The solar rep gave completely false info, signed loan paper 8/12/17 and solar was not up and running until 12/8/17, plans drawn were according to the wrong utility co. Solar meter had to be moved and still was wrong and had to be moved again, 28 days after being turned on an arc fault occurred shutting power off to inverter for 21 days with no notification because the company never provided me with online monitoring info. Contractor signed off on payment auth from bank 10/17/17 when job was not complete or even approved by Utility Co. to be turned on until 11/25/17 and job completed 12/8/17. I am desperate and do not know what to do. I’m paying more now per month than before.
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Hi Kathi,
You technically can. Monitoring is generally done through a service and you can find them online. But make sure you check your contract for any requirements you may have for monitoring. Depending on where you are, there are companies that do an as-built inspection. It is very common these days to hire such a firm at the end of a PV installation. Many contractors hire these companies as well as a layer of protection and verification. It may be worth your while to hire such a firm. They will be able to give you a thorough understanding of the system, its performance, and in many cases make recommendations for monitoring, etc. If they find a problem, their documentation will be critical to any action you may take in the future, and the sooner you have the system inspected the better so that it can’t be claimed later on that modifications were made or damage was caused after installation. With that said, in most cases you will find that the system was installed properly. With PV, there are several layers of verification (engineering, building permits, utility company). Although there were some flaws with the engineering from what you say, at the end of the process these issues should have been resolved by the time your utility company flips the switch. Best of luck to you.
There are options for you to monitor the system on your own, but it depends on what inverter you have. For example, if it is Enphase or Solar Edge (two common inverters for residential purposes), you can have a monitoring device added to the inverter by just about any solar contractor at minimal cost. You’ll be able to check system performance via app on your phone or web browser. And more importantly, if system performance suddenly drops (indicating a fault somewhere in the system), you’ll get automatically notified of the problem and can then log into your monitoring software to see where the fault is coming from. Again, a decent solar company will be able to come to your house and locate/repair the issue at a reasonable cost. So, you need not pay someone to actively monitor the system. You can set it up by working directly with a reputable solar company. Oh, and it is entirely possible that your system was built with the necessary monitoring piece already installed and it would cost you absolutely nothing to gain access to your system. You might need to reach out to your solar installer to find out if they included the monitoring hardware already or not. I’m sure you’re reticent to contact them, but it could save you a few hundred dollars. Best of luck!
I would try to get the installer to get your monitoring connected and then monitor yourself. If that doesn’t work locus energy is a great provider of monitoring hardware and software.