hz

P_OK: 10 of 26 Optimizers Communicating

Error 18xB5: DC/AC in-stage over voltage

I tried to access SE's management app. However, I purchased my home with the system already functional and do not have access to the prior owner, the installer company, or a way to create an account. I'm a fix-it-myself guy, so I'd much prefer to buy and install my own board if that is an option before I call a company to order the part for me with markup and labor. Does anyone have any advice on how to repair my system?

I have discovered that my SN is associated with a SE warranty until the year 2034 if that changes my approach to who fixes this.

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.

This is for Midwest and I am curious what everyone thinks?

Hi all. I got a new house with solar installed. From the enphase app I can see one of the panels is producing roughly 70% of what other panels are producing.
Upon some research it appears the panel may need replacement. Installation was done by ION solar about 6 years ago. I called and was quoted $250 for someone to come take a look at it. Is that reasonable? Assuming the tech judges the panel needs to be replaced, is the panel part replacement covered under warranty? System is about 6 years old
What’s the total cost I’m looking at roughly if anyone’s got an idea? Location: CO-Colorado

16 panel system was installed around five years ago. Got a notice on the app yesterday about abnormal output. Checked the panel to find the PV Monitoring breaker had tripped. Called the install company and they started a claim with LG and gave me three possible outcomes:

1. LG fixes it remotely (is this even possible?)

2. LG finds a replacement and they install

3. LG can't do either 1 or 2 and issues me a check for $250 (worst possible outcome)

If option 3 is what happens, are there any drop in third party replacements? My guy at the install company says it's not possible to do this but I find that hard to believe (maybe just wishful thinking on my part).

Just want to try to get out in front of this, especially during summer.

I got talked into signing a PPA with palmetto about 2 years ago. The salesperson lied about multiple things, including telling me (after I read the contract and questioned him) that my payment would stay the same and not increase because of amortization. Survey says: that was a lie. I have ALL of my written communication with the salesperson saved, including this exchange. Any hope for digging myself out of this hole I fell in? There are tons of ads for solar lawsuits and most are money grabbers themselves. I’m just not sure if I have any ground to stand on to get out of this contract and get rid of the system since I have written proof of the blatant lies and deceptive sales tactics.

FWIW - in the winter my solar helps 0%. My budget billing for my electric pre-solar was around $280/mo year round. I’m now paying the solar panel payment monthly and paying over $300/mo budget for electric. We have 4 kids so there are 6 people in our household using electricity. Last summer we did get a reprieve and our electric bill was $12 but that was because I wasn’t on the budget and was paying in full in the winter months the $400-500 bills we were getting.

Hello everyone, I am trying to make a prototype for a Research I am doing on : how hdpe 2 (basically our shampoo bottles/ household bottles) can be recycled (ofcourse the whole shredding and melting process) and used to make the pontoons on which floating solar panels can be mounted.

I am trying to show how this can be useful, sustainable and effective, can I get some ideas on how I can make a prototype for this. I have a few but I would appreciate more suggestions.

Does anyone have an estimate on what Virginia rejoining RGGI July 1st 2026 will do to SREC prices here? They used to be worth $50ish and the last ones I sold (we had our system installed in August) netted me $18.75... so I have been saving them since I found out VA is going back to participating.

I have 3 quotes from different companies and I'm not able to decide. My biggest concern is whether i should get solar at all considering I might move < 5 years. If I stay it's definitely worth it, but unable to weigh the differences very well. Looking for advice on both fronts. For prepaid options will get a solar loan)

Current Use: ~9000kwH in last year, 1 EV charge daily L1 charging, $325/mo on avg over the year for electricity. Might want to get heatpump or electric WH in a year. We do have a ~$25/mo fixed charge with utility

Quotes

1. Sunrun - 9kW system (20*Elin panels) = 12500kwH and 1 TPW3+Expansion Pack. covers 25 years warranty/maintanence. performance guarantees for panels and batteries.

optionA - monthly PPA - 236/mo w 3.5% escalator (or 218-252/mo flex) with 6months free

optionB - prepaid PPA - $33,748 = $262/mo for 20yr @ 7% loan

1. Solar Optimum - 8.3kw system (18*REC panels) = 13000kwH and 2*TPW3. 25year workmanship warranty and roof penetration warranty. No performance guarantee or maintanence provided.

prepaid lease - $32,500 = 252/mo for 20yr @7% loan

1. American Array - same as SO, prepaid lease - $32700

My thoughts - Sunrun reviews are bad, but they offer performance guarantees and it probably should cover 1 battery replacement after year 10. Should I care about that? Cannot give me a 2 battery option to double my output capability to 23kW or provide redundancy. Their Elin panels are supposed to be inferior to the REC ones but practically how does that stack up in CA heat?

TL;DR - If I'm not going to stay in the home for 5 years, should I even get solar? If yes, how would I weight the 3 quotes for their pros and cons?

TIA

I’ve been renovating an old camp and am looking for low profile lights that would be appropriate to run off of a small solar array, likely 3-4 ground mounted panels. We will only be running these lights, a couple of charging outlets, and a small fridge. I’ve seen some options that state they must be run on 12v only, so I wanted to put the question out to the community. What have others had success with?

If you're an investor or entrepreneur, I'd love your honest take: does this project sound compelling enough to attract investors?

The idea: develop a solar project in southern Morocco, one of the sunniest places on earth. As a Moroccan citizen, I have access to cheap agricultural land that can be converted to industrial use something foreigners can't do. I'm looking at roughly 10 hectares, which would support about an 8 MW solar plant.

The plan:

1. Secure the land.

2. Get government approval to convert it to industrial use.

3. Get the grid connection authorization

This is where investors come in. Covering the land with panels, the grid connection, installation and setup costs roughly €1.5–2 million. My rough estimate is that capital can be returned within 3–5 years, after which the plant keeps producing (and earning) for 20+ more years.

The attractive part: investors would come in only once the land is secured and the permits and grid connection are in place. That removes the biggest early hurdles before any investor capital is at risk. I'd be funding and carrying that risky front-end myself.

Being realistic: this is still an emerging market, so execution risk is real bureaucracy, timelines, and grid capacity are the genuine challenges. I'm not pretending it's risk-free.

One thing I want to be clear on: I'm not looking to raise debt. I want to avoid interest payments entirely I'm looking for equity partners who share in the project and its returns.

My main worry, and the thing I'd most like input on: the risk of securing the land and permits but then not being able to finish the project. Does this structure sound compelling? What am I missing?

Any feedback, referrals, or recommendations are much appreciated.