Your Solar Installer Went Out of Business — What Happens to Your Warranty

What actually changes when your solar installer goes out of business

Start with the good news: your system does not know your installer is gone. The panels keep converting sunlight, the inverter keeps feeding your electrical panel, and your net-metering arrangement is between you and your utility, PPL, Met-Ed or PECO. What you lost is the phone number. A system whose installing company no longer exists has a name in the industry: an orphaned system. The hardware is intact. The service relationship is not.

That gap matters, because solar problems are quiet. A micro-inverter is the small box under a single panel that converts that panel's output. When one fails, the panel goes dark with no sign of it from the driveway. A tripped breaker, a dead gateway or a communication fault after a router change hides it the same way. The first symptom is often an electric bill that stops looking the way it used to.

The three solar warranties on your system, and which ones survive

Almost every residential solar installation carries three separate promises, written by three different parties. It gets remembered as "my 25-year warranty," which is where the confusion starts. When the installer folds, the three do not fail together, and knowing which is which tells you what you can still claim.

Terms vary by brand, so the only real answer is in your own paperwork, but the shape is familiar. Panels commonly carry a product warranty in the 10-to-25-year range plus a performance warranty promising a minimum output through year 25. Micro-inverters and string inverters run roughly 10 to 25 years depending on brand and any purchased extension. Batteries are usually 10. Workmanship warranties are the shortest and most variable, often five to ten years and sometimes advertised at 25. That longest, loudest number is frequently the one that vanishes.

The roof deserves its own paragraph, and your shingle warranty is worth reading rather than assuming about. Major roofing manufacturers do address solar mounts, and a correctly installed mount generally does not void the coverage on the shingles themselves. But that coverage is written for manufacturing defects in the shingle, not for a leak at a penetration somebody else made. Leaks at penetrations are workmanship, and workmanship is the coverage that left with your installer. Flashing specifications come from the mount manufacturer, not the shingle brand, and the cost of removing the array for a shingle inspection is generally not covered either.

• Manufacturer product warranties cover the hardware itself: panels, inverters, optimizers and batteries. They are owed by the manufacturer, not by your installer.
• The workmanship warranty covers the installation, meaning wiring, conduit, racking, mounting hardware and the roof penetrations. It typically ends with the company.
• A separately underwritten extended or third-party policy is the exception, because an outside company issues it. Check your contract to see whether you have one.

Why a surviving equipment warranty still won't fix your system

Here is the part that catches people. A manufacturer warranty covers the part. It does not cover the labor to diagnose the fault, get on the roof, swap the component and recommission the system. Enphase's limited warranty states plainly that it excludes the cost of un-installing and re-installing covered product. Some manufacturers run labor-reimbursement programs, but they pay the servicing contractor rather than you, and they are narrow: Enphase's pays a small flat amount per replaced micro-inverter, and only within the first two years from activation. On a system old enough to have been orphaned, plan on labor being out of pocket. That is the honest starting point for any conversation about solar repair and diagnostics.

Claims also require paperwork you may not have. A warranty return, or RMA (return merchandise authorization), is the ticket that authorizes a replacement part, and it typically needs the module or inverter serial number, the installation date, proof of purchase, and often photos or monitoring error codes. All of that lived in your installer's project files. Manufacturers will generally work with a licensed contractor who can supply it, and assembling that package is part of what an independent service company does.

Be realistic about one more thing: manufacturers fail too. SolarWorld went insolvent in 2017, and Suniva filed Chapter 11 that year. SunPower filed Chapter 11 in August 2024, and the company trading under that brand today is a different entity that bought certain assets. Before you count on a claim, find out whether anyone still stands behind that brand.

How to get Enphase or SolarEdge monitoring access back

Your monitoring platform, whether Enphase Enlighten, the SolarEdge portal or APsystems EMA, is the diagnostic chart for your system. It shows which panel stopped producing and when. The catch is that installers commonly created the site under their own account, giving the homeowner a limited view or no login at all. When the company disappears, administrator rights can go with it.

