Chapter 3 · Choosing Your Installer
3.4 What's really behind the "premium" equipment names
- For the most expensive brands sold in the U.S. market, the core cells / IGBTs / MCUs / PCBs largely come from mainland China.
- Some "premium American DIY brands" (we won't name them here) are literally an OEM rebadge of a specific Chinese brand — same internal circuitry, just a different shell and a different software UI. The U.S. asking price is over 3× what the original brand sells the same model for in Europe.
- Mainstream Chinese-branded equipment carries UL 1741 + CEC certification, performs no differently from the "premium American" equivalent, and usually costs less. The bankruptcy risk for these global brands is also much lower than for U.S. installer-owned brands.
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3.3 Five lessons from the SunPower bankruptcy
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3.5 Why we don't recommend "T-brand" equipment
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