Wattsup Solar LTD maintains a 10 year labour and workmanship warranty. This covers leaks in the roof or any equipment that fails under it's manufacturer's warranty.
Wattsup Solar LTD has been around since 2014 and so we feel a 10 year labour warranty is justified even if it is unusual for the construction industry. The Efficiency Nova Scotia preferred partner standard is 2 years. The failure rates of our equipment choices (Enphase microinverters) and the ease of maintenance make this an achievable promise to make, even with 1400 installations across Nova Scotia.
The caveat is that an installer warranty is just a promise, unlike manufacturer's warranties, installer warranties aren't backed by 3rd party insurance. Caution: We've noticed a trend of smaller installers or out-of-province marketing companies over-promising on labour warranties despite not having the physical resources to follow through. We would recommend
Solar Panel (Module) Warranties
Solar panels have 2 types of warranties, most installers only mention the first type;
Production or Linear Output Warranty - Solar panels degrade over time, typically by 15% over 25 years. A production warranty allows you to replace the panel if it degrades faster than it's expected to. Regardless of the brand of solar panel, you can expect to see at least a 25 year production warranty on solar panels.
Our current panel offerings offer a 30 year production warranty. This information can be found in the equipment specification sheets, often in the form of a graph like the image below.
Caution: Without the ability to monitor each panels production independently, using microinverters or DC Optimizers, it is nearly impossible to know if a panel has degraded faster than it's supposed to. The only method is using an infrared camera, or physically testing the voltage of each panel. String inverters without DC optimizers are sometimes favoured by solar installers because they cannot track individual panel production. production warranty.PNG102 KBProduct Warranty A solar panel product warranty covers the product in case of outright failure, this is always listed separately from production warranties. Typically, cheaper Asian panels have shorter product warranties. We generally try to source European or North American made panels for this reason.
We currently offer;
Bauer (German) - 30 Year Product Warranty Peimar (Italian) - 30 Year Product Longi (Chinese) - 12 Year product Warranty
Inverter Warranty - 25 Years
Enphase micro-inverters have a standard warranty of 25 years. They are the only inverter manufacturer to offer that warranty out of the gate. All other brands are between 10 and 12 years, often with the option to extend the warranty to 20 or 25 years - basically buying it twice.
Enphase warranties are not pro-rated, which means if it's been 24 years and an inverter fails, you get a brand new one, not a percentage cost of a new one.
Enphase Warranties are transferable to the new owner.
Check out our guide on the Enphase Warranty in more detail. https://wattsupsolar.ca/insights/enphase-microinverters-built-for-the-long-haul-backed-by-real-warranties
Caution: Be aware that extended warranties often require the installer to submit paperwork to the manufacturer within a short time period, often 3 months. You don't want to find out on year 13 that your installer did not file the paperwork.
Racking Warranty - 25 Years
All racking we use has a 25 year warranty, we typically use several different brands but there aren't any clear outliers in this department. Common brands of racking are Clenergy, Fastrack, or Pion.
Roof Penetration Warranty - 25 Years
We use Roof Tech Mini II attachments for our racking systems. These are "feet" with an EPDM backstrip, and they carry their own manufacturer's 25 year roof penetration warranty. - Check out this video of them being installed underwater. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gFHpO5UfSo
The difference between the wattage of the panel and the wattage of the inverter is called the DCratio. Here's how to calculate it:
With Enphase: Divide the wattage of the panel by the wattage of the inverter (one inverter per panel).
Other Inverter Types: Take the total DC system size and divide it by the total AC system size.
Current Panel and Inverter Offerings (2024)
Peimar 400W with IQ8+ (295W) gives a DC ratio of 1.35
Bauer 450W with IQ8A (366W) gives a DC ratio of 1.23
Bauer 500W with IQ8H (384W) gives a DC ratio of 1.30
Why is the Panel Wattage Higher than the Inverter?
Using the 500W Bauer with the Enphase IQ8H (384W) as an example:
Real-world Performance: Panels only produce their wattage rating under laboratory conditions. A 500W panel may produce 480-490W in real life except under ideal conditions (very cold and sunny).
