[RE-wrenches] warranty liabilities

[Nick Soleil]

Marco and Bob:
    I have replaced more than 70 bad US made modules, so I wouldn't jump right 
into stereotyping modules by the country.  These warranty claims are time 
consuming, distracting, and can be costly.  The amounts paid by the 
manufacturers of inverters and modules help cover the costs, but rarely cover 
all of our expenses.  

    There are weeks that I spend half my time dealing with warranty issues. This 
is virtually all from product failures.  I am finding that many modules are 
failing at 4+ years old.

 Nick Soleil
Project Manager
Advanced Alternative Energy Solutions, LLC
PO Box 657
Petaluma, CA 94953
Cell:   707-321-2937
Office: 707-789-9537
Fax:    707-769-9037




________________________________
From: Bob-O Schultze <bob-o at electronconnection.com>
To: RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
Sent: Mon, November 1, 2010 10:56:44 AM
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] warranty liabilities

Marco,
The only things on a battery-less PV system that carry a warranty are the 
modules and the inverter. The rest is pretty much on the installer to do a good 
job. Unless you are using 3C (Cheap Chinese Crap) modules, the probability of a 
failure is very small. Personally, I use an inverter which not only carries a 10 
year warranty but the company will compensate me fairly for service calls where 
the inverter is at fault.
Bob-O


On Oct 31, 2010, at 4:32 PM, Marco Mangelsdorf wrote:
In places like California, and other states as well I’m sure, a PV integrator 
needs to provide a bumper-to-bumper system warranty of what? 10 years.
 
I’d like to know if many, or any, of you all put aside any money to cover your 
future warranty liabilities.  (I don’t.)
 
My belief is that we as an industry—at least as far as the large majority of us 
who are independent small companies—don’t have a clue when it comes to 
calculating what our present and future exposure is as far as warranty liability 
issues.
 
Having gone through the boom and bust of the solar thermal business in CA. in 
the late 1970s and early 1980s, there were tons and tons of orphan systems that 
had been supposedly covered by warranties by companies that were long gone.  
Makes we wonder how close or far we are these days to a similar situation…
 
marco
 
_______________________________________________
List sponsored by Home Power magazine

List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org

Options & settings:
http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org

List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org

List rules & etiquette:
www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm

Check out participant bios:
www.members.re-wrenches.org


      
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org/attachments/20101101/29200bd0/attachment-0003.html>