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<p class="MsoNormal">I’m not sure that a PhD dissertation is required for a successful performance warranty claim. For most claims, the manufacturer needs to verify just a few things; 1. Is it one of their modules? (verified with a serial number) 2. Is the
module broken? (verified by an image of the module) 3. Is the module shaded? (verified by an image of the array, indicating where the claimed module is), 4. Is the module not performing to spec? (verified with a Voc and Isc check, or module level info
from the MLPE). <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A lot can be learned from the MLPE on a solar module. Many manufacturers will accept individual module voltage and current readings form the monitoring platform for warranty claims (free). Couple that with and image of the module to determine
if it is broken, and a view of the array to understand if the module is not shaded and that can potentially be an inexpensive warranty claim. Where things go sideways is when a customer wants a module replaced because they see it is performing at less than
the rest of the modules in the array, and does not want to investigate any further. Do just a minor amount of logical remote troubleshooting (individual modules voltage and current, compared to the spec sheet and neighboring modules) and you can often get
a claim accepted without a site visit, or at a minimum a drive by to check the status of the modules.
<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Module manufacturers are very interested in warranty claims as they use the failure analyses to feed back into their product improvement program. So I’m not sure it is wise to lump all manufacturers in with one bad actor.
<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">But – as always – the best warranty out there is one that you don’t have to use.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">IMHO.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">George McClellan | Senior Technical Sales Manager | REC Americas LLC
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330 James Way Ste 150<span lang="UK"> | </span>Pismo Beach, CA 93449<span lang="UK"> |
</span>USA<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Cell phone +1 805 704 3226 | Fax +1 805 357 6104 <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:navy"><a href="http://www.recgroup.com/" title="http://www.recgroup.com/">www.recgroup.com</a>
</span><span style="color:black">| <a href="mailto:shannon.kent@recgroup.com">george.mcclellan@recgroup.com</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><img border="0" width="400" height="230" style="width:4.1666in;height:2.3958in" id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D8FE87.1B8F5D10"><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b>From:</b> RE-wrenches <re-wrenches-bounces@lists.re-wrenches.org>
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Jason Szumlanski via RE-wrenches<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, November 22, 2022 2:17 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> RE-wrenches <re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org><br>
<b>Cc:</b> Jason Szumlanski <jason@floridasolardesigngroup.com><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Re: [RE-wrenches] Sunpower Performance Warranty Claim<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">This is why I have an article on my website to explain to prospective clients why module warranties are mostly useless.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">The cost to evaluate most potential problems is prohibitive. Now if you have a major manufacturer failure and every module is obviously bad, that could be grounds for a warranty claim, but for
a single module or two, or a minor deficiency in production - it just will never be worth it. And later in the life of a system, even a major issue might not be worth investigating. I can count the successful module warranty claims I have done in my career
on a single hand.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Modules warranties are mostly marketing nonsense, unfortunately, IMO.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
Jason Szumlanski <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Roboto;color:#333333">Principal Solar Designer | Florida Solar Design Group<br>
NABCEP Certified Solar Professional (PVIP)<br>
Florida State Certified Solar Contractor CVC56956</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<img border="0" width="1" height="1" style="width:.0104in;height:.0104in" id="_x0000_i1027" src="https://mailtrack.io/trace/mail/5e62fb789662426d5070672de32d3f35c6d1a27a.png?u=1613865"><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">On Tue, Nov 22, 2022 at 1:50 PM Scot Arey via RE-wrenches <<a href="mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org">re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto">I agree that the time to process warranty the module to a manufacturer’s desires is cost-prohibitive. Of all the component’s we use, this warranty almost seems the least valuable
for this very reason. We stopped one case for this very reason as I didn’t want to do a PhD dissertation for a single module.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto">Was surprised by one manufacturer who advised us to read that bypass diodes were not an warranty defect even though the module was making half power.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto">Good luck, look forward to hearing how your case goes.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto">Scot Arey<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto">Solar CenTex<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"> <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><b>From:</b> RE-wrenches <<a href="mailto:re-wrenches-bounces@lists.re-wrenches.org" target="_blank">re-wrenches-bounces@lists.re-wrenches.org</a>>
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Daniel Young via RE-wrenches<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, November 22, 2022 12:34 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> RE-wrenches <<a href="mailto:re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org" target="_blank">re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org</a>><br>
<b>Cc:</b> Daniel Young <<a href="mailto:danny@sesre.com" target="_blank">danny@sesre.com</a>><br>
<b>Subject:</b> [RE-wrenches] Sunpower Performance Warranty Claim<o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto">Hello Wrenches,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto">Any experience successfully submitting a performance warranty claim with SunPower on their solar modules? Right now, in order to Provide what they are asking for, we will likely
spend more time/money testing to their satisfaction than it would cost for us to likely buy new modules and just replace the array.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto">Anybody have a similar experience? Or suggestions on how to deal with Sunpower?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto">Don’t want to bog this down with all the details but suffice to say we I-V traced the array at the string level as a sanity check (7-10 % lower than anticipated performance), and
a random selection of individual modules as well and we are seeing roughly 8% lower performance than expected given the array age and listed performance warranty. (STC corrected I-V trace is 8% lower than it should be for an 8 year old solar module from SunPower)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto">With Regards,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Merriweather">--</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Merriweather"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Merriweather">Danny Young</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Merriweather">NABCEP PV Installation Professional #031508-90</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Merriweather">Engineering Team Lead<br>
Solar Energy Solutions</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Merriweather Regular"">Lexington | Louisville | Bloomington | Cincinnati | Evansville | Indianapolis</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Merriweather">513-448-5176 (mobile)</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Merriweather">877-312-7456 (Main Office)</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Merriweather"><a href="mailto:danny@sesre.com" target="_blank">danny@sesre.com</a></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto"> <o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">_________________________<o:p></o:p></p>
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