Energy Yield: Higher panel wattage increases energy yield on cloudy days or during morning/evening sun. The more "potential" energy you capture, the better the performance on bad weather days.
Degradation Over Time: Panels degrade over time, typically by 15% over 25 years. A 500W panel will produce a maximum of 425W after 25 years, which is still sufficient for the 384W inverter.
However, if the panel were 400W, it would produce a maximum of 340W after 25 years, less than the IQ8H inverter can handle. This would result in progressively lower production year after year, affecting ROI calculations.
Sizing Panels and Inverters
Oversizing Panels: Sizing a panel too high for the inverter can lead to diminishing returns. For instance, a 500W panel with an Enphase IQ8+ inverter (295W peak) gives a DC ratio of 1.69, which is not recommended.
Provincial Regulations: In Ontario, systems larger than 10 kW AC are not allowed, leading to DC ratios of 1.4-1.5.
Clipping
"Clipping" occurs when a panel produces more power than the inverter can capture. Below is a chart from an Enphase technical brief:
A DC:AC ratio of 1.31 has an annual clipping loss of 0.3% in year one.
A DC:AC ratio of 1.68 has an annual clipping loss of 5.1%.
Consequences of Oversizing
SolarEdge, a string inverter manufacturer, warns against excessive DC:AC ratios:
Excessive oversizing can negatively affect the inverter’s power production. Inverters are designed to generate AC output power up to a defined maximum, which cannot be exceeded. The inverter limits or clips the power output when the actual produced DC power is higher than the inverter’s allowed maximum output, resulting in energy loss. Oversizing the inverter can cause it to operate at high power for longer periods, affecting its lifetime. Operating at high power increases inverter internal heating and might heat its surroundings. Inverters reduce their peak power generation when overheating.
SolarEdge Inverters: Maximum DC ratio of 1.50 (may void warranty if exceeded).
Fronius Inverters: Maximum DC ratio of 1.55 (will void warranty if exceeded).
SMA Inverters: Maximum DC ratio of 1.50 (may void warranty if exceeded).
Summary
The ideal DC:AC ratio is between 1.2 and 1.4. Systems below 1.2 do not account sufficiently for panel degradation, and systems above 1.4 may experience diminishing returns due to clipping.
We want you and your family to be safe during storms and their aftermath. We also want your solar investment to serve you well for years to come.
With tropical storms and hurricanes come the hazardous conditions of heavy rains and destructive winds. In preparation for these storms, along with stocking up on supplies, securing loose items in your yard, and heeding evacuation orders, it’s important to understand some basics of solar PV systems and get some tips on how to prepare your PV system for severe weather.
Understanding Solar PV Systems in Severe Weather
Solar photovoltaic (PV) panels are securely attached to the roof and designed to withstand the gusty wind conditions of most storms. However, when winds exceed 105 mph, structural damage to homes and businesses may occur. While it is extremely rare for solar panels to come loose from the roof, flying debris may cause damage to the panels, such as cracked glass.
In addition to wind damage, utility lines in your area may experience power surges caused by line slap in high winds or by power lines felled by trees or other debris. Power surges on your service lines can damage any electronic equipment. Enphase Microinverters have integrated surge protection, greater than most traditional inverters. However, if the surge has sufficient energy, the protection built into the microinverter can be exceeded, and the equipment can be damaged.
Recommendations for Severe Weather Preparation
Unless you have an off-grid system (not connected to utility service lines), we recommend that you turn off your PV system to isolate it from the utility to prevent a power surge from the grid.
Steps to Prepare Your PV System for a Storm:
Disconnect the PV System from the Grid:
Turn off the PV disconnect (if installed) and your PV breaker(s). This will help protect your PV System against voltage surges coming from the grid.
Post-Storm Actions:
Enphase Microinverters: Remember that Enphase microinverters will not produce energy if the power grid is down. Microinverters will wait five minutes after the grid is back to normal before producing power.
Reconnecting Your System: Once the high winds and heavy rains have passed, you may turn the PV system back on.
