My Solar Panel System does not seem to be working very well. What should I do?

I heard a terrible story the other day.  An elderly woman in a wheel chair had a solar panel system installed on her roof in Windsor, Ontario.  She had been taken advantage of by both the Solar Panel installers and a high interest loan by the Tom, Dick and Harry screw you bank.  She is losing money, that is how badly these greedy people are.

IMHO there is a special place in Hell for theses people.

Consumer Alert Against Certified Solar Windsor (Click to see): 

One of the problems in the life is that we can never go back, we only can go forward.

Installing a microfit program in short is a business.  You get a certain rate for 20 years of electrical production.  It is up to YOU to maximize your return of your investment ROI.

If I have a bad or poor install I can get Flexible Solar to analyze my system and to make recommendations.

First and foremost, I want to borrow the money at the lowest possible rate.  Stay away from those 6 1/2% loans.  Instead go with a Home owners loan or line of credit.  Ours is at 3 1/2 %.

The first part of the problem is already done.  You have a contract for either 80.2 cents or 54.9 cents or like us 39.6 cents per kW hour.  Now lets maximize our production.

Most applications have some type of shading issues.  This is where Solar Edge really shines.  Remember, if you have string Inverters installed they are a weak link in your system.  A HUGE one with shading of any panel in the string.  Solution: Remove them and install optimizers and SolarEdge Inverters.  The good news here is that most String Inverters only last 10-12 years so replacing them early and taking out the extended warrentee with Solar Edge is not the huge penalty that you may think that it is.

Hopefully you didn't also get poorly producing panels like some locally produced products.  The great news is that panels today cost 1/4 or so of what they did 3-4 years ago.  If you have a very limited roof area then upgrading your panels to Heliene's 335 W mono panels might be a very good way to go.  Almost all early installs were 12 kW on the DC approved by the OPA.  Some installers actually put in great panels but the wrong inverter system.

You may also be able install some panels on the east or west roof.  East is the preferred roof over the west side.

Example:  One rich property owner in Windsor is reported to own 30 microfit applications at 80.2 cents per kW hour.  He removed all of his panels and inverters and went with 280 W mono panels and Solar Edge.  It is now reported that he earns $30,000 per month from all of the installs.  His refurbishing of his installs quickly paid for itself.  You of course will NOT do as well as the tariff rate is 1/2 of his now but you May see a big improvement in your bank account.

You have to do the math.  If your install is so poor (like on a North roof), you most likely will have a South roof to install panels on.

Kirk is a retired Professional Engineer with experience in the Electrical Utility sector.  We have no connection with Heliene, Silfab or Flexible Solar.  We just believe that an informed consumer is the best consumer.  Your results may vary from ours. All monitoring results were obtained from SolarEdge panel monitoring reported data.

NOTE:  Life is Short - Try to Help your neighbours and people in need

Being retired, because of the small income from the Solar Panels, we were able to re-start our support of a child in need from Nicaragua.  If you are better off, please also consider helping those in need though the Christian Children Fund of Canada.

More information:

If you are interested in installing a Microfit or Fit solar panel system or upgrading your system, I strongly recommend giving Steve a call at Flexible Solar Solutions in Windsor, Ontario serving Southern Ontario.  They are the best and most honest microfit solar panel installers that I have had the pleasure of working with.  They will give you a straight analysis of your roof and what you can expect to earn.  Don't forget to tell them that Kirk sent you.  See my first post for more information on going Solar.

We expect to earn $6500-7500 per year depending on the weather for 20 years.  That should work out to us having an extra $100,000.00 income for our retirement over and above your system costs.  At that point we grid tie and earn the going rate of power which just might be very close to what we are currently being paid.

 Steve at Flexible Solar Serving Southern Ontario 519-962-9218