Hazardous installation and non-existent after sales support from Solar Advice

The following review is my experience when ordering a large residential system (with installation) from Solar Advice in July 2021 in the East Rand.

The process started off with ordering a PV system from Solar Advice, they expected full payment upfront. It was about two months wait from payment to receiving a fully functional system. At no point before payment, or arriving for installation, did they do a site inspection to see if the system paid for would even fit on my house. They said that they would “make it fit”. Due to the size of the system, Dean (sales team) promised that they would have Lennon, “their main guy,” handle the installation personally. Lennon was not found anywhere at the site until I complained about the poor installation on day 3, where he appeared briefly.

The Solar Advice website advertises: “Our Certified Solar Advice Installer, we will take care of every aspect of your installation.” After enquiring, I found that the installer they used, DFGS, was not certified/accredited with ANY solar group (such as PV GreenCard) – something that is a natural expectation of “a major market player” (according to Armando, Solar Advice director). Lennon at DFGS said that all he has is a wireman’s license, he did not himself, sign off the Certificate of Compliance (CoC) issued to us. Instead, he brought in a 3rd party electrician to sign off the CoC.

During the installation, there were numerous issues: 1. The PV panels were wired badly. The Voc of one of the strings was above recommended limits for the inverter. We enquired at the time about this, Lennon assured us that it was fine. We asked for a second opinion with a PV GreenCard certified installer, they told us we need to remove one panel as soon as possible before a cloudy day comes along and the inverter “pops” due to voltage exceeding inverter spec. 2. After going on the roof to inspect the installation (after completion), I discovered that the one string of panels had over 12m of excess electrified cable shoved under one of the panels. The wiring was not secured with cable ties anywhere on the roof. Lennon was unaware of the guideline requirement that DC cabling under panels must be secured off the roof. The excess cabling not only increases losses on the line, but generates additional heat – a potential fire risk. 3. The DC cabling inside the roof (from panels) was laid dangerously. I found DC cabling touching wooden rafters with no conduit present. This is an EXTREME FIRE HAZARD and is definitely not compliant. After complaining about this, they made a half attempt to fix the issue – not fixing many areas where wires were exposed. I was forced to add conduit myself to make the installation safe. 4. It was apparent that Lennon and his team had no intent to ground the PV panels until after I had brought it up with them. After complaint, they merely grounded each array with a single cable (one attachment to a random rail). Once again, this was not following the PV GreenCard guidelines at the time of installation. They also did not ground the battery array correctly, the cable they used was far too thin to carry the rated current of the batteries (another potential hazard). 5. The bearing on one of the fans in the inverter supp**** by Solar Advice was damaged and noisy on installation. We complained about this issue right from the start and attempted to make a warranty claim. The warranty claim was refused and therefore not honoured. It should be noted that the *****s holding the inverters were not attached correctly. We had *****s pulling out of the wall because they did not drill the holes deep enough. They did not use bolts to hold up the inverters – something I would personally recommend for heavier wall mounts. 6. Four months after installation, our power cut off. After investigating the issue, I found that one of the breakers (in the external DB that Solar Advice wired in) burnt out from a hot joint. One of the breaker terminals was not tightened AT ALL. The joint had been supplying our entire house on point contact alone and the joint had heated to the point of the copper melting. After bringing this EXTREME FIRE HAZARD to the attention of Armando, co-owner of Solar Advice, no further communication was received regarding this negligent workmanship, that put my family/house at risk of a fire breaking out.

During the installation we were informed that the batteries that were supp**** by Solar Advice, come with battery covers. They said that the covers were on backorder, and we would receive the covers later on. As of writing this review (6 months later), we have not received any battery covers. Multiple attempts have been made over the last 6 months to follow up on the covers. Our follow ups have been ignored.

After my personal experience with Solar Advice and the incompetency observed, I cannot – in good faith – recommend Solar Advice to anyone. Their negligent workmanship has risked my house and my family. The warranty claim was not honoured and they treated me, the customer, extremely poorly by not acknowledging and correcting their blunders.