If there is visible wind damage to your property or area: Call your installer to check the integrity of the system before reconnecting your PV System to the grid. If you find damage to the PV panels, inverters, or wires, DO NOT touch the paneling or wiring due to the risk of electric shock or electrocution.
If there is no visible wind damage in your area: You may reconnect your system once the storm has passed and the grid power has been restored. Please reconnect your system in the late afternoon, during the evening, or in the early morning hours to help minimize disruption to the utility grid during the critical period when restoration activities are ongoing.
Completing the Reconnection Process:
Close the PV disconnect switch and PV circuit breaker(s). If any circuit breakers trip after turning the system ON, turn the system OFF again immediately and contact your PV System installer.
Enphase makes solar simple, safe, and smart. By taking these few steps, you can give yourself one less thing to worry about. Be safe!
Learn about the care and maintenance of Enphase Microinverters.
The Enphase Microinverter system requires virtually no maintenance and provides you with trouble-free energy production. However, there are steps you can take to help maintain system performance.
Monitor System Performance
Check Energy Production: Use the Enphase App to monitor and compare the month-to-month or year-to-year performance of your system.
Example: Use the Enphase App energy grid or generate a report and compare the energy production for one month to the same month in the previous year. If it is lower, consider factors such as cloud cover. If cloud cover is not a factor, perform a visual inspection of your array for debris.
Visually Inspect the Modules (Panels), Especially After Storms, Hail, and High Winds
Inspection Tips:
An inspection from the ground, with binoculars if needed, is usually sufficient.
Check the array for dust, debris, leaves, and other soiling. Clean solar modules generate maximum energy harvest.
Some geographic regions do not have much dust, debris, and pollution, so solar modules remain relatively clean and maintain optimum energy performance.
In other areas, rain and snow naturally clean modules and help maintain performance.
By following these steps, you can help ensure that your Enphase Microinverter system continues to operate efficiently and effectively.
It's one of the cheapest ways to generate power, it's clean and good for the environment, and with all the rebates and incentives it may sound like a "no-brainer". But when it comes to solar installers, you shouldn't turn off your brain. In this article we're going to cover every trick, trap, sales tactic or misdirect in the book. We'll be using real life examples taken from solar quotes in Nova Scotia within the past year, with all identifying information removed. If you spot some of these things in the wild, remember that everyone has off days sometimes and it's difficult to tell what's intentional and what's the new guy phoning it in. The goal of this article is to provide enough background knowledge to the consumer to keep their installer honest.
"What you don't know, can hurt you."
Working Backwards from the $40,000 Interest Free Loan
Launched in 2022, the Canada Greener Homes Loan (CGHL) offers a 0% interest loan up to a maximum loan amount of $40,000 with 10 year term. This is an excellent way to finance energy efficiency upgrades. Because Solar Equipment is specialized and fairly niche, the average person does not know the retail value of various brands of panels or inverters. The most common question people have is "how much does a solar system cost?" The answer should depend on your power bill, the amount of panels you need to offset your bill, and specific circumstances regarding your property.
Some solar installers look at the $40k CGHL and decide that all solar PV systems cost $40k. Here are some tactics they use to get the price up in a "justifiable" manner.
Case Study 1: North Facing Panels Bad Solar Design Gaming the $40k interest free loan 200+% Solar Equipment markup from the Retail Value
North facing panels are a bad idea in general, North East and North West facing roofs at a shallow pitch can be okay, but any panels on the North side are going to produce around 30% less than the south facing ones. This alone could be justified, but not when we look at the choice of equipment.
This is a single string inverter (10kW de-rated to 9.6 kW). There are no DC optimizers in this design. A string inverter system without optimizers is capped at the performance of the lowest performing panel. *Note that some string inverters have software that can mitigate this such as Fronius's "Shadefix" software, and some allow for MPPT tracking, but that's not the case here.*
Adding North facing panels without at least putting a DC optimizers under the North facing ones is bad system design, and it means the entire system performs at whatever the North facing panels are producing in that moment. The entire system would perform better without those panels.
