Sparking, smoke or a burning smell: what a solar company's phone should do

Most calls to a solar company are about quotes, schedules and monitoring apps. A small number are different: someone sees sparks, smells something burning or notices smoke near the inverter, a battery, the panels or the wiring.

Those calls should never be handled like a booking. This post explains how we approach them. It is not electrical or fire-safety advice. If you or anyone nearby is in danger, call 911.

Why the agent does not diagnose

A phone call cannot tell you what is wrong with a solar system. The cause of a burning smell could be many things, and a confident guess from a receptionist, human or AI, can do harm. So the agent does not try. It does not say the system is safe, it does not say the system is broken, and it does not suggest what to touch or reset.

What it does instead

When a caller describes sparking, arcing, smoke, a burning smell, scorched or melted equipment, or fire, the agent switches to a fixed script. The words are written in advance and read exactly as written. The model does not rewrite them.

For sparking or an electrical hazard, the script tells the caller to stay away from the hazard, not to touch anything that is sparking or hot, to turn off the main breaker only if they can do it safely, and to call 911 if they see fire or smoke. For smoke or burning, it tells them to turn off the equipment only if they can do so safely, to leave the home, and to call 911 if they see smoke or fire.

After either script, the caller hears what happens next: that the on-call team is being called now, if you turn on live routing, or that an urgent alert has gone out and someone will call back. The alert goes out while the script is being read.

What the script deliberately leaves out

• No instructions to climb on the roof or open equipment.
• No guidance on what the fault might be.
• No promise about when someone will arrive. Only you know who is on call and how far away they are.
• No reassurance that everything is fine.

What you decide

The product handles the script. You handle the human side:

• Who is on call, and the number the alert goes to.
• What your on-call person does when they get the alert. Calling the customer back promptly is the obvious start.
• Your own written safety procedure for your crew.

Test it

Try the live demo, or call your own line once it is set up, and say you smell something burning near the inverter. You should hear the fixed script, and you should get the urgent alert (or your on-call phone should ring, if routing is on). If something is off, fix it before a real caller finds it.

And a reminder for callers and owners alike: a computer or a receptionist is not a substitute for emergency services. When there is smoke, fire or immediate danger, the first call is 911.