Learn

Plain-English guides on solar production guarantees, warranty claims, equipment failures, and what your inverter data is actually telling you.

Getting started

Getting Started: Setting Up Your Enphase Collector

Step-by-step setup for your OwlWatt collector with an Enphase system — from unboxing to your first verified production reading.

Read →

Troubleshooting & Claims

Solar Underperforming? Here's Who to Actually Call

When your panels underproduce, the installer blames the inverter and the inverter blames the installer. Here's the right call order and what to say.

Read →

When Your Installer and Inverter Vendor Blame Each Other

How to break out of the finger-pointing loop — the contract structure that makes the installer responsible regardless of equipment.

Read →

Solar Producing Less Than Expected? Here's How to Prove It.

The 5-step evidence chain: lock the baseline, gather production data, weather-adjust, calculate the dollar gap, package the report.

Read →

What's a Solar Production Guarantee Report and Why Does It Matter?

The 4 contract clauses that decide if you can collect — and what a claim-ready report needs to contain.

Read →

Escalating a Solar Production Claim When Your Installer Won't Pay

Your report documents the shortfall and the installer won't honor the guarantee. The escalation ladder — written demand, state Attorney General complaint, attorney — plus a 15-state AG consumer-protection directory.

Read →

Solar Production Guarantee Demand Letter: Free Template

A free, fill-in-the-blank written-demand template for a production-guarantee shortfall — when to send it, what to attach, and the figures that make it land. Not legal advice.

Read →

Using Massachusetts Chapter 93A Against a Solar Installer

How M.G.L. c. 93A applies to a production-guarantee dispute — the 30-day demand letter, double or treble damages, and attorney's fees — cited to the Massachusetts General Laws. Not legal advice.

Read →

Using California Consumer-Protection Law (CLRA & UCL) Against a Solar Installer

How California's CLRA (Civ. Code 1750 et seq.) and UCL (Bus. & Prof. Code 17200) apply to a production-guarantee dispute — the CLRA 30-day notice, damages, attorney's fees, and restitution — cited to the California codes. Not legal advice.

Read →

Using the Texas DTPA Against a Solar Installer

How the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (Bus. & Com. Code 17.41 et seq.) applies to a production-guarantee dispute — the 60-day pre-suit notice, economic damages, up to treble damages, and attorney's fees — cited to the Texas statutes. Not legal advice.

Read →

Using Florida's FDUTPA Against a Solar Installer

How the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (Fla. Stat. 501.201 et seq.) applies to a production-guarantee dispute — actual damages and prevailing-party attorney's fees — cited to the Florida Statutes. Not legal advice.

Read →

Using the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act Against a Solar Installer

How the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act (N.J.S.A. 56:8-1 et seq.) applies to a production-guarantee dispute — mandatory treble damages and mandatory attorney's fees under N.J.S.A. 56:8-19 — cited to the New Jersey statutes. Not legal advice.

Read →

Using New York GBL §349 & §350 Against a Solar Installer

How New York General Business Law §349 (deceptive acts) and §350 (false advertising) apply to a production-guarantee dispute — actual damages, discretionary treble damages, and attorney's fees — cited to the New York statutes. Not legal advice.

Read →

mySolarEdge Removed Features: What Owners Can Do

What the mySolarEdge app removed, what still works on the web portal, and how to export your data before more features disappear.

Read →

Methodology & credibility

How OwlWatt Measures Your Solar System — Plain English

End-to-end: how OwlWatt reads actual Enphase production, runs the NREL expected-output model, adjusts for weather, and produces the timestamped gap report.

Read →

How OwlWatt Calculates Your System's Expected Production

NREL's PVWatts model, pvlib, and the exact parameters OwlWatt uses — DC nameplate capacity, tilt, azimuth, install date, system losses. Why the calculation is defensible when an installer pushes back.

Read →

Diagnostic

Is Solar Worth It? How to Check Your Actual ROI

Installer savings estimates are projections. Your real solar ROI depends on whether your system delivers the promised production — here's how to verify.

Read →

Solar Expected vs. Actual Production Explained

Your 4 kW array has never hit 4 kW — temperature derating, inverter clipping, and shading all bite. Here's what's normal and how to spot a real fault.

Read →

Is My Solar Underproducing? Free Estimator

Enter your system size, state, install year, and actual output for an instant rough check against typical production for your area — then get the precise, contract-grade number.

Read →

Solar Underperformance: How to Spot It

What underperformance looks like in the data, why it's so easy to miss, and how monitoring catches it before warranty windows close.

Read →

Panel-Level Monitoring: Worth It?

When per-panel data matters, when string-level is enough, and what your inverter brand actually exposes.

Read →

Solar Equipment Failure Modes

Inverters, optimizers, microinverters — what fails first, how you'd know, and what your installer owes you.

Read →

How to Read Your Solar Monitoring Data

What the production graph, kWh totals, and panel-level views actually mean — and what your app does not show.

Read →

Weather-Adjusted Solar Production

Why comparing to last year or your installer's estimate misleads you, and how a weather-adjusted baseline tells the truth.

