Terms of Service

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are a binding agreement between you and Solarcom ("Solarcom", "we", "us"), the operator of solarcom.in and its community forum (together, the "Service"). By accessing or using the Service you agree to these Terms. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.

Please read these Terms alongside our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy, which are incorporated by reference.

1. Who may use Solarcom

You must be at least 18 years old, or the age of majority in your jurisdiction, to create an account. If you are between 13 and 18 you may use the Service only with the involvement of a parent or legal guardian who accepts these Terms on your behalf. The Service is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly permit them to register.

You may use the Service on behalf of an organisation only if you are authorised to bind it, in which case "you" means that organisation.

2. Your account

• Provide accurate registration details and keep them current.
• You may register with an email address and password, or by signing in with Google. An address can be used one way or the other, not both — if it already has a password account, sign in with that password.
• You must confirm your email address before you can post. We send a six-digit code; reading the forum needs no account at all, but asking, answering and commenting need a confirmed address. Changing your address means confirming the new one.
• You are responsible for everything that happens under your account. Keep your password confidential and tell us promptly at hello@solarcom.in if you believe it has been compromised.
• One person, one account. Do not sell, share, or transfer your account.
• Do not impersonate another person or organisation, or misrepresent your qualifications, certifications, or affiliation with an installer or manufacturer.

3. Acceptable use

Solarcom is a knowledge community. You agree not to post, upload, or transmit content, or use the Service in a way, that:

• is unlawful, defamatory, obscene, harassing, hateful, or threatening;
• infringes anyone's intellectual property, privacy, publicity, or contractual rights;
• is knowingly false or misleading — in particular about pricing, subsidy entitlements, product performance, or safety;
• is spam, undisclosed advertising, affiliate-link stuffing, or repetitive promotional posting. Installers and vendors are welcome to participate, but must disclose their commercial interest when recommending their own products or services;
• discloses another person's personal information — including consumer numbers, phone numbers, or addresses — without their consent;
• contains malware, or attempts to gain unauthorised access to the Service, other accounts, or our infrastructure;
• scrapes, crawls, or harvests content or user data by automated means without our prior written permission, or places unreasonable load on the Service;
• is otherwise prohibited under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and rules made under it, or any other applicable Indian law.

4. Your content and the licence you grant us

You retain ownership of the questions, answers, comments, and other material you submit ("Your Content"). By submitting it you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicensable and transferable licence to host, store, reproduce, adapt for formatting, publish, and display Your Content in connection with operating, promoting, and improving the Service.

This licence exists so the community works as intended — your answer stays readable on the question you posted it to, and can be indexed by search engines. It continues for Your Content that remains on the Service after your account closes, because deleting one side of a public conversation would make the rest unintelligible for everyone else.

You confirm that you have the rights necessary to grant this licence, and that Your Content does not breach section 3.

You may edit your own questions, answers and comments, and delete your own answers and comments. An edited post is marked as edited. Note that we keep the earlier text of anything you edit or delete, visible to our moderation staff only, so that a report about a post can still be assessed after it has been changed. This is set out in section 6 of the Privacy Policy.

5. Our content and marks

The Service itself — its software, design, layout, compilation of content, and the "Solarcom" name and logo — belongs to us or our licensors and is protected by intellectual property law. These Terms grant you no right to use our name or logo except to refer to the Service factually.

6. Moderation and enforcement

We may, at our discretion and without prior notice, remove or restrict content, limit features, or suspend or terminate accounts that we reasonably believe breach these Terms or applicable law, or that expose us or other users to legal risk or harm.

We are an intermediary. We do not pre-screen content and are not obliged to monitor it. If content is removed you may contest the decision through the grievance process in section 12.

Editing a post does not put it beyond moderation: our staff can see what it said before, and will act on the version that was reported. Deleting a post you have been reported for does not end the matter either.

7. No professional advice

Content on Solarcom is community opinion, not professional engineering, financial, tax, or legal advice. Contributors are not vetted or certified by us unless expressly marked, and a role badge indicates community standing only — it is not a warranty of competence.

Our solar calculator and subsidy pages produce indicative estimates using generalised assumptions about tariffs, generation, and cost. Actual figures vary by location, roof, shading, equipment, DISCOM policy, and prevailing scheme rules, all of which change over time. Subsidy amounts and eligibility are determined solely by the relevant government authority and your DISCOM.

Always verify important decisions with a qualified, DISCOM-registered installer or the official scheme portal before committing money. Electrical work carries real risk of injury and property damage; do not rely on forum instructions in place of a licensed electrician.

8. Third-party links and vendors

The Service contains links to third-party websites and references to installers, manufacturers, and government portals. We do not control, endorse, or assume responsibility for them. Any dealing between you and a third party — including any purchase, quotation, or installation contract — is solely between you and that party. We are not a party to it and bear no liability arising from it.

9. Availability and changes to the Service

We aim to keep the Service available but do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free operation. We may modify, suspend, or discontinue features at any time, and may impose limits on usage. Where a change materially reduces functionality you rely on, we will give reasonable notice if practicable.

10. Disclaimers

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Service and all content on it are provided "as is" and "as available", without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that any content is accurate, complete, current, or suitable for your circumstances.

11. Limitation of liability and indemnity

To the fullest extent permitted by law, we will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, nor for loss of profits, revenue, savings, data, goodwill, or business opportunity, arising out of or relating to your use of the Service — including any decision you make in reliance on content published on it.

Our total aggregate liability arising out of or relating to the Service will not exceed the greater of (a) the amount you paid us in the twelve months before the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) ₹1,000. The Service is provided free of charge, so in most cases this limit will be ₹1,000.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.

You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless against claims, damages, and reasonable costs arising from Your Content or your breach of these Terms or applicable law.

12. Grievance redressal

In accordance with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, we have appointed a Grievance Officer to receive complaints about content on the Service or about these Terms.

Grievance Officer — email: hello@solarcom.in

We will acknowledge a complaint within 24 hours and resolve it within 15 days of receipt. Please include enough detail to identify the content complained of — a link is ideal — and the nature of your objection.

13. Closing your account

You may stop using the Service at any time. To close your account, use Settings → Security or email hello@solarcom.in.

Closure is a request rather than an immediate deletion: we confirm it with you by email first, and you can withdraw the request until we act on it. Your account keeps working in the meantime. Where removing a post would make the rest of a public conversation unintelligible, we may anonymise it rather than delete it — the licence in section 4 continues for content that remains on the Service.

We may suspend or terminate your access as described in section 6. Sections 4, 5, and 10 to 15 survive termination.

14. Governing law and jurisdiction

These Terms are governed by the laws of India. Subject to any non-waivable right you have to bring proceedings where you live, the courts at India have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service.

15. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. The "Last updated" date above always reflects the current version. Where a change is material we will give reasonable advance notice through the Service or by email. Continuing to use the Service after a change takes effect means you accept the updated Terms.

16. General

• If any provision is held unenforceable, the rest remains in force and the provision is applied to the maximum extent permitted.
• Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of our right to enforce it later.
• You may not assign these Terms. We may assign them to an affiliate or in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets.
• These Terms, together with the Privacy and Cookie Policies, are the entire agreement between us regarding the Service.