System down - production compensation

[kpinthebay]

So my inverter went down in January. I didn't know until March or so when I randomly went into my app. I noticed no solar production. Made an appointment - ealiest was 6 weeks away. They diagnosed and determined I needed a new SolarEdge gateway. Fast forward to today when it was finally installed. Production restored.

So for 4 months, I had no solar production. Has anyone successfully got some kind of compensation from Tesla for the lost production? My installer panted the seed into my head, which I hadn't even considered.

How did you go about this? What docs did you provide? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Vines]

So my inverter went down in January. I didn't know until March or so when I randomly went into my app. I noticed no solar production. Made an appointment - ealiest was 6 weeks away. They diagnosed and determined I needed a new SolarEdge gateway. Fast forward to today when it was finally installed. Production restored.

So for 4 months, I had no solar production. Has anyone successfully got some kind of compensation from Tesla for the lost production? My installer panted the seed into my head, which I hadn't even considered.

How did you go about this? What docs did you provide? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

If your installer gave you a production guarantee, you might be able to approach this from that perspective. Usually the winter months are the lowest production so you probably didn't loser out terribly for the year if it is working now.

However it sounds like you had someone other than Tesla install the system, why do you think Tesla would compensate you? This is between you and your installer. If that installer is Tesla, then I am surprised the installer would make that comment EDIT.

Regardless, what place does the Tesla equipment have here in this failure? It sounds like the Solar Edge system was the failure point.

 

[jjrandorin]

So my inverter went down in January. I didn't know until March or so when I randomly went into my app. I noticed no solar production. Made an appointment - ealiest was 6 weeks away. They diagnosed and determined I needed a new SolarEdge gateway. Fast forward to today when it was finally installed. Production restored.

So for 4 months, I had no solar production. Has anyone successfully got some kind of compensation from Tesla for the lost production? My installer panted the seed into my head, which I hadn't even considered.

How did you go about this? What docs did you provide? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

AFAIK Tesla does not provide any production guarantee on its own installs, and obviously would not be providing a production guarantee on someone elses install. The answer to your question will be in your contracts that you signed. If there is a production guarantee, it would be in there, and the process to go about executing on such a guarantee would be there too.

 

[kpinthebay]

If your installer gave you a production guarantee, you might be able to approach this from that perspective. Usually the winter months are the lowest production so you probably didn't loser out terribly for the year if it is working now.

However it sounds like you had someone other than Tesla install the system, why do you think Tesla would compensate you? This is between you and your installer. If that installer is Tesla, then I am surprised the installer would make that comment EDIT.

Regardless, what place does the Tesla equipment have here in this failure? It sounds like the Solar Edge system was the failure point.

I guess I'm looking at it like a new car. Tesla warrants the entire system, indivdually and as a whole, regardless of manufacturer. I'm guessing if my panels fail, I'm not reaching out to Samsung to file a claim.

I have a Toyota Tacoma. If my OEM suspesion fails (manufactured by Bilstein), then I still bring it to Toyota and they warrant it. It's up to Toyota if they then want to go back to Bilstein and claim a failure on their end.

 

[Vines]

I guess I'm looking at it like a new car. Tesla warrants the entire system, indivdually and as a whole, regardless of manufacturer. I'm guessing if my panels fail, I'm not reaching out to Samsung to file a claim.

I have a Toyota Tacoma. If my OEM suspesion fails (manufactured by Bilstein), then I still bring it to Toyota and they warrant it. It's up to Toyota if they then want to go back to Bilstein and claim a failure on their end.

Who installed your system?

This is who you are contracted with and who services your warranty. If your equipment fails, the installer works with the manufacturer to get that equipment replaced. It sounds like that happened.

Sometimes a customer can submit warranty issues on their own, but secondary effects are almost certainly not covered by the manufacturer. I think you are barking up the wrong tree, and need to go to your installer. If that fails and you feel you have a case, to Solar Edge who's equipment failed.

 

[charlesj]

Was there, is there an indication who monitors your system? If not, up to you, all you can expect is a replacement of inverter upon discovery of its failure.

A car suspension that fails usually discovered sooner than 3-4 month and will be replace under warranty but not the inconvenience caused by that failure.

Perhaps there should be a warning from the system when it fails, an email, bells going off in a phone. Next generation.

 

[Matt-FL]

With the Tesla inverters and Gateway devices, Tesla has been known to proactively monitor and contact owners of impending issues. Not often, but they do reach out, as ascertained from many other posts here.

 

[BGbreeder]

Was there, is there an indication who monitors your system? If not, up to you, all you can expect is a replacement of inverter upon discovery of its failure.

A car suspension that fails usually discovered sooner than 3-4 month and will be replace under warranty but not the inconvenience caused by that failure.

Perhaps there should be a warning from the system when it fails, an email, bells going off in a phone. Next generation.

Or different inverter / microinverter brand...

 

[KelvinMace]

So my inverter went down in January. I didn't know until March or so when I randomly went into my app. I noticed no solar production. Made an appointment - ealiest was 6 weeks away. They diagnosed and determined I needed a new SolarEdge gateway. Fast forward to today when it was finally installed. Production restored.