As to why those panels are there...
Gaming the $40k interest free loan - It appears this installer has worked backwards from that number and is attempting to justify the system cost (even though there's already a 200%+ markup on their solar equipment). In Case Study 2 we'll see a similar example but without the justification of some North facing panels.
200+% Solar Equipment Markup
Solar installers are product retailers. We buy in bulk and get a wholesale price for the equipment. The retail price for the equipment is whatever the average person can buy it for. Smaller solar installers are buying at closer to retail prices than larger ones, so some equipment markup is expected. Below are some examples given at the time of writing of the retail value of the equipment in the proposal, these are screenshots from public websites, anyone can buy this stuff at that price.
31 x LR7-54HGBB-450M = $8,270 1 x Solis-1P-10K-4G-US = $3,004 Solar Equipment Retail Value = $11,274 Keep in mind an installer should be able to get this equipment for less than that (wholesale price).
We're missing some components - sometimes called "balance of system"; racking, cabling, and installation. If we use our numbers (2025) - (Note to visitors from out of province, local factors such as building permits, site plans, or even local electrical code interpretation can change these numbers)
Installation - $5,000 Racking - $170 per panel Cabling - $65 per panel Balance of System = $12,285
Total - $23,559
Quote ($36,816) minus Balance of System ($12,285) divided by Solar Equipment Retail Value ($11,274) x 100 = 217% This means that the Solar Equipment is marked up over 200% from the retail value.
Gaming the $40k Loan
Case Study 2
This is another example of working backwards from $40k. This is a 22 panel system, it's not a ground mount, it's not got batteries, it's just a standard roof mounted system.
Working backwards from $40k
Abusing Production Estimates
Case Study 3 If an installer wants to maximize their profits by overcharging for the equipment, they need to still make the return on investment calculations look good. The numbers on a solar proposal can be quite confusing, here's a good guide to what they are and why they're there. - https://wattsupsolar.ca/insights/how-to-read-a-solar-proposal
Here we're going to talk about how some installers will manipulate the raw data. As a consumer, the quickest way to check this is to find these numbers;
1) Escalation rate on power 2) Estimate annual efficiency of the system 3) Current rate of power Estimated Annual Efficiency This one isn't commonly seen on solar proposals, but it's useful to measure if a company is being accurate with their estimates. The measurement is kWhs per kW DC per year. You can work out this number even if it isn't explicitly stated by dividing the First Year Production by the System Size in DC.
A particularly inefficient system (due east at 45 degrees) would be around ~900 kWhs per kW DC.
An extremely efficient system (due south at 45 degrees) would be around ~1,250 kWhs per kW DC.
The average in Halifax is ~1,100 kWhs per kW DC.
Below we have a good example of Abusing production estimates The estimated annual efficiency often isn't specified, because if it was it'd be obvious that there's a mistake. 10,638 kWhs divided by 7.65 kW DC gives 1,390 kWhs per kW DC. This number is absurdly high. We keep a database of all of our systems. https://wattsupsolar.ca/systems?backup=0&sort=last+year+production+efficiency Sorted by last year's annual efficiency, not a single system was that efficient. We have seen efficiency slightly above 1,300 kWhs but it's rare, inconsistent, and not the basis to make a large investment. Getting well above 1,300 kWhs per kW DC is approaching physically impossible.
*Note: Proposal software tends to default to higher efficiency numbers, as the default loss factors are often set slightly low. In this case however, it's clear someone manipulated the loss factors to produce this result.* estimated annual efficiency.PNG54.9 KB
Current rate of power The current rate of power is important for solar proposals, it's often not specified, but you can work backwards by taking the first year value in dollars and dividing it by the first year annual production. In this example, the current utility rate for this utility is $0.18 per kWh. The higher this number is to start with, the better your proposal will look.
$2,021.08 divided by 10,638 gives $0.19 cents per kWh. So this proposal is using an incorrect utility rate, presumably to get the "Projected Payback Period" to under 10 years.
