The bidmysolar™ Platform is about imparting usable information in terms that we mortals can understand. We are real people, real homeowners who have been through the solar journey and not cartoon characters.
If you enjoy reading technical data, then the Australian solar market has a plethora of information available and it could appear like every electrical engineer loves writing about solar and as if solar technology is changing at the speed of light. Well it is not.
Once you have your head around the concept that sun shines on the panels, the panels produce power, the inverter converts the power to usable household electricity and you can sell extra output within certain limits back to the power grid, then that’s about it. Jokes aside, understanding solar is important but the real problem starts when solar does not do what it is supposed to do. That is where legal expertise comes to the fore.
Sales agreements, grid and supply applications never ever seem to feature on solar quoting platforms. Far too many solar agreements are either silent on what will take place if the system fails or performs below expectation.
The first question to ask if requesting a quote is “would you mind emailing to me your sales agreement and installation agreement”. If it is cloud based, all the better because it is at least demonstrating the company has some level of technical skill and professionalism. If the documentation is the old docket book with multiple paragraphs of fine print at the rear of the document, then it is entirely likely there are nasty clauses protecting the installer and sales company.
Here is a classic clause found embedded in a well-known sales company documentation and reads as follows:
“XXXXXXX will and from the date of installation and for a period not longer than twelve months assist the purchaser and where required to enforce warranties and guarantees provided by the manufacturer. In circumstances, where a fault or claim against workmanship, the purchaser must contact the installer of the said system…………………………”
Two matters arise from this clause.
1. The sales company has very little confidence in the system and if the system fails in the second year, you’re on your own; and
2. The sales company is not the one with CEC accreditation, it is the installer, and thus it is his responsibility to honour the workmanship warranty.
We at bidmysolar™ spend a lot of time reviewing these agreements to ensure that our approved vendors are serious about service and warranties. We think that having a proper grasp of agreements ensuring enforceability, signing the bottom line and parting with a lot of money for solar is as important, if not more so, than understanding the production of semiconductor grade silicon and how it involves a chemical purification process to produce hyper pure polysilicon followed by a recrystallization process to grow monocrystalline silicon for solar panels…. Thanks Wikipedia!