Read →

UL 3700 & Plug-In Solar 2026: Is It Worth It?

UL 3700 is the new US safety standard for plug-in solar. What it covers, which states have legalized balcony solar, real kit prices, and whether it's worth it.

Read →

Financial & contractual

Solar Production Guarantees: What They Promise, What They Exclude, and How to Enforce One

What the production guarantee in your contract actually says, how the baseline is calculated, the guarantee-vs-estimate-vs-warranty distinction, what's excluded, and what the installer is on the hook for.

Read →

How to File a Production Shortfall Claim

A step-by-step guide: the documents you need, how to calculate the dollar amount, and how to handle exclusions and deadlines.

Read →

When Your Solar Installer Goes Bankrupt

What you keep, what you lose, and exactly what to do in the first 30 days.

Read →

Solar Installer Bankrupt — Do I Still Owe My Loan?

Yes — in almost every case you still owe the solar loan. Here is when you might have a dispute case, and what to do right now.

Read →

Verifying Your Solar Utility Bill

How net metering credits should appear, the common errors, and how to dispute them with paper-trail evidence.

Read →

Why Is My Electric Bill Higher After Solar? The 6 Real Reasons

Solar installed but bill still high? Six specific causes — system underperformance, consumption increase, net metering errors, TOU rates, loan payments, or undersizing.

Read →

The Solar Savings Calculator Was Optimistic

Why payback estimates drift from reality, and the four numbers to check.

Read →

Enphase vs SolarEdge: Warranty Comparison

Microinverter vs optimizer warranties — what each covers, the claim process, and why your installer's production guarantee still matters more than either.

Read →

Enphase Care Cost: Is the Plan Worth It in 2026?

Enphase Care starts at $399/year, Care+ is quote-gated too — what's covered, what raises the price, and why a service plan isn't a production guarantee.

Read →

Solar Production Guarantee Contract Red Flags

The exact clauses to check before you sign — vague remedies, undefined measurement, open-ended weather exclusions, missing degradation schedules, and short claim windows.

Read →

NEM 3.0: Is Your Solar Still Saving Money?

Net billing cut export credits sharply, so many solar savings estimates now miss badly. How to check actual production against your guarantee, not just your bill.

Read →

Does Plug-In Solar Have a Production Guarantee?

Plug-in (balcony) solar is DIY — no installer, no contract, no production guarantee, and no net metering in Utah. What that means for what you're buying.

Read →

Verify Your Installer's Guarantee

Sunrun Production Guarantee: How to Verify Yours

What Sunrun's guarantee covers, what it excludes (weather clauses, shading), and how to build an independent record before a dispute.

Read →

SunPower Production Guarantee After Bankruptcy: What Owners Can Do

SunPower filed for Chapter 11 in 2024. Here is what happened to the production guarantee and what orphaned SunPower customers can still do.

Read →

Sunnova Production Guarantee: How to Verify Yours

Sunnova's financial situation and what it means for your guarantee — plus how to verify your system independently.

Read →

Tesla Solar Production Guarantee: How to Verify Yours

The critical estimate vs. guarantee distinction in Tesla contracts, and how to verify your system with the closed Tesla monitoring ecosystem.

Read →

Palmetto Solar Production Guarantee: How to Verify Yours

Palmetto LightReach subscription vs. purchased systems — what each guarantees and how to verify independently.

Read →

Verify Your Monitoring App

Independently Verify Your Enphase Enlighten Production

Enphase shows raw production — but not whether it's good enough. Here is what independent verification adds and how to do it.

Read →

Independently Verify Your mySolarEdge Production

mySolarEdge removed features homeowners relied on. Here is what still works and how SolarEdge owners can verify their guarantee today.

Read →

Performance over time

Solar Panel Degradation Over Time

The 0.5%/year industry assumption, when it breaks, and how to verify your panels are aging on schedule.

Read →

Regional

Solar in New England

Snow loss, winter performance, and what to expect from northeast arrays through a full year.

Read →

New England Solar Power Cost: Per-kWh Rates, Caps, and What to Expect

The highest electricity rates in the continental US make New England solar economics uniquely strong — here are the actual numbers by state.

Read →

Solar in New York

NY-SUN, net metering rules, and what production looks like across NY's climate zones.

Read →

Solar in California

NEM 3.0 economics, NEM 2.0 grandfathering, and the SunPower bankruptcy aftermath.

Read →

Solar in Massachusetts

The SMART incentive program pays on production. Make sure you're producing what you should.

Read →

Solar in Texas

Deregulated retail market, ERCOT context, and why your specific REP plan dictates your solar economics.

Read →

Solar in New Jersey

SREC II to SuSI program transition, and how every kWh of production becomes incentive income.

Read →

Solar in Arizona

Extreme-heat derating, dust soiling, and the APS and SRP export-rate landscape.

Read →

Solar in Florida

Hurricane and storm damage, heat and humidity losses, and Florida's net metering rules.

Read →

Solar in North Carolina

The net metering transition, Duke Energy's landscape, and the state's regional weather variability.

Read →