Escalation rate of power Because the price you pay for power is the same the utility pays you for your power. (See Self Generation Offset program details) https://wattsupsolar.ca/self-generating-option
The faster the price of a kWh increases the quicker the return on investment.
This number can be quite subjective. Historically, over the past 10 years, the escalation rate has been around 3.6%, but it's not consistent, some years it can be as high as 7%, other years might not see a rate increase at all. It depends on negotiations between the provincial Government and the utilities and the utility and review board (UARB). In general, putting a higher escalation rate on a proposal is not a bad thing in itself, but it can be used to lever the "payback period" number down, and hide extreme equipment markup. After all, if you put 10% as an escalation rate, you can make any price look good.
Excessive DC Over-sizing of Solar Equipment
Case Study 4 North Facing Panels Excessive Abuse of DC:AC Ratio 400+% Solar Equipment markup on the Retail Value North Facing Panels - Like Case Study 1 the panels are on the north side of the roof, note in this case the roof pitch is steep at 45 degrees. Panels placed on the north side of the roof would be 42% efficient compared to the southern side. Tip: the "heat map" on this particular solar proposal software shows where you shouldn't put panels, in red, and where you should, in yellow.
Excessive abuse of DC:AC ratio. The DC size of the system is 33.62 kW, the AC size is 18 kW from 2 x 9 kW Growatt inverters. The DC:AC ratio is 1.87 Again this is a string inverter system without DC optimizers.
DC System Size - Wattage of solar panels added up AC System Size - Wattage of inverter(s) added up
We talk about DC:AC ratio in our other support guide here: -https://wattsupsolar.ca/insights/a8d7d467-59df-4da0-9d21-7b41af4f1dc6
It's generally accepted that the DC:AC ratio should be between 1.2 and 1.4 in Nova Scotia. The main reason for this is that panels degrade over time, typically by 15% over 25 years. If you want the system to produce the same amount each year for 25 years you need to take that into consideration initially.
To word this in another way. The system can potentially capture 33.6 kW of solar power, but the most the inverters can handle at any one moment is 18 kW. Granted, most of the panels on the North roof aren't doing much, but this strategy is clearly motivated by installer profit.
83 x LR5-54HPB-405 - (same model but 5W difference) = $8,715
2 x Growatt - MIN 9000TL-XH-US = $5,204 Solar Equipment Retail Value = $13,919 Keep in mind an installer should be able to get this equipment for less than that (wholesale price).
We're missing some components - sometimes called "balance of system"; racking, cabling, and installation. If we use our numbers (2025) - (Note to visitors from out of province, local factors such as building permits, site plans, or even local electrical code interpretation can change these numbers)
Installation - $5,000 (Granted, this is a fairly large system and you could charge more here than we would) Racking - $170 per panel Cabling - $65 per panel Balance of System = $24,505
Total - $38,424
Quote ($80,340) minus Balance of System ($24,505) divided by Solar Equipment Retail Value ($13,919) x 100 = 401% This means that the Solar Equipment is marked up over 400% from the retail value.
Wattsup Solar Example
It's unfair to do these sort of cost analysis without also giving ourselves the same treatment. This example isn't just made up for the purposes of this article, here's our Online Advertised Pricing - https://wattsupsolar.ca/pricing
17 x Enphase IQ8A = $5,204 Solar Equipment Retail Value = $7,305 Keep in mind an installer should be able to get this equipment for less than that (wholesale price).
We're missing some components - sometimes called "balance of system"; racking, cabling, and installation. If we use our numbers (2025) - (Note to visitors from out of province, local factors such as building permits, site plans, or even local electrical code interpretation can change these numbers)
Installation - $5,000 Racking - $170 per panel Cabling - $65 per panel Balance of System = $8,995
Total - $38,424
Quote ($17,325) minus Balance of System ($8,995) divided by Solar Equipment Retail Value ($7,305) x 100 = 14% This means that the Solar Equipment is marked up 14% from the retail value.
(If you're wondering why there's even this much markup, bear in mind we offer consumption monitoring and SolaTrim for free with our installations in 2025).
