Dud Solar Panels - TVNZ Closeup Current Affairs Programme 22 June, 2007

TVNZ Closeup:
"The government provides subsidies to homeowners installing solar panels on their houses and plenty of people are taking them up. Because, as well as helping save the planet, using solar panels to heat your water can cut your power bill big-time. But a number of people with solar panels say they have given up the ghost after a short time.

Wellingtonian Gary Moller has had three lots of panels, all duds, and is now trying to raise awareness of what he says is a solar panel crisis. Damian Christie investigates, then Paul Henry talks to Greens co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons. "
For more about this story, including the video of the programme, go here

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Hello Gary,
Thanks for alerting us to possible problems with our SHW system. We have had a Sola60 system since Aug 2004.

We had wondered this past year if it was working well (it was marvelous the first couple of years). But as we put a bigger hot water tank in last year and a wetback system in last winter, it was hard to tell. In previous years we have been able to turn the power off to our hot tank and solely relied on the SHW system from Oct-Mar. This summer we needed to keep the power on for one hour a day to top up.

We climbed up on our rather inaccessible roof today, and found it was not looking too good.

I have attached photos of the damage which seems very similar to the TVone pics. ...

Quite a shock really.

We weren't advised that we needed a building permit, hence it doesn't have one. Although we required one for our wetback system installed 2006.