Non-compliant installation

While the company does deliver on their promise to free you from load-shedding, the means by which this is accomplished leaves a lot to be desired.

I have not been issued a valid CoC.

The company does not do an SSEG application (this should have been a huge red flag, but I only realised this during the installation and at that point I didn’t really comprehend the significance of it), making the installation ******* from the minute it was connected to the grid. At no point is this mentioned to the customer, the onus is on us to find this information out. Their website claims they will provide a SANS compliant installation but as I have found out, this is simply not true. In order to be SANS compliant such that an electrical engineer will sign off on an SSEG application everything besides the battery and the inverter need to be reinstalled. I have been told as much by two separate installers as well as an electrician

Installation faults: AC and DC cables were run in the same trunking. DC cabled from panels to the inverter were pinched between roof tiles, once was pinched under a mounting rail too. None of the high voltage cables in my ceiling were in any form of trunking. Solar panels were not mounted the mandated 10cm above the roof for airflow. Solar panels were incorrectly clamped to the rails and need to be remounted. Rails were poorly installed and lifted on one end. 125A fuses in 100A fuse boxes Installer initially refused to install the CT-clamp due to distance to original DB board Installers used half bricks instead of tools to bash my roof tiles open Installers were not aware that mounting panels at different orientations would affect solar yield Installers were not aware that shadows from my solar geyser would affect solar yield

When I raised the issues with the install with Diversity Solar I was initially ignored before it was agreed that a team would come out to resolve the issues I had raised. A team never arrived, rather a single electrician came and installed a bit of sprag around the DC cables in the same trunking as AC cables. He also put a bit of sprag around the cables where they are pinched between the tiles and neatened up my DB board… And no, none of those are actually acceptable solutions to the problems and do not in fact make the install any more compliant than it was before they came

On raising the issues again, I was told that they were busy with jobs in Robertson and would only be able to come back to sort things out properly afterward. The next thing I heard from Corne, the owner, was that the install was already six months old and I had (by my own admission?) voided my warranty with them by letting other people work on the system and they would only carry out the work if I paid a callout fee and an hourly rate. He has not responded to any of my further messages. At no point has anyone worked on the system, it has only been inspected, his claims otherwise are baseless.

At many points during the installation and subsequent interactions I was assured that the company are SunSynk approved installers, that their installer status was being upgraded, that they use master installers etc. But on (belatedly) trying to validate those claims I have not found any reference to their company on the SunSynk installers pages, and were I ever to I would lodge this same complaint with SunSynk.

So, while I was provided with a working system, I will ultimately have to foot the bill to resolve all the compliance issues with the system. My only recourse now is to report this to as many official entities that deal with these matters as possible and hope that there are at least some repercussions for Diversity Solar’s actions.

If any other customers read this, I would encourage you to get in touch with an approved SunSynk master installer in your area (easy to find on the SunSynk website) and have them validate your install. And take a close look at your CoC to ensure it was issued legitimately.