Why Family-Owned Solar Companies Deliver Better Service in Nigeria

Five Questions to Ask Any Installer Before You Pay

Whether you choose us or someone else, these five questions will tell you more than any
sales pitch. Write the answers down.

1. How long is the performance warranty, and which manufacturer issued it? A
   25-year warranty from a brand you can trace is worth something. A 25-year warranty from a trading
   company you have never heard of is worth very little. Ask for the document, not the promise.
2. Who services the system if it fails, and how quickly do they come? Get a
   response time in writing: days, not “soon”. A system that needs someone to drive to Ilorin from
   Abuja is a system with a very long warranty and a very long wait.
3. What exactly is excluded from the warranty? Flooding, lightning strike and
   physical damage are commonly excluded. Find out before it matters.
4. What is your degradation claim process? If the panels fall short of the
   warranted output, who measures it, and what happens next? “Send us a photo” is not a claim
   process.
5. When do you want the money? A large deposit before materials are ordered, or
   before a design exists, is a risk. Staged payment tied to delivery and commissioning protects
   both sides.

If an installer hesitates on question one, that is your answer. Someone who has nothing to hide
about their warranty is not uncomfortable showing you the warranty.

Why This Page Sounds Different From Every Other Installer Page

Be honest about what you are reading. Most solar company pages in Nigeria are a list of
certifications, a stock photo, and a price range so wide it is meaningless. This page is arguing
that the choice of installer matters more than the choice of brand, which is an inconvenient thing
for a solar company to say about itself.

It is also true, and here is the reasoning. Panels and batteries are largely commodities: the
Tier-1 panel you buy from one installer and the Tier-1 panel you buy from another came off the same
production line. The battery brands overlap heavily across the whole market. What genuinely differs
between installers is the engineering judgement, the honesty of the quote, and whether anybody
answers the phone in year five.

Those three things are exactly what is hard to photograph, so they are exactly what most
installer pages leave out. If you take one useful thing from this article, take the five questions
above and ask them to three installers. You will learn more in ten minutes of asking than from an
hour of reading.