Solar Energy Solutions

I purchased a solar array from Solar Energy Solutions thru an initiative…Solarize Southwest VA. My to biggest concerns were curb appeal and system longevity. I was assured by Ben the SES sales person that my system would be monitored and all failures would be warranted and repaired for 25 with the exception of the SolarEdge inverters which would be warranted for 30 years. I rolled the dice on the curb appeal. My installation was completed in October of 2021. A flawless installation, crew was friendly and knowledgeable. When they left my property the only way you knew they had been there was the solar array, inverters and related disconnects. I wasn’t there when they left but I think they swept my garage. Excellent! For 39 months I had zero problems with my system. Unfortunately starting on February 3rd, 2025 I had an Arc detection failure on inverter #2, I did not know it was my responsibility to report the failure (per the sales person) since I was told my system was being monitored and would be repaired. I reported the failure to Solar Energy Solutions on February 7th. I was told by Solar Energy Solutions that a fault had been detected and the inverter would have to be replaced. A short time later I received a call saying that SolarEdge had reset the inverter. The technician wasn’t sure that was adequate and said he would call me on the following Monday to confirm everything was okay. He never called. The #2 inverter has faulted 3 additional times and the # 1 inverter once. All detecting an Arc fault. I have made at least 12 calls to Solar Energy Solutions. I spent approximately 40 minutes chatting with Solar Edge only to be told that my problem could not be taken care of remotely. Counting today half my array has been down for 12 days in the last 5 weeks . After being told SolarEdge was updating firmware that would take care of my problem and I would get a follow up call from Solar Energy Solutions at 10:00 AM scheduled by SES and confirmed by me, no call came. I did call SES at 10:15 and spoke to a service technician. He said he would contact SolarEdge and let me know what they said. I didn’t expect the call and didn’t receive it. This is March the 10th, 2025, my system has gotten worse not better and as far as I know there is no proposed resolution from my installer…Solar Energy Solutions. As of this writing I would say their warranty is bogus, proceed with caution!!!! My next step is to file a complaint a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission for false advertising.

We have been very pleased with our decision to "go solar" and to contract with Solar Energy Solutions for our solar panel and battery installation. None of the employees has seemed to tire of our questions, even now - two months after completion of the installation, and and our naive questions have been patiently answered. We were not rushed into making a decision about the extent of our project, and the entire planning process was methodical, with periodic updates emailed to us. During the installation, all of the employees were friendly, knowledgeable, careful, and respectful, and they worked well together. In addition, they always cleaned up their workspace before leaving at the end of the day. They were good communicators, keeping us abreast of daily installation plans with early morning phone calls and end of the day briefings. As the crew leader left on the final day of installation, he offered us his cellphone number and encouraged us - being a bit anxious - to call him with any questions or problems. We haven't needed to contact him. We confess that a former client of Solar Energy Solutions so highly recommended the company that we did not solicit competitive bids for our work, although we did compare prices informally online. That behavior speaks to our desire for a system that works well, with quality overriding a primary focus on price. We're pleased with the warranties offered, although we hope to not need them. Now, we are learning how to modify our lifestyle to maximize our usage of electricity as it is being generated by the panels or as it's drawn from our powerwalls (batteries), as opposed to sending it to the grid for later use. It pays to be good stewards and to plan ahead for electricity use in our household.