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You told us your power goes out several times a year, that riding through an outage matters to you, and that you would want the whole house running for about six hours. This battery is answering something you asked for rather than something you were sold.

The finding above notes that the proposal never states whether this backs up the whole home or only a critical-loads panel, and that still needs an answer. The capacity itself is not the problem. You said you'd want the whole house running for about six hours in an outage, and a full battery on this system runs the whole house for about eight, assuming whole-home is what actually gets wired. So this is a paperwork gap rather than a hardware gap: get the backup scope in writing, and the system should do what you asked it to do.

From a full 10.0 kWh battery, here's roughly what you'd get: essentials like the fridge, lights, and internet run about 2.1 days (~50 hours); comfort mode, about half your normal use, runs about 16 hours; running the whole home as usual, air conditioning included, runs about 8 hours. These use a regional usage model for homes like yours, since your own bills were not part of what we reviewed. Whole home is the shortest of the three because air conditioning uses more power than everything else in the house put together on a hot afternoon. If you switch it off during an outage you are closer to the comfort number than the whole-home one.

Two things to know: these assume the battery is full when an outage starts (on a time-of-use setup it's often run down each evening, so an evening outage would start lower), and they use year-1 capacity, since batteries fade over their 15 to 25 year life. One piece of good news: your solar makes about 35 kWh a day, more than the essentials basket needs, so on the essentials setting the battery can effectively run as long as the sun keeps shining. The catch is that the storms behind long outages also cut solar output.

Your panels, Qcells Q.TRON BLK M-G2+ 400 W, are on the approved-equipment list that building departments, utilities, and lenders across the country check against, published by the California Energy Commission. Qcells has been in business since 1999, though the company under Hanwha Solutions has operated as the current entity since 2012, after the original founding company filed insolvency. Qcells runs its own manufacturing plants in Dalton and Cartersville, Georgia. Twenty-two panels at 400 watts is 8.80 kW, which matches the system size on the proposal.

The Enphase IQ8M microinverters and the Enphase IQ Battery 5P are both on the same approved-equipment list. Enphase was founded in 2006 in Fremont, California, commercialized the microinverter, and now builds them at contract plants in South Carolina and Texas. This bid puts one microinverter on each panel instead of running everything through a single string inverter, and that is a good thing for your roof: one shaded or failed panel does not drag down the rest of the array, which matters on a roof with afternoon shade like yours.

4.99% is at the low end of what we see on residential solar loans right now. That is a real advantage as a rate. Read it alongside the finance finding below, because a 25-year term at this rate is usually paid for somewhere, and the proposal does not say where.

25 years of product and performance coverage on the Qcells panels, 15 years on the Enphase microinverters, and 15 years or 6,000 cycles on the battery. Nothing is duplicated and nothing is below what is typical for this equipment.

Golden Valley Energy backs their own installation work for 10 years. Ten years or more is the strong end of what we typically see, and it covers problems with the install itself, wiring, mounting, roof penetrations, for that full period. This sits separately from the manufacturer warranties on your panels, inverter and battery. One thing worth knowing about any workmanship warranty: it only holds as long as the company that made it stays in business. That's true of every installer, large or small, and isn't a knock on this one. If you'd like coverage that doesn't depend on any single company staying open, third-party warranty insurance is a separate product you can look into on your own. We have no relationship with these providers and gain nothing if you buy one. We mention it only so you know the option exists.

The proposal names Golden Valley Energy as the contractor of record. The entity on the proposal is the entity named as responsible for the installation.

A contractor license number appears on the proposal. We've confirmed a number is present, not that it's currently valid. Checking it against your state's licensing board is a separate step you can take, and it takes about a minute.