When you hire a cheap solar contractor, you may save on initial costs, but you may pay the price for your frugality when leaks in your roof resulting from low quality solar panel installation cause water damage to your house.
The same is true when you buy a cheap solar system. You may save money initially, but the unit will degrade over time and you will miss out on savings you could have otherwise accrued by producing energy using better quality solar equipment. There have been multiple news stories covering the damage caused by cheap installations due to water egress into critical components such as the isolators on every roof. Roof isolations are one of the requirements set out by the CEC to ensure a safe isolation for emergency services on rooftops. It is critical that a quality and skilled installation takes place to ensure that these problems do not occur.