This
exclusion is almost universal in the Home Emergency market although more
recently I noticed a product that doesn't have it. Unusual! While the exclusion
was originally introduced in the dark old days when solar panels were a rare
sight and our homes were heated by gigantic old gas boilers that were big
enough to live in, it was fair to argue that the exclusion was needed because
specialism in the new solar technology was thin on the ground and a national
service network that was able to respond 24/7 at a reasonable price would have
been difficult to source.
Encouraged
by Government subsidies the "growth of solar" has led to a rapid
increase in the number of solar engineering firms springing up making the
original reason for the exclusion redundant. Moreover recent reduction of the
subsidy has resulted in a slow-down from which I infer that there is probably
plenty of 24/7 capacity in the market……. BUT……
the
initiated will know that solar panels provide an alternative source of energy
and plug into a feed-in tariff. So should all panels fail at once or more realistically
should we have a Scandinavian winter where there is very limited sunlight to
generate energy, the home will still run on the mains. Hence no interruption of
power = no home emergency.
Solar
panel providers/installers invariably provide a dedicated helpline for
customers to report problems with panels where all issues can be reported and
call outs arranged.
Conclusion
- For Home Emergency cover the failure of solar panels is a "non-risk"
as the customer's home and hot water supply can be powered by energy fed from
the national grid. We think this is an example of when "more is less"
and have no plans to remove the exclusion from our Home Emergency policy
wordings.
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