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Solar Learning Lab

Trust

How we grade installers

Every installer grade on this site is built from evidence you can check yourself. This page explains exactly what goes into a grade, what does not, and how we keep money from touching the process.

Grades run A through F. They are computed from state license status, complaint and enforcement records, business longevity, workmanship warranty terms, and verifiable installation history. Business relationships have no input. The grading database has no connection to the partnership database, by schema design.

What goes into a grade

  • License status. We check the state boards that actually issue the licenses solar work requires and link the lookup so you can re-run the check.
  • Complaint and enforcement records. State consumer protection actions, license discipline, and patterns in public complaint data. One bad review is noise. A pattern is signal.
  • Longevity and stability. Solar warranties only matter if the company still exists to honor them. Years in business and corporate status are weighted accordingly.
  • Warranty terms. Workmanship warranty length and what it actually covers, pulled from the installer's published terms where available.
  • Verifiable track record. Permitted installation volume and interconnection history where public records allow.

What never touches a grade

  • Whether a company advertises with us or partners with us
  • Whether a company is us. Our own installation business is graded by the same rubric and the grade is published either way
  • Payment of any kind. There is no pay-to-play tier, badge program, or paid placement inside grades

The structural wall

Saying business relationships do not influence grades is easy. We built it into the database instead. The grading system physically cannot read partnership or revenue data: the schemas are separated and there are no foreign keys between them. A grade cannot reference who we work with because the software that computes grades has no path to that information.

Grade scale

A

Clean license history, established business, strong warranty, verifiable volume. No open enforcement actions.

B

Solid record with minor gaps, such as shorter track record or thinner public data.

C

Mixed evidence. Licensed and operating, but with complaint patterns, short history, or weak warranty terms.

D

Material concerns: enforcement history, unstable business record, or unverifiable claims.

F

Active license problems, enforcement actions, or patterns we consider disqualifying. We say why.

Corrections

Installers can dispute any data point in their profile by pointing us to a primary source. If the record is right, the grade changes. If it is not, it stands. Corrections are logged with a date on the profile.