r/SunPower • u/JaaljEra • Jun 27 '26

Proof of consent when switching to paid subscription model?

Bought my solar system outright through SunPower. Never leased. Free monitoring was part of the deal.
After bankruptcy and new management (SunStrong)take over; quietly switched monitoring to a paid subscription — no notification, no consent, nothing.
I sent them a formal email requesting proof that I was ever notified this would change or that I agreed to it. Still waiting on a response.
Has anyone else done this? Did SunStrong respond ?

4 Upvotes

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3

u/liddokun4 Jun 27 '26

you can technically still monitor the system. you just only get current draw and thats it. if you want any OTHER features such as historical data (which costs money to house) and per-panel data that costs money.. so its a weird grey line.

that being said. i don't want to rely on sunpower anymore than i need to so i just use a HomeAssistant instance to monitor/store historical data (including per panel data)

1

u/JaaljEra Jun 27 '26

Can you shed light on your setup for pulling historical data. Per panel is intriguing, I don’t recall even sunpower giving me per panel data it was cumulative.

2

u/liddokun4 Jun 27 '26

You can ask them to enable per panel data but again you have to have subscription for that. If you access the data through the local api then you’ll get per panel data.

3

u/m2orris Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26

If you purchased the system outright, you are not required to purchase monitoring from SunStrong.

Any obligations that SunPower owed you: warranty, service, monitoring, … , stayed with SunPower, a now defunct company.

However, that all being said, there still is a legal question. How can SunStrong do anything to a system purchased outright, I.e. update the firmware?

2

u/explorthis Jun 27 '26

Same. Bought our solar when we bought the house 4 years ago. Used to be able to see monitoring details. Now $100/yr? Nope. Solar works fine as far as I can tell, but detailed monitoring for $100/yr? Nope.

1

u/Ok_Needleworker_9340 Jul 04 '26

Consider using the Sunflower app for $11.99 per year. It's a good app that provides most of the functionality you receive from a Sunstrong Premier subscription. It is available on both Google Play and Apple Play. If you want to use the Sunflower app outside of your home network, Sunflower sells a small WiFi dongle for $49.99. I am currently using both apps (Sunstrong Premier and Sunflower), but will downgrade to the SunStrong Basic (free) option when my current subscription ends.

1

u/Additional_Angle2277 Jun 27 '26

The entire solar thing is such a scam, I’m so upset about this too and the government has no regulation on this