We should say right up front that we generally have a bias in favor of microinverters. Most of the solar energy systems that we sell at SolarTown are sold with microinverters rather than central inverters. We have explained in our learning article explaining inverters and micro inverters why generally we favor microinverters in the residential solar market. Our recommendation, however, may be tempered by our recent experience dealing with customer care of the leading microinverter manufacturer, Enphase. Microinverters have quickly garnered acceptance especially for solar installations on homes. Although we expect some major competition starting this year, Enphase is undoubtedly the leader of this fast expanding market, and as of this writing, is the only microinverter we carry at SolarTown. We may have not been as sensitive to the reliability issue of microinverters, or particularly the Enphase microinverter, until one of the Enphase parts failed on one of our customer’s installations. The part that failed was the Enphase Envoy, which is, according to Enphase, the “communications gateway” for the solar energy system. It basically monitors the performance of the system.
Posts Tagged ‘Solar Energy Systems’
Enphase Microinverter Warranty Claim Causes Heartburn
Monday, March 21st, 2011Solar Spring: New Year, New Solar Energy Products
Thursday, March 10th, 2011The warming weather will make for an excellent time to take advantage of the additional solar projects coming live in 2011. In addition to your standard solar energy systems, we now see solar installed in different devices and hardware bringing the technology to a wider audience. You ask, “What other devices?” Well we can begin with the Toyota Prius’ solar powered ventilation system, which is the most widely accepted motor vehicle incorporating solar on the roof (silicon cells), helps cool and maintain the car and look but more importantly maximizing energy efficiency.
Sexy Solar Panels: The Branding Gap
Friday, January 28th, 2011I was glad to hear that solar made it into Obama’s speech earlier this week, but solar is finding itself lumped in with some strange bedfellows, nuclear and now even natural gas. How did that happen? Sometimes the story of a product or technology is all in the marketing. The success or failure of a product may depend less on the ultimate merits or utility of a product but more on the consumer’s perceptions of that product. In other words, it depends on what consumers think they see, not what they actually see. To get solar into the mainstream, then, we need to come up with a new branding effort. “New and improved solar” is not going to get us very far, but we need you to weigh in helping the solar industry to adopt a new nomenclature that will attract the masses. Think cheap solar, or eco-solar, or simply superb solar. The one that I like the best is sexy solar as in I just put some sexy solar panels on my roof this week.
The Year for Solar In 2010—and Looking Ahead
Friday, December 17th, 2010
These are some of the highlights of the year gone by and an outlook of things to come for 2011. The solar industry has waited to find out what would be the fate of the Treasury Grant program. If you haven’t tuned in for this debate, this development is very good news for the renewable energy industry. The solar industry had another stellar growth year. A recent report predicted that the industry will grow as much as 22% in 2010, when all of the numbers (modules) have been counted. The one gnawing issue is that the solar industry is quickly becoming a Chinese industry, as even today the Chinese own 66% of world production. It was a better year to put home solar panels on your roof than investing in solar stocks. Morningstar says that solar investors “could be in for a rude awakening come 2011.” The biggest change in the industry came with the micro-inverter. Sure, solar panel efficiencies improved, which means more output for the buck, and the price of PV came down, but the biggest change in the industry came with the industry acceptance for residential PV installation of the micro-inverter. Enphase is no doubt the market leader, but there are many, many wanabees and the competition for micro-inverters will heat up in 2011. The other major shift we saw in the industry is that regardless of whether the homeowner gets a micro-inverter, the homeowner almost invariably wants to get monitoring of the solar energy system.
SolarTown Featured As Solar and Green Energy Resource
Thursday, October 28th, 2010You are a plumber, an electrician or possibly a roofer and you increasingly hear from your customers that they are in the market to install a solar energy system to reduce their energy costs. We understand that you want to serve this rapidly expanding solar market, and there is no reason that you shouldn’t. Some of our most loyal customers are contractors who are making the transition to solar energy installations. If you are a quality contractor, you already have many of the requisite skills that are easily transferable to installing solar energy systems. We want to be able to continue to reach out to contractors who are just getting into the field. SolarTown has become a featured solar and green energy resource for plumbers, roofers and electrical contractors.
Solar Home Tour Wow Factor
Tuesday, October 5th, 2010
This past weekend, homeowners opened their solar homes to those wanting to catch a glimpse of the future of home energy. We hope that you were able to attend one of the 648 tours throughout the country. I took my kids to visit some of the solar homes in Washington, DC and Virginia and enjoyed the display of solar electric, solar thermal and even passive solar. My kids especially enjoyed the solar cookies from the solar ovens. The solar home tour showed just how far solar applications have come and how new technology is reshaping the world around us. We only hope that next year we will see more innovations and more homes on the solar home tours, and we hope that we’ll get an invite to the White House to see Obama’s new solar energy system.
Choose Your Home Solar Panel System with SolarTown
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010We have had increased interest from those wanting to manage their solar installations. Some of those who have contacted SolarTown are handy around the house and fashion themselves as DIY solar installer. Some are simply taking an active role in managing their solar installations. They are not the type to get on a roof, but they are ready to hire a roofer and electrician. And then there are plumbers or electricians who are making the transition to the solar installation business and need our assistance. All of these folks are people who now make up the SolarTown community. They are interested in working with SolarTown to choose solar energy systems. If you fall within one of these categories, we can help you, too. We have a lot of online resources to assist you. We also have technical customer assistance to guide you through the process of installing your own solar energy system. In this blog entry, we want to demystify the process of how SolarTown can help you succeed with your solar energy project.
Solar Loan Program by SolarTown
Thursday, July 15th, 2010
Ever since we created the SolarTown community, our customers have complained that the financial burden of going solar was simply too great for them to embark on the journey. Starting today, we are offering our customers some relief: a solar loan program with one year of no payments and no interest. If you are a DIYer, you now have this solar loan program as an option so that you have time to receive your economic incentives and you don’t have to go out and get a home loan or put the entire purchase on your credit card. If you are an installer who has in the past had to advance the cost of the equipment for your customers, you can now have your customer place an order for a solar energy system with SolarTown. You will of course still do the installation—but without having to come out of pocket for the solar energy equipment.
The Death of PACE?
Wednesday, July 14th, 2010The Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs are a creative and effective approach to financing solar energy systems. Many were looking for a solar financing solution and after a very limited experiment in Berkeley, PACE expanded like wild fire to 23 states. PACE may not be for everyone and there are other choices available, but we hope that legal clouds hanging over PACE are resolved. Legislation has been introduced in the House to save PACE. We hope that his efforts succeed. It is a program that can help a lot of people go solar.
Economics Trump Environment in New Jersey
Wednesday, May 19th, 2010New Jersey has been a leader in solar, but because of tough economic times, the Governor has thrown solar under the bus. The New Jersey governor has diverted some $400 million in clean energy programs to balance the state’s budget. This financing of course puts the solar installer at risk if there are delays in receiving the rebates. What happens when the rebates are in jeopardy? Two words spring to mind: panic and chaos—which is exactly what is happening in New Jersey today. New Jersey has temporarily suspended the solar rebate program and has announced that it will not take any further applications until September. If you are a small installer paying your labor and equipment with the expectation that you will receive the rebates in a timely manner, this announcement must have produced uncertainty at best and panic at worst. This move seems to be pound wise and penny foolish as no doubt the solar installers will have to lay off some of their workers and wait until the rebates become available in September—just as the economy is beginning to recover.