When I say proper I mean in the sense of, 1:1 with Hoymiles is pretty damn silly, most of these non-Enphase companies get their fundamental strengths from simplifying the hardware with N:1 inverters. Why would I pay the same with Hoymiles and take a higher, i dunno, geopolitical risk from a future trade war cutting off warranty replacements? It'll take bigger problems in the world for Enphase to stop supporting their inverters.
That's independent of how the installer conducted business. I can only speak to how I analyzed 4:1 vs 1:1 installations when I picked my hardware.
With the exception of a basic understanding of risk dealing with a Chinese company going forward most of the rest of that is Greek to me.
![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
4:1 may have been just as good/better in some respects - had they quoted them and the permit/POCO approvaI been based on them I wouldn't have known any different/cared.
You probably have bigger warranty problems like your installer disappearing, which is a high probability event anyway (I assume cut-rate installers in California have a limited half-life and can't be trusted to provide support for 25 years. OTOH, do you really want to pay +50-75% for the ones that have been around 20-30 years, vs keeping the cash in hand and investing it). And at that point you hope Hoymiles has better domestic support network. This is the devil's bargain with buying less common brands (which I was OK with personally and explicitly documented in my own project planning records, you can search my post history here for it about a year ago. There are worse lesser brands than Hoymiles, they are better capitalized than NEP AFAICT, but both have high geopolitical exposure).
That was my main concern with warranty... having no paperwork reflecting what they installed I imagine Hoymiles would be a nightmare dealing with if I had to go to a different installer. (not to say they won't be a nightmare regardless) This company has been around for 7 years (not 30 but not 6 months lol) at least for their roofing. Not quite as clear on the solar division.
Yeah that part of the situation sucks too. You are right to feel upset/not sure what to do here...
So what is the delta to the IQ8A bids?
Not sure if talking about specific prices is ok here so I'll steer clear. Enphase (they never quoted that option but based on their reply Thursday it would have added maybe 15%. (to the TOTAL price, not just inverters) I probably would have gone with that had they offered it but... As is, with the tax credit this really isn't a terribly substantial investment- all relative of course, but fairly low 5 figure.
Sorry for burying the lede, but... I went on a bit of a rampage yesterday as it seemed they had no intention of doing anything. If all it would take was a bad Google review to get a response within an hour promising to install 16 more 350s (already had one, they would just take out the 1500s and replace with the 350s) I would have done that a few days ago and foregone the BBB, FTC, Attorney General's office and a half dozen trade organizations they are part of. Sorry, but not really, since had they said "sorry, we messed up, we had good intentions but understand your concerns and will make it right" to start with it would have been a non-issue. I was able to call off the dogs in most cases but I guess a BBB complaint can't be removed / but pretty simple to have them say it is resolved and I concur.
Anyway, they were out today and replaced it all. They gave me a slightly different excuse this time, blaming their software, but I'm happy. I assume there will be no issue with the final county inspection and POCO approval.
All the new 350s are showing up in the app, one of the guys out to install said it might be tomorrow for their office to "send in the serial numbers" but apparently not, and then I might have to flip the switch at the AC disco to register them. They ARE showing a different "alarm" message than the original 350 and 1500s did (after they were powered on for a bit last Wednesday) : Alarm Status : Grid undervoltage, Grid underfrequency, no voltage on grid point". (the original 350 simply said, and still does, "grid disconnected") So I have an email out to them to see if flipping the AC disco on, let it sit for a bit, then back off will resolve that. I understand "grid disconnected" until the POCO allows it to go live / aside from a brief test, but the other warnings are a little freaky.
So, hopefully this is all resolved... bit more time should tell.
Thank EVERYONE for their insights and thoughts!