Welcome to the Total Care Promise Solar System Warranty Protection Plan.

2. Welcome to the Total Care Promise Solar System Warranty Protection Plan.

3. Introduction The Total Care Promise is underwritten by Watt Test, Australia’s only NATA Accredited Laboratory with an Inverter Repair and Service Centre that can test and repair renewable energy products to Australian Standards. Within this short presentation we are going to explain to you why you should protect yourself with the Total Care Promise Warranty Protection Plan and the consequences of not protecting yourself. Watt Test is proud to be Australia’s only NATA Approved Inverter Testing Facility capable of servicing and repairing inverters to Australian Standards

4. Has Your Warranty Lapsed? Most solar systems that were installed prior to 2010 are likely to have exceeded their inverter and solar panel manufacturer’s warranty period which at the time was an industry standard of 5 years for Inverters and 5 years for solar panel workmanship. Many other systems installed shortly afterwards will also have warranties that will soon expire leaving many people unprotected. Please do not be confused by the 25 year power output warranty on solar panels. This warranty does not protect your solar panels from manufacturer defects and failed workmanship which is the most common cause of solar panel failure. The power output may be guaranteed for 25 years but what good is that when the solar panel workmanship fails after 5 years and you cannot claim against the warranty. If solar panels were truly designed to last 25 years then why won’t manufacturers give a 25 year workmanship warranty? The truth is that many will fail within this duration of time. Watt Test is proud to be Australia’s only NATA Approved Inverter Testing Facility capable of servicing and repairing inverters to Australian Standards

5. Did you know? Did you know that a large portion of solar Inverter warranty claims are not covered by the Manufacturer’s Warranty? For example: There are approximately 80,000 electrical storms and millions of electrical storm lightning strikes per year inside Australia. Up to 50% of Inverter failures originate from electrical storm surges and other acts of nature, all of which are not covered by the manufacturer’s warranty. Equally so when severe storms and flooding occur, water becomes the biggest enemy of your solar power system causing electrical circuits to short out which can substantially damage Inverters, solar panels and other system components. All of these are also non-claimable under the manufacturer’s warranty.

6. Can I claim under my home insurance? Now let’s look at the possibility of making a claim under your Home Insurance policy. The first thing you would need to do is prove to your insurance company that the problem was not the result of a manufacturer’s defect which caused the product to fail, as essentially that would become a manufacturer’s warranty claim. In order to prove this, your insurance company would require a report to be given to them first to support your claim. These reports can cost several hundred dollars to obtain because testing equipment used to find the root cause of the product failure is usually only located in a specialist testing facility and the first thing you would need to start the process is a qualified electrical contractor to remove the inverter and deliver it to the testing facility for the report to be generated. Removing the inverter and generating the report is a very expensive process with no guarantee that your failed product will be covered by your home insurance policy. Now let’s say that you do manage to get over all those hurdles and your insurance company agrees to repair or replace it. Next comes the dreaded excess charges that usually start at $1000, as well as those policy price hikes on next year’s policy renewal, just because you made a claim on your policy. Is it really worth all that hassle?

7. Can Retailers & Installers help me? Now let’s move on to Retailers & Installers; Retailers and Installers have limited powers to help customers with solar product failures, especially if the problem occurred through a process other than a defective product. Retailers and Installers usually have no technical skills to help assess what caused the problem in the first place and seeing that they have already taken your money to install your system some time ago, you are definitely not a priority on their busy schedule even if they do decide to assist you.

8. Can I deal direct with the manufacturer? Now let’s look at warranty claims made directly to the Manufacturer. Manufacturers who are often overseas have lengthy warranty claim procedures and processing times, but before they will do absolutely anything about your problem you must first prove to them with evidence that the problem was caused by their equipment becoming defective in the first place. This is virtually impossible to do and so frustrating that the stress involved with attempting to do this is simply just not worth it. Then there is an even scarier thought that through planned obsolescence, products within the solar industry will fail by as much as 90% once the manufacturer’s warranty period has lapsed leaving you totally alone to fix any problems. If you are not familiar with planned obsolescence please google it as it’s extremely important for you to understand it. You will definitely be effected by it as there is absolutely NO escape from planned obsolescence.

9. Retailers going out of business Over the last few years there has been an endless stream of news articles featuring solar retailers, manufacturers and installers continuing to go “out of business” and leaving thousands of customers with no warranty protection in place. Even if your solar equipment is still within the manufacturers warranty period, who will help you to deal with the manufacturer if the product fails? And what extra costs will you incur to do this as manufacturers will only agree to a product repair or replacement service and will never pay for any additional shipping or labour costs, and that’s only if you can fully prove that the product failed from a defective part, but as we pointed out earlier, proving this is almost impossible to do without first spending hundreds of dollars. con/t

10. How sure can you be of becoming immune to all these possible situations such as product defects, acts of nature, companies going out of business and instant failure of products through planned obsolescence once the manufacturer’s warranty has lapsed? More importantly can you really afford the down time of your solar system while you attempt to find a solution to get someone to repair it, and how much money could you further lose by having to pay more costs for your electricity while your solar system is not producing solar energy.

11. Is the risk really worth it? Most people insure their car for maybe $1000 per year; your home insurance may cost you $1200 per year, so given that your solar investment is an integral part of your home why would you not take out a protection plan designed for the total care of your solar investment? The truth is that without a protection plan you could be facing thousands of dollars of repair costs in the likely event of your system failing over the coming years. The Total Care Promise plan starts at less than the cost of a cup of coffee a month at Coffee Club. That’s incredible value while giving you complete peace of mind for many years to come. So why not take out your system protection plan today and feel protected against totally unpredictable situations.

12. Be protected, it’s better to be safe With full cover starting at just $39.95 per annum, can you really afford not to be protected by Australia’s only premium warranty and repair service? Join us today and relax with the thought that we are just one call away from solving all your issues quickly and efficiently when the need arises. To receive instant cover takes less than 5 minutes with our online cover form with a full refund available if you change your mind within 14 days. Watt Test is proud to be Australia’s only NATA Approved Inverter Testing Facility capable of servicing and repairing inverters to Australian Standards