Solar Roof Tiles Recalled for Fire Hazard

Do you have SolarBlend™ Roof Tiles installed on your home? Suntech America, in cooperation with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), is recalling the tiles due to a fire hazard.

The San Francisco importer reports that the connectors between the solar roof tiles can be come loose and pose a fire hazard. Suntech has received at least one report of a fire involving the roof tiles. Tiles in that incident were damaged, but no one was injured.

This recall involves all SolarBlend roof tiles with model numbers STP050D-5/ZCB (brown), STP050D-5/ZCF (terra cotta), and STP050D-5/ZCG (gray). The tiles were manufactured by Wuxi Suntech Power Co. Ltd., of Wuxi, China, and sold by roofing retailers and installers in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, and Nevada from October 2009 through March 2011.

Suntech has been notifying consumers directly. Those who have not been contacted by Suntech should turn off their solar energy systems immediately and contact Suntech to schedule a free inspection and repair of the solar energy system. Suntech will repair the solar energy system at no cost to the consumer.

For additional information or to schedule a free inspection and repair of the solar energy systems, contact Suntech toll-free at (888) 770-7122 between 5 a.m. and 4 p.m. PT Monday through Friday.

If you have an incident or injury report about this product, please contact the CPSC at www.saferproducts.gov.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Pinke A.

6:16PM PDT on Jul 2, 2012

Very interesting new system.Thank you for sharing!

July 2
send a green star

Jamie C.

6:02AM PDT on Jun 11, 2012

minor problem easy to fix, and once fixed should not be a problem any more. I would still like to use solar or maybe solar and wind both.

June 11
send a green star

Kay M.

11:07AM PDT on Jun 10, 2012

good to know.

June 10
send a green star

Howard C.

7:54AM PDT on Mar 25, 2012

Any thing that is new will have its' teething problems - where the equipment fitted has been made to a price and not to a standard problems are more likely to occur. I had solar panels retro-fitted to my property (they sit on top of the roof tiles). My panels were made in Germany and so far are proving to be pretty efficient, during the period Nov-Feb they produced 40% of the electricity that I used.

March 25
send a green star

JL A.

8:13AM PDT on Mar 24, 2012

thanks for helping spread the word

March 24
send a green star

Dan A.

9:39PM PST on Mar 3, 2012

TIPV is the only way to integrate PV with roof tile:

http://issuu.com/artezanos/docs/hybrid_tipv_goodman

March 3
send a green star

Joan E.

11:41AM PST on Mar 1, 2012

Like all new things out on the market we tend to find some that could have waited a little longer and had more testing done before being put out there. And as always the beat goes on.