Everything you to need know about warranties!
Workmanship Warranty
Firstly is the workmanship warranty, ideally, you want at least 5 years covering the installation of your solar system. That way if anything does come out to be defective, hopefully, you can get the installer back out to fix it as soon as possible. Things that can be defective include: the installation may cause roof leaks, cables might not be properly secured, work in the roof space may be done in a dodgy fashion. There is a lot of different areas where an installer can take shortcuts on workmanship.
Inverter Warranty
The inverter warranty is very important. Often, you’ll see a 10-year inverter warranty which is sometimes the product only and sometimes it’s parts and labour. Parts and labour mean that the manufacturer will pay to have the inverter swapped out including the cost for the work to do that. As you know, an electrician generally charges by the hour and there needs to be provided for them to go out and swap that inverter over. There are 2 tiers to your inverter warranty. There are parts and labour and parts. Take care to look at those two things and ideally what you want is a 10-year part and labour warranty.
Panel Warranty
The panel warranty is sometimes difficult to understand but there are two components. There is a product warranty and the performance warranty. The product warranty covers the build of the panel. Some will be from 10 – 12 to sometimes 25+ years product warranty. That means if any delamination on the frame or discolouration occurs that panel will be swapped out at the manufacturer's expense. Not a lot of manufacturers will do this, but they will actually pay what it costs to replace that panel. Sometimes a manufacturer will only pay $100 for the panel plus the price for it to be swapped out. Quality brands will offer a warranty that includes what it actually costs to swap that panel out. The other component of the panel warranty is the performance warranty. A good panel will not degrade quickly. Ideally, in 25 years that panel will be performing nearly as good as the day you purchased it. The way that manufacturers commonly warrant it they offer 25 years performance warranty and then after that 25 years that panel will still be 80% of its original power class. It’s important not to confuse these 2 warranties because sometimes the performance warranty is represented as in fact a product warranty. Whereas even if there’s dis-colouration and there is maybe some issues with that panel, if the performance is still in line with the warranty, then that panel will be replaced. There are lots of ways that a manufacturer can get around the performance warranty so it’s definitely not as strong as the performance warranty on the panel. The minimums in Australia are 10 years product and 25 years performance warranty.