Solar panels co. gone bust

tlck9

Hi All

I wondered if anyone could offer some advice. I have solar panels, with a 10 year warranty and micro inverters with the same. I have a warranty for workmanship but the micro inverter company has gone out of business - as has the company that supplied my solar panels.

I have lost most access to my monitoring and now cannot tell if they are working - I have the system saying only 3 are working but not sure if this is a fault or just an error in the monitoring

So can anyone help as to how I get this resolved. I did pay by creditcard and have contacted them and they mentioned section 75?

But I'm not entirely sure what or where to do? So appreciate any advice

footyguy

A qualified electrician should be able to help you over whether or not all the panels are working.

Are solar panels repairable? Perhaps another solar panel company could tell you, and if not, replace the faulty panels

Section 75 of the consumer credit act will not get your panels working again. This MSE article explains more about the said act
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/section75-protect-your-purchases

Are the credit card company suggesting you sue them under said act?
Probably cheaper and easier to follow their complaints procedure, and then, if necessary, ask the financial ombudsman to assist you in any claim against the credit card company.

macman

Your generation meter will tell you if the inverter is feeding power into the property/grid.
You can't do a chargeback because the company has gone into liquidation, as you already received the goods, and your card provider will not cover a 10 year warranty period! Why don't you check with the panel manufacturer, as there may be some level of warranty supplied by them?
In the absence of any warranty cover from manufacturer or retailer, you will have to get a 3rd party to do the repair and pay them yourself. Unless your home insurance covers this, of course.

tlck9

because i'm using micro inverters, my generation meter can only tell me if its getting"some" feed, it can't actually tell me if all are working.

if I had only one inverter, it would be a different story as they would all stop working (very black and white).

I know the inverter company can reset the inverters remotely, but that in it's self is a worry, if they shut their systems down, does that mean the inverters stop completely.

footyguy

macman wrote: »

...You can't do a chargeback because the company has gone into liquidation, as you already received the goods, and your card provider will not cover a 10 year warranty period! ...

If the contract between the customer & the supplier included 10 years supplier backed warranty of the goods supplied, then the credit provider can be held liable for fulfillment of the original contract entered into.

The card company will not repair the goods supplied. The best that could possibly occur would be the credit card company refunds all the money originally paid ... and the credit card company may then want the goods back as they will effectively have anulled the original contract formed.

I'm not sure that is what the OP is after.

tlck9

footyguy wrote: »

If the contract between the customer & the supplier included 10 years supplier backed warranty of the goods supplied, then the credit provider can be held liable for fulfillment of the original contract entered into.

The card company will not repair the goods supplied. The best that could possibly occur would be the credit card company refunds all the money originally paid ... and the credit card company may then want the goods back as they will effectively have anulled the original contract formed.

I'm not sure that is what the OP is after.

Thanks all for the replies, no I dont want to lose the solar panels, but as you say they may be held to doing something about the warranty - I will see how the next few weeks pan out and monitor the output via the generation meter - I have screen shots of last years, so I can in theory match how well they are doing (in an about way)

Thanks again.

macman

How on earth can the supplier access your inverters remotely?
footyguy: if the warranty was supplier-provided, then you might have a point. But if it's effectively underwritten by the manufacturer(s), which I think more likely, then a chargeback will not apply, as the OP has no contract with the manufacturer, only with the installer.

System

Am I missing something here? The three quotes that I got for PV Solar 4 years ago, all included insurance-backed warranties to cover, inter alia, the possibility of the installer going into liquidation. Personally, I doubt that the OP has any claim against his credit company - at best, he can revert back to the manufacturer if they have warranted the products.

There is also another judgement to be made and that is the cost of repair less the FITs that will be lost if the system is not repaired.

I doubt that it would cost anything to get a quote for any repairs which are needed.

Martyn1981

tlck9 wrote: »

Thanks all for the replies, no I dont want to lose the solar panels, but as you say they may be held to doing something about the warranty - I will see how the next few weeks pan out and monitor the output via the generation meter - I have screen shots of last years, so I can in theory match how well they are doing (in an about way)

Thanks again.

Do you have daily, weekly, monthly records of what your system generated? If so, you can compare month on month, apply a bit of logic for weather differences. You should be able to spot if there's a big problem.

Alternatively (or also) have a play with PVGIS (there's a walkthrough in the PV FAQs section 5) and see what monthly generation for your property should be. Again, apply some weather logic (good or bad month?) and see how your system compares to targets.

Not a substitute for online monitoring, but should give some peace of mind, or alternatively let you know there's a problem.

Mart.

Cardew

It might be worth contacting RECC about this and seek their advice:


https://www.recc.org.uk/contact


If an installation company has given X years guarantee and has ceased trading what will happen about the diagnosing of faulty panels/cabling/equipment. The manufacturer might replace the panel under guarantee, but that is likely to be a small part of the overall cost.