In most cases it is recoverable, but the two big platforms do not handle it the same way, so check current terms with each. SolarEdge publishes a Site Ownership Transition Form for moving ownership or handing administration rights to a new installer. Enphase sells homeowner Transfer of Ownership as a paid service through its store, and Enphase requires the system to be online to complete it, so a dark gateway has to be brought back first. If you have owned the system since day one and were never given a login, that is a different request rather than a change of ownership: contact Enphase support, or have your servicing contractor request site access. Either way, expect to prove you own the address, supply a gateway or inverter serial number, and wait on a support queue whose turnaround varies.

Not every dark dashboard means a broken system. A new router, a changed Wi-Fi password or a replaced modem knocks the communications gateway offline while the panels keep producing normally. A dropped Wi-Fi connection is a common cause when solar monitoring stops working, and that is a very different repair from a failed inverter. It is why restoring the data comes before anyone spends money on parts.

What paperwork you need to fix an orphaned solar system

Before you start dialing, spend an hour on the filing cabinet and the email archive. Every item below shortens a diagnosis, and several decide whether a manufacturer claim is possible at all. Having the folder in hand cuts down on what has to be reconstructed from scratch.

If the folder is empty, much of it is reconstructible. Many township, borough and city code offices retain permit and inspection files for years, so call yours before assuming the records are gone, and your utility can confirm the interconnection on record for your address. SRECs are solar renewable energy credits, the certificates Pennsylvania electric utilities and competitive suppliers buy to meet the state's Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard. They are certified through the PA Public Utility Commission and tracked in PJM-GATS. If you registered the system yourself, that account is yours to recover; if an aggregator or broker registered it for you, it sits with them. If you lease or have a PPA, check the contract for an SREC assignment clause.

• Your original contract and proposal, which state the warranty terms, the system size and any finance company involved.
• An equipment list with model and serial numbers for every module, inverter, optimizer and battery.
• Permit and final electrical inspection records from your township, borough or city code office.
• Your interconnection and net-metering agreement, which is between you and PPL, Met-Ed or PECO.
• Any third-party warranty or monitoring policy, such as Solar Insure or Omnidian. These are often bought by the installer and folded into the system price, so check the closing packet even if you do not remember buying one.
• Your Pennsylvania alternative energy credit certification and PJM-GATS login, if the system was registered to sell SRECs.

Leased and PPA solar systems are a different problem entirely

A PPA is a power purchase agreement: you buy the electricity the system produces rather than the system itself. If you signed one of those or a lease, you probably do not own the hardware on your roof. A finance company does, and in most of those contracts the owner carries the maintenance and repair obligation for the full 20-to-25-year term. Your installer's closing does not move that obligation onto you; your agreement is where to confirm it.

Your first call, then, is to whoever holds the agreement today, which may not be the name you signed with. Lease and PPA portfolios are commonly sold to another servicer in a bankruptcy; legacy SunPower customers were directed to a separate management company after the 2024 filing. Check your bank draft for the name actually collecting your payment.

An independent company generally cannot open equipment it does not own without the owner's authorization, so a stalled leased system needs a different lever: the contract. Request service in writing, keep a record of non-response, and ask what a buyout would cost. Most leases and PPAs allow a buyout only at specific contract anniversaries, often not before year five or six, and price it at a scheduled amount or fair market value, whichever is greater. If a buyout is available and you take it, the array becomes yours outright, and you can hire whoever you like to service it.

How to choose an independent solar repair company in Pennsylvania

Not every solar company will touch a system it did not install. Many sales-driven installers prioritize new-system sales, and service work on another company's array tends to fall to the bottom of the schedule. What you want is a repair-first company that works on other people's installations as its ordinary business.

Solar Medics was built for exactly this call. We are an independent, repair-first company based in Mountville, and we work on any brand and any installer's system: Enphase, SolarEdge, APsystems and older equipment. We cover nine counties across Central and Eastern Pennsylvania, from solar repair in Lancaster County east through solar repair in Berks County and up into the Lehigh Valley. We quote a flat project price, put in writing after the Solar Triage Call, so the number does not move once work starts.

• A Pennsylvania home improvement contractor registration number on the estimate and contract. Ask if you do not see one.
• Proof of general liability insurance and workers' compensation, plus electricians licensed to whatever your municipality requires.
• Willingness to request monitoring administrator access and to file manufacturer warranty claims on your behalf.
• Straight answers about what a diagnostic visit involves and what it costs before anyone climbs onto your roof.

Related: solar repair in Berks County