Solar install turning out really bad - looking for some help/advice please.

[Living Large]

So of course my installer did not show up today as promised, and no call either. Call him before noon, no answer, sent a text, no reply.

Finally heard back by text just now, 4 hours later...


"We will not make it today. I apologize. Too many things I had to deal with today from being gone for the last couple weeks. However will be there tomorrow morning between 89 to wrap everything up"

LOL @ wrapping everything up in one day.

I replied...

"There is no way this can be wrapped up tomorrow. There is a lot of racking to do and all the electrical needs to be redone, we are not accepting the half-assed flexible tubing and conduit curved around the eve like you did it. It needs to be fed into the wall and through the attic like I’ve seen on every single other solar install.

If you guys do not come tomorrow morning and also finish by the end of the week, we are canceling the project and having the funds reversed."

Clearly this chap plans to get in and get out ASAP, probably because he feels you are on to what is and what isn't shoddy work. He is losing money redoing crappy work, just like a used car dealer loses money for each thing they fix in a car before selling it. My guess is he isn't going to ask you for the checklist you obviously had prepared a week or two ago. Best of luck.

[Alisobob]

Clearly this chap plans to get in and get out ASAP

Clearly this chap is a tweeker. Cut your losses.

This guy has butchered everything thus far.... you really want him to wire your house, so you can watch it burn down?

[HX_Guy]

Clearly this chap is a tweeker. Cut your losses.

This guy has butchered everything thus far.... you really want him to wire your house, so you can watch it burn down?

You know that's an excellent point. Can that really be messed up though? There aren't even any splices...or at least there shouldn't be. Knowing this guy though, he would probably patch together 10 different cables to make one long one.


I basically just need him to bring the rest of the railing & L feet and hoist the panels up on the roof, plus he holds the permit with the city and I don't want to go through the mess of redoing all that with a different company. I'm very confident I can finish the wiring myself, in fact I started on it tonight in the garage. Cut out a piece of drywall so I could have access to drill a 2" hole through the wood and up into the attic. Pretty easy and worked like a charm.

[Alisobob]

You know that's an excellent point. Can that really be messed up though?

With your inverter on the ground, the power coming down from the roof is something like 600v - 800v DC. That is not something to take lightly...

[HX_Guy]

Actually I believe it's regulated by the optimizers for a total of 350VDC, that's still a lot though.

[Living Large]

Actually I believe it's regulated by the optimizers for a total of 350VDC, that's still a lot though.

Absolutely that is a lot - and it's DC, not AC. I assume that loose conductors must be within a conduit in the wall.

Nice hole. I've made several access holes in drywall over the years, and I always cut midway on the stud like you did, so patching is easier.

[Alisobob]

http://www.homedepot.com/p/GREAT-STUFF-Fireblock-Insulating-Foam-Sealant-16-oz-345372/202023037

[lkstaack]

I'm very confident I can finish the wiring myself, in fact I started on it tonight in the garage. Cut out a piece of drywall so I could have access to drill a 2" hole through the wood and up into the attic. Pretty easy and worked like a charm.

I like your style. Crappy contractor treats your house like a third world hovel. F-it, I'm going to do it myself the right way. Like a boss.

[HX_Guy]

Absolutely that is a lot - and it's DC, not AC. I assume that loose conductors must be within a conduit in the wall.

Nice hole. I've made several access holes in drywall over the years, and I always cut midway on the stud like you did, so patching is easier.

Yep, NEC says that the conductors have to be ran through metal conduit, so I'm going to use the flexible metal conduit (FMC).

And yep again, I was already planning to use that orange foam stuff.

[HX_Guy]

Hey looks who's here!

[sensij]

Have you emailed him a link to this thread yet? Once your relationship with him is done, I think you should.

[HX_Guy]

I had a conversation with the guy, we are on the same page about the items I bought coming out of whatever I owed him at this point money wise, which basically leaves him with nothing to collect. He's ok with that, said it is what it is and said he just wants to get this completed and move on.

He did try to argue that the way they did it is how they do it and there's a hundred other installs that looks just like his...I don't him I haven't seen one, there are at least 9-10 installs within walking distance from my house and none look like that...he said we can drive around and he can show me ones that are. Whatever, it's still ****.

[Alisobob]

f.JPG

"F" does not mean Fantastic....

[Volusiano]

To the OP, I know you said you talked with the last 4 or 5 of his customers and they were happy with his installations. I wonder where you got their contact info from? From the contractor himself? If so, for sure he would only give you good referrals. If not from him, could you have found other customers who were not happy with him to talk to? You know, the ones who gave him the F rating?

[Volusiano]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5515[/ATTACH]

"F" does not mean Fantastic....

I was curious and looked into this and saw basically 2 complaints filed on BBB on this contractor with 1 of the 2 providing some details. The detailed one said something about the contractor claiming he ordered the panels through Solarworld but when the owner tried to verify this with Solarworld, it turned out that the contractor lied about this because Solarworld never heard of them. It didn't look like they got too far before the owner shut it down. Looks like they had brackets installed and that was it?