Solar panel maintenance

We also had Carl Mowbray of Eco Partners trying his best to convince us that our micro inverters will fail if the software is not updated. He also tried to tell us that the panels were not functioning as they should be. Yet we have been monitoring the whole system since it was installed and we still get as much energy produced on cloudless days now as we did in 2014.

I have yet to find any online confirmation that Enphase inverters will shut themselves down if they can't export their performance data. If this is a real fault, then Enphase have a serious flaw in their design and one would expect to see some internet traffic on the subject.

The whole "sign here and now or the price will go up and the sky will fall in, and no, you can't have time to think about it because I won't be back in these parts for months" was out of the classic playbook of pressure sales.

If you are worried about people accessing the system remotely, it is possible to change the administration password. All you need is some basic skills in accessing network devices that use common login details (or a teenager). (not sure about giving a detailed description on a public forum).

Just found this thread after a 1.5 hour sales visit from 'solar engineer' Carl from Eco-partners.
We nearly fell for it. Two of our panels aren't performing as well as they could and we have been wondering what to do..... then came a call from a woman claiming that Enphase have given the work of updating the software on their systems to Eco-partners and that they are going around the country visiting everyone with panels from companies no longer trading. It sounded like a good thing so I agreed to a visit.
Carl was friendly as are all salesmen and sat down with us to 'explain' our situation.
He told us the story about the inverted going off of they don't download their data. He also told us some absolute rubbish that because our Envoy device was in dining room and not next to the meter interference from washing machine could affect the readings. Then came the hard sell £1375 for 10 years service, a 20 year option and one with a battery. Carl assured us Eco-partners would stay in business as Enphase is a world leading solar supplier; an odd sort of logic. We weren't sure what to do and initially signed up (as well aware of the 14 day cool off period).
Further research and thinking and we cancelled the next day.
Companies House data shows Eco partners to have been trading since 2012 but theh were dormant until 2016. Hardly the sort of company to pass £1375 to upfront. I did ask Carl why it couldn't be an annual contract but he admitted they needed to get the money in.
As for the Envoy unit; Carl reckoned they cost over £800 and they would fit is a new one next to our meter (LOL)! We found on online for just over £200.
Even if the Enviy stops working the electricity is still being exported to the grid and the payments will continue.

Carl tried to impress us by logging into our Envoy and telling us the times our panels went off! We can do that anytime ourselves.

All in all better to put the £1375 in a savings account and if something really goes wrong with your panels you will find a local company to sort it out.

The two panels on our array that are poorly performing are losing us about £60 a year in fit payments. Certainly not worth giving a company that may not even be trading anymore in a few years time £1375 to fix them.