Your Solar Installer Is Gone: Where an O‘ahu Homeowner Starts

If your original solar installer is no longer available, check who owns your system before arranging repairs. Owners of purchased or financed systems can ask a service provider about an assessment; leased systems or those under a power purchase agreement (PPA) should start with their current owner or manager. Then gather the equipment details and describe what has changed.

For an O‘ahu homeowner, the original installer, financing company, equipment manufacturer, and HECO may all appear in the paperwork. They have different roles. Your HECO account identifies your electricity service and solar program; it does not establish who is responsible for repairing your equipment.

Confirm Who Owns the System

If you bought the system outright or financed its purchase, review your purchase agreement, loan documents, and warranty records. Ask a service provider to assess the issue and explain whether manufacturer support or an authorized repair process is needed. A remaining loan balance does not, by itself, tell you who must perform a repair.

If you lease the system or have a power purchase agreement (PPA), start with the system owner or current manager. Coordinate repair authorization through them before arranging independent work. Review recent statements and transfer notices; the company handling the account may have changed since installation.

Sunrun customers can use Sunrun’s customer support page. For former SunPower or Sunnova accounts now managed by SunStrong, SunStrong’s account guide identifies account and monitoring resources. These are account-specific paths, not a claim that every former customer moved to the same manager.

If ownership is unclear, gather the agreement and recent statements first. Tell the service provider what you do and do not know rather than selecting an ownership category by guesswork.

Describe the Change Before Diagnosing It

A useful service request describes what you observed and when it started. For example: “The monitoring app stopped updating on Tuesday,” or “The inverter has shown this alert since last week.” Include a screenshot and the last date you remember normal operation.

Keep these observations separate:

• A monitoring connection problem or missing data.
• Lower recorded solar production.
• A higher HECO bill.
• A battery or inverter alert.
• Visible damage noticed safely from ground level.

Those observations may be related, but they do not identify the same fault. Avoid treating a single bill or app screenshot as proof that a particular component needs replacement. An assessment can establish what additional checks are needed.

Do not climb onto the roof, open electrical equipment, or attempt wiring repairs to collect information. For equipment alerts, follow the owner documentation for your exact product and ask the service provider what is safe to check. Tesla’s Powerwall service guidance, for example, provides a manufacturer-specific support path; it is not a troubleshooting procedure for other brands.

Put Together a Small Service Packet

You do not need a perfect archive to ask for help. Start with what you have:

• Property address, contact details, and system ownership status.
• Original installer and approximate installation year.
• Solar inverter and battery brands and model numbers, if available in your records or app.
• Screenshots of alerts, monitoring history, and the date the issue began.
• Purchase or lease documents, warranty information, and previous service reports.
• HECO program name and approved system documents, if available.

Share account records privately with the appropriate provider. There is no need to publish account numbers, passwords, or customer information in a public review or social post to get started.

Ask What the Assessment Will Establish

Before booking, ask whether the provider can evaluate your equipment and whether there is a diagnostic charge. Confirm what the visit includes, how findings will be explained, and whether additional work requires a separate proposal.

Equipment coverage, labor coverage, and the original installer’s workmanship obligations may come from different agreements. Ask which written terms apply and who must approve a claim. The fact that equipment is still installed does not establish warranty eligibility, and a new contractor should not be assumed to inherit the original installer’s obligations.

If replacement equipment is proposed, ask how compatibility, monitoring access, and HECO documentation will be addressed. HECO lists amendments as the route for changes to equipment under an existing solar agreement. The review should match the proposed change rather than assume any replacement is interchangeable. HECO’s amendment guidance