January 2025: Equipment Rating System Updates

 

Summary 

To help shoppers better understand and compare solar technology, EnergySage released the latest update to our Equipment Rating System for solar panels, inverters, and batteries in January 2025. 

We developed our new Equipment Rating System after years of research—including interviews with manufacturers, financiers, solar installers, and homeowners—to understand what truly differentiates the best products from the rest. We’ve used data from product specifications, warranty information, and installer input to evaluate and assign scores to the most commonly quoted equipment on the market. 

In 2015, we launched the first iteration of our equipment rating system with the assistance of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) so solar shoppers could easily understand and compare their solar equipment options. Since then, the rating system has undergone several updates to keep pace with advancing solar technology. We believe the latest iteration provides a more accurate and granular evaluation of the equipment available in the market and will help both shoppers and installers differentiate products.

What’s changed? 

We’ve updated our rating system to incorporate factors that consumers, manufacturers, and installers consider most important.

Ratings are based on numerical scores assigned to each piece of equipment. Those numerical scores are assigned according to new rating criteria across multiple categories including, performance, warranties, durability, and more. 

Throughout the Marketplace, you’ll still see the following categories used to rate equipment; these ratings will be based on the numerical scores described above. 

• Excellent
• Very good
• Good
• Fair
• Poor
• Unrated

Why did we make this change? 

We’ve updated our rating logic to reflect today’s solar equipment standards, including advancements in efficiencies, improvements in warranty offerings, and more. Our new rating system provides: 

• More granularity: We’ve expanded the criteria we use to rate all equipment, incorporating more than just what’s on technical specification sheets, from warranty information to input from our installer network. 
• More differentiation: Both installers and shoppers on EnergySage have previously shared concerns about inflated equipment ratings in earlier versions of our Rating System. Historically, too much equipment received an "Excellent" rating, making it challenging to distinguish between options. By adding new criteria, we can now offer more detailed and accurate ratings. As a result, fewer panels, inverters, and batteries will receive an "Excellent" rating, helping to better highlight the true standouts.
• More transparency: We will share category assessments and criteria under each category so installers and shoppers know what we’ve evaluated in the rating. 

How does the new scoring system work? 

The new scoring system considers several aspects for each type of equipment: 

For solar panels

• Performance: How efficient is the solar panel? And how does it perform as the ambient temperature warms or cools? 
• Warranty: What does the warranty cover and how well does it cover those things? Not just how long does the warranty last, but what sorts of expenses are covered by the warranty, and are any other components beyond the panel itself covered by the warranty? 
• Durability: All solar panels must be tested to certain certification standards in order to be offered in the American market, but some go above and beyond in testing to even higher standards of durability.
• Manufacturing: What sort of manufacturing quality management systems and certifications does the solar panel manufacturer use?

For inverters: 

• Performance: How efficiently does the inverter turn direct current (DC) electricity into alternating current (AC) electricity? And what range of system sizes and sunlight scenarios can it operate under? 
• System customization: How configurable is the inverter system? Where can you install it, both geographically and within your home? 
• Capabilities: As more solar panel systems integrate additional products like batteries, generators, and EV chargers, we need to consider how well an inverter supports these components. And how easy is it for installers to monitor the performance of their inverter fleet?
• Warranty: What does the warranty cover and how well does it cover those things? Not just how long does the warranty last, but what sorts of expenses are covered by the warranty? 
• Certifications: All inverters must be tested to certain certification standards in order to be offered in the American market, but some go above and beyond in achieving certifications that are required in certain states or that differentiate one inverter from the next.

For batteries:

• Performance: How powerful is the battery? How much of your home can you power with it and for how long?
• System customization: Where can you put the battery? And how many can you stack on top of each other? Is it easy to retrofit to a new system? 

• Capabilities: What operating modes does the software offer? Can this battery participate in virtual power plant programs or power your home while simultaneously charging? 

• Warranty: What does the warranty cover and how well does it cover those things? Not just how long does the warranty last, but how many cycles will you get and what sorts of expenses are covered by the warranty? 

To learn more about our Equipment Rating System and methodology, read this article.

Where will you see this change? 

Updated ratings will be reflected on all views where the current ratings are placed:

• Product details pages 
• Buyer’s guide list and comparison view
• Quote views (quote details and quote comparison)

When will you see this change? 

New ratings were applied across EnergySage’s Marketplace in January 2025.

What about unrated equipment? 

Our updated Equipment Rating System focuses on evaluating the most commonly quoted solar panels, inverters, and batteries, and we are committed to continuously expanding our coverage. Because we are still building out our full dataset, some products on our marketplace may currently appear as "Unrated". 

If you’d like to suggest a product for us to evaluate, send an email to installersuccess@energysage.com with the product name and a spec sheet attached if possible. Please note that each product requires manual effort to add, so depending on our request volume, it may take some time to see it rated in our system. 

How do I learn more? 

To learn more about our Equipment Rating System, read this article or speak with your PSM. 

To learn more about equipment best practices visit Equipment Package Best Practices.