Going solar
What's actually included in your solar warranty?
A residential solar system has four overlapping warranties. Most installers only highlight one. The four together are what determines whether a 25-year-old install is still your installer's problem or yours.
The four warranties on every Kaizen install
| Warranty | What it covers | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Workmanship | Mounting, wiring, weatherproofing — anything Kaizen's crew physically touched | 25 years |
| Production guarantee | If your system underproduces vs. design estimate, we cover the difference | 25 years |
| Manufacturer warranty | Defective panels, inverters, and battery hardware — paid by the manufacturer | 25 years (panels), 10–15 years (battery), 12–25 years (inverter) |
| Service contract | Monitoring, dispatch on issues, utility paperwork | Life of the system, included |
Workmanship warranty — the one most installers skip
If a roof leak develops in year 14 around a panel mount, it's a workmanship issue. If a connector loosens and trips a panel offline in year 19, it's workmanship. Many cheaper installers offer 5 or 10-year workmanship — meaning year 11 onward is your problem, even if their crew put the screw in the wrong place.
Kaizen's workmanship warranty runs the full 25 years, matching the manufacturer warranty on the panels themselves. One company answers the phone, regardless of which warranty applies.
Production guarantee — what it actually means
Every system we install ships with an annual production estimate (e.g., '11,800 kWh in year one, declining 0.4%/yr'). If your system produces less than the estimate over a full calendar year, we cut you a check for the difference at retail electricity rates. Almost no installer offers this, and the ones that do usually cap the duration at 5-10 years. Ours runs 25.
Manufacturer warranty — paid by the panel maker
If a panel itself fails (delamination, micro-cracking, hot spots), the panel manufacturer replaces it. We handle all the paperwork and the swap on the roof — you don't see any of it. This is one of the reasons we only install tier-1 manufacturers (Mission Solar, Q CELLS, REC, LONGi, Silfab) — they all have the financial stability to honor 25-year warranties.
Service contract — the lifetime piece
We monitor every system every day. If a panel goes offline, we get the alert before you do. We dispatch on the issue and handle utility paperwork for as long as the system runs — included on every install, not an upsell.
Common questions
Frequently asked
- What if Kaizen goes out of business?
- Manufacturer warranties are paid by the manufacturer (not Kaizen) and remain valid regardless. The workmanship and production guarantees are tied to Kaizen — that's why we focus on disciplined growth and conservative finances. We're not in the leveraged-TPO solar wave.
- What about hail and storm damage?
- Tier-1 panels are tested to 1" hail at 50 mph and are typically covered by your homeowner's insurance for catastrophic events. Manufacturer warranties cover defects, not weather damage.
- What if the system underproduces because of shade I added later?
- Production guarantee covers the system as designed. If you plant a tree that shades 30% of the array, that's outside the guarantee — but we'd flag it during monitoring and you'd know before it cost you serious money.