So for 4 months, I had no solar production. Has anyone successfully got some kind of compensation from Tesla for the lost production? My installer panted the seed into my head, which I hadn't even considered.

How did you go about this? What docs did you provide? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Dude, I check my production daily. Why would you not do the same? Hell, at least weekly.

I doubt you have much of a case unless you have some kind of guarantee of uptime, which I doubt.

 

[jgleigh]

The warranty is to fix the system, not compensate for lost production. Just like if your car failed, they're typically not paying for your loss of not being able to drive.

 

[jgleigh]

Dude, I check my production daily. Why would you not do the same? Hell, at least weekly.

I'm mad I missed 7 hours of production yesterday cause my system locked up in the morning and I was too busy at work to notice!

 

[Redhill_qik]

I guess I'm looking at it like a new car. Tesla warrants the entire system, indivdually and as a whole, regardless of manufacturer. I'm guessing if my panels fail, I'm not reaching out to Samsung to file a claim.

I have a Toyota Tacoma. If my OEM suspesion fails (manufactured by Bilstein), then I still bring it to Toyota and they warrant it. It's up to Toyota if they then want to go back to Bilstein and claim a failure on their end.

Ok, so taking that analogy, if you were using the Tacoma as an Uber driver would you expect Toyota to cover lost income when you can't drive it or just fix the suspension after you taking it in for service?

I lost my Solaredge inverter also and noticed it the same day. Tesla did take care of the warranty repair, but I never expected them to cover lost production because that isn't something in my purchase contract with them. A PPA/lease contract might have such a clause for guaranteed performance.

 

[Matt-FL]

I'm mad I missed 7 hours of production yesterday cause my system locked up in the morning and I was too busy at work to notice!

Same boat. I at least check daily, always curious how much production the day had and look for anomalies.

 

[jjrandorin]

guess I'm looking at it like a new car. Tesla warrants the entire system, indivdually and as a whole, regardless of manufacturer. I'm guessing if my panels fail, I'm not reaching out to Samsung to file a claim.

I like analogies. In this case, no you wouldnt be reaching out to samsung for the repair, you would be reaching out to whomever you contracted your system with. Whomever installed it. If thats not Tesla, you are simply using the tesla app to monitor your system. Your contract is with whomever installed the system, Tesla or otherwise..

I have a Toyota Tacoma. If my OEM suspesion fails (manufactured by Bilstein), then I still bring it to Toyota and they warrant it. It's up to Toyota if they then want to go back to Bilstein and claim a failure on their end.

You wouldnt be taking it to Toyota, you would be taking it to a Toyota Dealer, because Toyota doesnt sell cars direct. In Teslas case, for energy products, they both sell direct and through authorized dealers (like every toyota dealer is).

You would be taking it to a toyota dealer, and no one (the dealer, or anyone else) would be compensating you in any way because you couldnt use the truck for work purposes, or because you missed a doctors appointment or anything else, unless that was specifically in the contract you signed when you bought it.

Some third party installers offer a production guarantee (that the system will produce X amount of production in a year. Many others dont. Tesla is in the "dont" category, so if Tesla is your installer, you dont have any guarantee of production. If Tesla isnt, like it sort of sounds like, any discussion around that topic is with whatever company installed your system. Using the Tesla app doesnt have anything to do with that.

 

[GregBallantyne]

I'd suggest saving your energy for things that might be helpful, like checking your system. If something looks a bit odd with mine, I'll know in a half an hour at most. I'm retired, so I don't have the time demands of working, but I can't imagine not knowing before half a day went by under any circumstances outside of not being able to connect. If any comp was available, it would never be 4 months worth. Neglect is not someone else's problem.

 

[cali8484]

Given Tesla's customer support reputation you should be glad they replaced your failed inverter in *only* 4 months
Sadly, solar is nowhere near a set-it-and-forget-it appliance at this point. Like others said you should check it frequently as you have earned the privileges/duties of a power plant operator with your own solar system.

 

[karkrazy]

I’m curious to see/hear - does OP have a production guarantee?
Who is the installer? Purchased or leased?
What size is the system and how old is it?
Able to quantify the losses?

That starting info will tell if you’ve got something to go on or if it’s dead in the water.

Side note: I do check mine daily if not weekly. Just to see how the system is working, and comparing production to prior years during the same timeframe.

 

[charlesj]

Given Tesla's customer support reputation you should be glad they replaced your failed inverter in *only* 4 months
Sadly, solar is nowhere near a set-it-and-forget-it appliance at this point. Like others said you should check it frequently as you have earned the privileges/duties of a power plant operator with your own solar system.

Yep, no more difficult than checking a text on a phone. App opens, is it producing, comparable to weather outside.

 

[Vines]

Yep, no more difficult than checking a text on a phone. App opens, is it producing, comparable to weather outside.

Arguably, there should be an app so you don't have to lol. It would be the simplest possible thing to send a text when the local weather and production didn't align for 2-3 days. Bonus points for checking deeper at the string level voltages against some reference or microinverter checkin if they are all reporting correctly

Open discussion why they haven't made that a feature, I imagine there are many inverters out there right now and down. If the app let you know, then you would call for service now.

There is no sales lost to just telling the customer "it's your responsibility"

 

[Matt-FL]

This conversation helps me understand things like this.