KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — The system of solar panels installed at the home of a Knoxville couple is finally working tonight, nearly two years after they bought it from Solar Titan USA.

For Penny and Fred Augustine, the expensive solar system installed at their home by Solar Titan USA rarely generated electricity. The Augustines were one of many people who filed complaints in Tennessee, Kentucky and Georgia against Solar Titan, which is now under court receivership.

When Solar Titan did send repairmen, the Augustines said, their system would fail within days. But now with help from Generac, the manufacturer of their solar battery, power is finally being generated.

An engineer from Generac and two certified technicians from Solar ReNew spent about two hours working on the solar system at Fred and Penny Augustine’s home on Monday. They swapped out a faulty fan unit that fits on top of the solar battery.

“They said it wasn’t communicating with the rest of the system,” said Fred Augustine. “We didn’t have any solar being generated, at least it wasn’t being stored in the battery.”

Fred said the Generac engineer also worked on another box hooked up outside their home making sure the connection was correct.

“Well, he came over and checked it out. Turned the power off, of course, he had to be able to check it out to make sure the battery was actually communicating with the unit itself,” said Fred Augustine.

Now, the system is communicating.

“It says 79.2 percent of the batteries state of charge,” said Fred Augustine.

Less than a month ago, it read zero. For nearly 20 months, Penny and Fred said the entire $42,000 solar system was worthless. After the couple called, Generac came to help last month. Local technicians changed critical components on the solar panels, but still, the system didn’t work. So, the couple again contracted Generac.

“They have a great support team online and on the phone that will help you go through and troubleshoot. So, if we don’t know something and can’t figure it out, we can still call them,” said Penny Augustine.

Left by Generac were directions on how their system works. They said Solar Titan never left behind this information given to them by the battery manufacturer.

“They showed us how to use the system. We had never received any directions at all on how to go up to the power cell and how to use the different controls on it,” said Penny Augustine. “Had we received something originally from Solar Titan when they installed it, why didn’t we have that before?”

The Augustines were in Federal Court in Greeneville in late February, as Michael Atnip, the owner of Solar Titan USA, and Craig Kelley, who ran day-to-day operations, met for their first hearing after a federal judge issued a restraining order against the Knoxville based company and put it under the control of a receiver.

For the Augustines, the next step is to have their battery moved inside, it doesn’t work well below 40 degrees as they found out this winter.

“We will be even more satisfied when we get the battery placed inside for next year especially, I think we are past our 40-degree weather now,” said Penny Augustine.

Previous Solar Titan coverage

• Repair crew sent to fix Knox County couple’s Solar Titan USA solar panels
• Solar Titan USA to remain under federal court’s control after order upheld
• Embattled Solar Titan executives appear in court after 200+ customer complaints
• Knoxville family works to restore solar power battery
• Loudon County couple waits weeks for solar panel repairs
• Bean Station woman billed for canceled solar panel installation
• Greeneville woman waited months for solar panels repairs

Penny said, the engineer from Generac not only left behind directions to their system, but he took time to explain things to them, so they could troubleshoot in case something goes wrong. She said, no one from Solar Titan ever provided that type of assistance, let alone provide them with directions. They’re keeping their fingers crossed that the system continues to operate like it’s supposed to.