LOUDON COUNTY, Tenn. (WATE) — A couple in Loudon County has been having trouble with their new solar system since June.

The system is supposed to store battery power to keep their water well and two refrigerators running in case severe weather knocks out electrical power, but they told WATE’s Don Dare communicating with the company has been difficult.

They’ve kept records of each time they’ve called Solar Titan USA asking for assistance. After visiting the couple last month, Dare contacted the company.

“The system is not working for almost three weeks,” said Pat Ireland.
 

In mid-November, Pat and Cheryl Ireland showed us their solar system. They have 10 solar panels on the roof of their home but the system hadn’t been working properly for weeks. “There is only .26 kilowatts left in those batteries,” said Pat. “The system is slowly but surely draining. Those batteries, those batteries are $2500 a piece.”

In December 2021, they called a Solar Titan USA representative to their home. They bought a $33,000 system and took out a loan. They pay $175 a month. “That was our whole idea, to be off-grid. Just in case things went haywire, we had our own power,” said Cheryl.

The couple draws their water from a well on their property. They bought solar panels so they’d never be without water, and to keep their two refrigerators operating in case bad weather knocked out electrical power. The panels were installed on December 17, 2021. It would be June before the system passed inspection. “It’s like they took the money and we never heard from them. And these are all our phone calls, pages after pages, pages after pages. We started calling in early February. Because all we had was the panels on the roof, they came in and put the boxes in and they walked away,” said Cheryl.

ATE wrote to Solar Titan USA. The company shared that the couple’s system began producing electricity in March, but failed an inspection on March 29. The company also said the Solar Titan team worked with the inspector on the things that he wanted to be addressed and passed the final inspection on June 1. “You never see the same technician out there twice. It is always a different technician,” said Pat. “It’s not charging our batteries. we’re pretty much on the grid. 100% on the grid. No one is returning our calls,” said Cheryl.

When WATE contacted Solar Titan USA the company wrote: “Solar Titan has served many satisfied customers and we stand by our commitment to customer satisfaction. Solar Titan works closely with customers on all issues related to their solar power system, and always strives to respond quickly to any customer service issue.” “They installed this, it’s a load shed. It’s supposed to prevent tripping the circuit,” said Cheryl.

Solar Titan told WATE, the couple was told their system would be able to run four critical loads on their circuit board but that the well pump would be too much for the system.

The company said “against Solar Titan USA’s advisement, Mrs. Ireland insisted on putting the well pump on the critical load. The system then errored because the well pump was too much for the system. Because customer satisfaction is important to Solar Titan USA went back out and added an additional piece of equipment free of charge.”

Dare checked in with the Irelands on Wednesday about that new piece of equipment. They said although it took several days, the battery is completely charged and for that they are grateful.
 

While Solar Titan USA did respond to the issues at the Ireland’s home, information from the local Better Business Bureau shows the company has an “F” rating due to a “pattern of complaints in the areas of product and customer service issues.” The bureau has issued an alert for the business due to the number of complaints, a total of 145 over the last three years. Apparently, Solar Titan USA is responding to complaints made to the BBB. The company has a 98 percent business response rate, according to BBB information.