What to Ask a GTA Solar Installer Before Signing

Because the facts that protect you on a solar job are not in any public listing. SolarPanelFinder records each company's category, area and website where it has one. It checks no licence and holds no verified licence status, insurance details, warranty terms, job timelines or completion history for any of them.

The site's methodology page says it plainly: "We do not check licences, insurance or WSIB coverage." WSIB is the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board. When a company's own website claims a licence, the profile prints "Says it is licensed" rather than "Licensed". A listing can show that a company exists and where it works. It cannot tell you what the company will promise you, and a promise only counts once it is in the contract.

Very little on these points. In August 2026 the site's crawler tried the website of every listed company that has one, read 115 of them and recorded any sentence about licences, insurance or trade bodies. Licence or insurance wording turned up on the sites of 22 of the 161 companies. By kind, 18 say they are licensed, 4 mention WSIB coverage, 4 say they are insured and 3 mention liability insurance, and one site can say several of these. The Electrical Safety Authority (ESA) is named on 18 sites, and a licence from the Electrical Contractor Registration Agency (ECRA) on 6.

These are the companies' own claims, but they are still useful. A company that names its licence on its own site should be able to give you the number on the spot. For the other 139 companies, the question starts from scratch.

Ask this first, because Ontario's rules settle part of the answer. The ESA says Licensed Electrical Contractors "are the only businesses in Ontario legally authorized to do electrical work in your home." It also says the Ontario Electrical Safety Code requires almost all electrical work to be reported to it through a notification of work, which the person doing the work must file before the work starts. The ESA's minimum fee for a residential notification is $88.

The questions that follow from that:

• Is your company a Licensed Electrical Contractor, or will it hire one for the wiring? If it subcontracts, to whom?
• What is the ECRA/ESA licence number? The ESA tells homeowners to ask for it and to check it with its Find a Contractor tool.
• Who files the notification, and is the ESA fee in the quoted price?
• Will I get a copy of the ESA certificate once the work passes? The ESA says a Licensed Electrical Contractor can give you a Certificate of Acceptance once the work is complete, and Toronto Hydro asks for the ESA certificate before it inspects the system itself.

The site's guide to who does the electrical work on a solar install covers the service panel and meter side of the job.

Ask, and get the answer in writing. The City of Toronto's permit guide says a building permit is required for solar panels "with an area greater than 5m2 on rooftops and walls of any building". Ask whose name goes on the application, whether the fee is in the quote, and who supplies the structural drawings and engineer's calculations the city requires. Outside Toronto, your own city's building department runs the permit process, so the company should know its process without looking it up. The order of the three approvals, and what each one costs, is in the site's guide to the paperwork behind a GTA solar install.

Your local utility connects the array, in a process separate from the permit. The Ontario Energy Board describes net metering as a credit on your electricity bill for the renewable electricity you send to the grid, and the site's net metering guide explains how that credit works.

Toronto Hydro and Alectra Utilities both publish a process for small systems of 12 kilowatts (kW) or less. Toronto Hydro's has seven steps:

1. An optional, free preliminary request, answered with connection details and allowable capacity.
2. The Micro-Embedded Generation Facility Application.
3. A signed Connection Agreement, returned with payment.
4. Construction.
5. The ESA inspection, with the ESA certificate emailed to Toronto Hydro.
6. Toronto Hydro's own site inspection, then a new meter if one is needed.
7. Connection.

Alectra's version starts with a preliminary consultation and Form C, its Micro Generation Connection Application. Neither utility page gives a timeline.

Ask who files each step, who pays the utility at step 3, and who follows up when an answer is slow. Then ask how the contract's payment schedule lines up with these steps. A final payment due when the system is connected, rather than when the panels are on the roof, gives the installer a reason to see the job through to the utility's sign-off. Ask, too, what connection times the company has seen with your utility recently. Its own recent jobs are the best evidence you will get.

Several, from different parties, and they rarely end together. Ask for each one by name, with its length and the name of whoever honours it:

• Panels. Which manufacturer and model, and how long is the performance warranty? GreenEnerCanada, an Ontario solar service company, says most solar panels come with a 25 to 30 year performance warranty.
• Inverter. Which manufacturer, and for how long? GreenEnerCanada also says inverters usually need replacing every 10 to 15 years, so compare that with the warranty you are offered.
• Workmanship. How long does the installer's own warranty on labour and roof penetrations last, and what happens to it if the company closes?
• Battery, if there is one, with its capacity terms.

Battery warranties show why the installer matters. Tesla's Canadian Powerwall warranty applies to a Powerwall bought from Tesla or from an installer in Tesla's own installer programme, and it does not cover defects caused by repair or modification by anyone else. Section 4 of Enphase's warranty for its IQ Battery 5P conditions coverage on registering the product within 45 days of first installation, although the registration card at the end of the same document says failing to return the card does not reduce your warranty rights. So ask whether the installer is in the maker's programme, and who registers the equipment in your name. The site's maintenance guide covers what an inverter replacement costs once its warranty has run out.

Ask for a written scope that names the panel and inverter models, the system size in kW, the ESA and permit fees, the utility application, monitoring and any electrical panel work. Ask whether the price is before or after HST. Xolar, an Ontario installer, publishes a June 2026 price list that puts solar-only systems at about $2.10 to $4.10 per watt before HST, with the cost per watt dropping as the system gets bigger. The Canada Revenue Agency lists Ontario's HST rate as 13 percent, so the same system looks 13 percent dearer on a quote that includes the tax.

The site's guide to what a Toronto solar quote usually leaves out lists the items that most often turn into change orders, and the installation cost guide sets out the published price ranges. Then ask for the payment schedule in writing: how much is due at signing, what triggers each later payment, and how change orders are priced and approved.

Ask who you call if production drops, and who monitors the system. Check that the monitoring account is in your name, so you keep access if the company changes hands. Ask how service calls are priced once the workmanship warranty ends. The site's guide to finding solar repair help in the GTA covers who to call when something breaks.

1. Are you a Licensed Electrical Contractor, or who is, and what is the ECRA/ESA licence number?
2. Who files the ESA notification of work, and will I get a copy of the ESA certificate?
3. Who applies for the building permit, and is the fee in the price?
4. Who files each utility step, and what connection times are you seeing with my utility?
5. Which panel and inverter models are you fitting, plus any battery, and what warranty does each carry?
6. Are you in the battery maker's installer programme, and who registers the equipment in my name?
7. How long is your workmanship warranty, and who honours it if you close?
8. Is the price before or after HST, and which items are excluded?
9. What is the payment schedule, and is the last payment tied to connection?
10. Who monitors the system, whose account is it in, and what does a service visit cost after the warranty ends?