11-17-2020 Update
Sol-Ark has made a good faith effort to resolve all of the issues described below. Hopefully they will have a 9540 offering in the near future, so this should not be a long term problem. It is however something to be aware of that may effect your local install as options maybe limited.
Sol-Ark has excellent management and product. Hopefully no one else runs into the issues I did however I believe they either have addressed these issues or are resolving the issues stated below so I'm changing my rating from a 1 star review to a 5.
Original Review
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Skip to the punch line - Find out if your city requires UL9540 prior to spending the money and effort to install this equipment. At the time of this writing Sol-Ark does not have it.
1st to clarify this rating is not intended to reflect on the quality of the equipment, it is a reflection of Sol-Ark's pre-sales support and business practices. I understand they are a young growing company so hopefully they will use this as constructive criticism to fix some of their problems.
Sol-Ark 12K sales pitch (from prospective user perspective) unit is an all in one unit for either grid tie or offgrid use - Awesome, this is what I have been looking for for 10+ years its finally here.
Reviewing youtube video comments on Sol-Ark related products and on blogs - best customer support in the business - Great.
Lightning/EMP Hardened/Capable - Can it get any better
Website Supplier support - Great multiple local companies support the product.
Certifications - UL, NEC, Military, etc. looks like they have everything
HALT testing - If you know anything about this testing it basically means it is a rock solid product.
Actual Experience
Customer Beware - I'm out my solar deposit and can't get a system installed due to incomplete advertising and insufficient knowledge of local installer in relation this this product.
Pre-sales support - I contacted multiple well rated (google rating) installers that were listed on the Sol-ark installers network.
https://www.sol-ark.com/distributors/
Prior to contacting multiple vendors I was under the impression that their installers actually understood their products and were trained on them. - Wrong again
Apparently anyone that has ever installed (maybe this is wrong but this is my impression) a unit is listed on the website. Some of the vendors I contacted didn't even know they sold the product. Others sold it a few times but would rather sell something else as they don't sell it frequently. One local company actually knew what the product was and focused on it as a main product.
The process was very frustrating - I called Sol-Ark for assistance, "Which company in my area do you do the most business with?" Simple questions I thought. Sol-Ark response look at our distributor tab that's all I can say.
Reading the response to the other negative response on google sheds further light on the fact that there is a serious lack of training installers.
Getting a quote. i knew exactly what I wanted ~5-6kw solar + Sol-Ark 12k + Qty 4 Eflex 5.4 batteries.
This is getting too long. Condensed version:
Sol-Ark can't provide information on what batteries work well with their system. Installers aren't trained, not sure what they are quoting. Pricing changed multiple times. Stick and Carrot, I don't think it was intentional i think Sol-ark needs to provide training. Installers don't know how many batteries are needed to properly operate and maintain warranties.
Sol-Ark does not have all of the UL ratings necessary to meet national code (The code is however not enforced everywhere so they get away with it. In my area it was a no go and I'm out a lot of money because of it. This should not be a consumer beware type issue. Sol-Ark should provide better training and pre-sales information)
From the inspector:
"The following plan review comments address non-compliance with governing 2017 NEC and 2015 IRC, as adopted by the State of Utah"
"energy storage systems are required to be listed per NEC 706.5. The UL listing requirements for an energy storage system is per UL 9540 (see Annex A in the NEC, under energy storage systems)"
I dIdn't want a Tesla Powerwall, the Sol-Ark is what checked all the boxes but Powerwall is not too far off. NMC batteries and the lower cycle life is really not attractive to me but it's what's available with UL cert that the city will approve. The Tesla installed price is also significantly cheaper and has a lot more solar power 8.16 kw vs 5.4kw, that will make up for the efficiency gap.