What I Learned from 30 Hours with Solar Installers at NABCEP

Last week, I spent just 30 whirlwind hours in Reno at the NABCEP CE Conference, and wow—it was eye-opening.

For those who don't speak energy acronyms fluently, NABCEP (North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners) brings together the folks who actually get their hands dirty installing and maintaining solar systems. These are the people who climb on roofs, troubleshoot inverters, and deal with homeowners wondering why their fancy new solar setup isn't performing as expected.

Our partners at 60Hertz invited us to co-market at their booth, which meant I got to have dozens of conversations with installers about their real-world challenges. Between the Grand Sierra Resort's endless buffets and quick chats with partners like UtilityAPI, Aurora, and FranklinWH, I collected some insights about what's actually happening in the field –

#1. Alert Fatigue is Real & Inefficient

When every device sends notifications for every minor fluctuation, installers end up either:

Ignoring critical alerts (bad)
Rolling trucks for non-issues (expensive)

Every installer I talked to basically begged for the same three things:

Make it mobile-first – If it doesn't work on their phone while they're on a roof, it doesn't work. Period. Think Apple Watch-style simplicity: glanceable, actionable, with clear opt-in/out options.
Color-code severity – When you're running between sites all day, you need to distinguish "FYI" from "OH SHIT" in milliseconds. The brain processes colors faster than words, and installers need that split-second decision-making support.
Name severity levels meaningfully – Not everything deserves a "CRITICAL ALERT!" flag. Installers want clear distinctions between "notification," "alert," and "fault" so they can train their teams on appropriate responses without creating alarm fatigue.

#2. Homeowner Expectations vs. Electrical Reality

Here's a scenario I heard repeatedly: Customer invests in solar+storage, expects to run their home AND export to the grid, but their system keeps idling after just covering homeload. Why?

As Scott Silvia from Savant pointed out, it's often because Suzie Homeowner was excited to electrify but didn't want to upgrade her entire electrical system. The installer has to set power control limits to prevent the house from literally catching fire.

The result? Disappointed customers who think they're doing everything right but don't understand why their expensive system isn't performing to its theoretical potential. This creates a massive education burden for installers and energy companies who have to manage expectations without sounding like they're making excuses.

#3. "Tab Jockeying" is Exhausting and Costly

I tried to keep my poker face when installers showed me their workflow:

Open manufacturer portal A to check battery status
Switch to manufacturer portal B to check inverter status
Open Excel spreadsheet C to track maintenance history
Check app D to see energy production
Log into portal E to verify grid connection

It's madness. I heard everything from "we have a guy who codes for fun making something for us" to "we just bounce between all the different platforms" — all while watching their profit margins evaporate with each additional tab.

This is exactly why we built Texture. The siloed data problem is costing installers serious money. Our partnership with 60Hertz specifically addresses this by streamlining operations and maintenance across all those OEMs so teams can focus on a single source of high-quality data.

#(Bonus 4.) We're Running 21st Century Tech on 20th Century Operations

The most surprising thing I learned? Despite all the whispers about Texture I overheard, many installers are still using Excel spreadsheets and manual processes to manage some of the most sophisticated energy technology ever deployed.

This isn't their fault — it's a system-wide problem. We're trying to put the electrical grid on the internet, but we haven't upgraded how we work with energy data.

That's where Texture comes in. We're building the data infrastructure that lets all these amazing devices actually talk to each other meaningfully. We aim to be the only data provider for energy as we enable putting the grid on the internet and making energy data flow seamlessly through our ecosystem.

Huge thanks to everyone who stopped by the 60Hertz booth to chat (learn more about our integrated solution here), and to NABCEP for providing enough food to feed a small nation. Oh, and special thanks to the Reno airport slots for turning my $1 investment into $44 before boarding – not a bad ROI for 30 seconds of work!

If we didn't get the opportunity to chat and you have feedback, I'd love to talk. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn or shoot me an email at jes@texturehq.com.

Tired of playing digital detective across multiple platforms? Let's talk about how Texture brings all your energy data into one powerful ecosystem. Book a demo to see how much time, money, and frustration you could save with a unified data approach.