Briz, call the insurance company back and tell them they need to do another Replacement Cost Estimator and account for the solar system you installed. If they don't, you don't have enough coverage on the building(s) on which the panels are installed. For example, if you house cost $200,000 to rebuild and you add a solar system which has a replacement value of $50,000, you're underinsured by that $50,000 AND, in event of a even partial loss, you will suffer from not having enough coverage. Call them back and INSIST they re-do a Replacement Cost Estimator. Some of the common estimators are MS&B (Marshall, Swift & Boeckh), Access360, and many others. This is really important.
I agree with the above. My long-term insurance agent explained it to me this way: If your house is insured for 80% of it's replacement value and you have a partial loss (say 50% damage), they will pay you 80% of the 50% loss.
Did that as I read your reply. I didnt know it was such a big deal. The lady acted as if it would take an act of congress to make any changes. They wont send someone out to look but will send a form for me to fill out along with supporting documents as to why I want to inc the coverage limits. Right now they will pay 309K for a total loss. We paid 250,000 in 2004 to build the place. I may look into a new policy with another company. However here in Florida getting home owners ins is never easy.
PM me your full name and address...I'll do one for them.... Jeesh, won't send someone out to re-appraise. Worthless. What company are we talking about?
Peoples Trust Ins. I'll pm you my info and if needed I can fax a copy of my current dec page as well as the docs they want me to fill out
I got it. I’ll work on it tomorrow. I’m by myself in the office tomorrow but will try to get it done between clients.
Chickens don't talk, nor do eggs for that matter! Does this system use 'micro inverters'? Those are used when some panels will see shade. It makes each panel work independently of the others. A conventional system with one or two 'string inverter(s)' will have severely reduced output if a single panel gets shade.... it affects the whole string. The downside to microinverters is the extra hardware with each panel.... more that could go wrong, especially considering the harsh rooftop environment they work in. But if you have shading, they are a must-have. Brad... can you provide a policy out-of state? I'm in Pa.
But what came first, the chicken or the egg?? Walt, wish I could. My agency is licensed in Ohio and Kentucky. One of these days the congress will pass a bill for reciprocity across state lines for insurance agents.
It has an optimizer for each panel to do exactly what you describe. If you look at one of the pictures with just the rail mount system you'll see a small weather tight box. Theres one under each panel. They all have a bar code on them and were scanned with a tablet and marked on a grid showing where each was placed as well as which panel it was attached to. Once the system is powered up I can get real time read out on what panel is doing at any time during the day. If theres any that are not putting out what they are rated for the system automatically alerts the company and triggers a service call. At the last min they decided to install one larger inverter as opposed to 2 smaller ones.
I think there was much greater interest in this before the financial crisis. I haven't heard anything about this or for a Federal charter for insurers in some time. That might have been some rumblings when AIG was being bailed out but I think the rest of the P&C industry has convinced the Feds those were the actions of a lone wolf in an unregulated subsidiary.
All were waiting for now is the local co-op to swap in the 2 way meter. I went out yesterday and flipped the switch. It says on the display thats it making power even on a cloudy rainy day.
Power company switched meters Friday afternoon. Of course it was raining and overcast until Sunday. Couldnt get a hold of anyone at the office to ask why it wasnt making power. turns out the system had to be initialized during daylight hours. So I did that yesterday. Today I look at the web site to see how its doing. This is a screen shot of the systems performance at 8am this morning. I thing I see 4 or 5 panels that are not making any output.
