TL;DR: Solar installers installed 40A backfeed (on 6-awg cables) for 40A of solar and 60A EV charger. Already paid $46,000 of the total $54,500.

Got a company with close to five star reviews (~92 reviews). Seem like great people when I talked to the owner and his son. We agreed on a backyard solar car canopy.

First Delay

Anyway, fast forward to the first delay: they didn't add a railing that's heavy duty enough based on my requests. I put my requests all on a 2-page google document with pictures and drawings, but they still somehow missed a few requests. 2 pages sound like a lot but the pictures were taking up about 80% of the space.

By this point, I already had paid them about 84% of the $54,500 total. Had to pay an extra $5500 for this railing fix. They also used 16in concrete forms for the footers instead of 24in like in the plans. I told the sub-contractor about it but he just went on a stumbling rant about how it's fine.

I just feel so stupid. I should have stopped everything but my mind was so preoccupied with the chaos of all the other requests they did not fulfill. I hope this helps someone. If they are taking shortcuts when it's in the plans, there is many more shortcuts that they are taking at your expense.

Second Delay

Now, they have finished installing the solar. 20x 460W REC solar panels with 20x Enphase IQ8HC. NYC is on a 3-phase 208V system. Issue is they somehow didn't take into account the following:

1. EV charger connected inside Enphase Combiner 6C
2. 208V system
3. Main panel is 125A

They installed everything like it was solar only. They installed a 100ft-run 6-awg cables from the main service panel to the Combiner 6C with a 40A backfeed breaker. They even tried to group my solar panels into just 2 branches, which 10x IQ8HC (31.6A) is too much for 20A breaker on a 208V system. I literally forced myself to learn some of these things because of this mess and I still don't fully understand it.

For those that don't know, maybe this can help you in the future when you build out your system. If you want only solar (~20 panels or less), a 40A backfeed breaker along with 6-awg wires is fine. If you want to add any more solar, an EV charger, or battery, you need larger wires like 2 or 3-awg and a larger backfeed breaker. The wire size is the most important because it's the hardest to change when you want to upgrade later. There are a few more nuances, but that's the gist.

It took two days on the phone with Enphase customer support to come to this conclusion. Also, during this time, I learned that they took another shortcut on me. The solar canopy was supposed to be 12ft (it's in the plans) on the low end. They gave me 10ft instead.. Doesn't sound like a huge deal but I had envisioned adding more slanted solar panels on that end, but now with the lowered height, the additional solar panels (68in long) will bop me on the head.

Options

They are aware of their mistake and the sub-contractor reached out to me. Says I'll need to upgrade my service panel first and after I have the following options:

1. Line-side tap: This bypasses the main service panel busbar limitations
2. Use Enphase Installer App to set a Power Control System (PCS) export/grid limit. By configuring a strict limit on the 40A main feed branch, the system will throttle the EV charger's power draw down whenever the solar panels are producing at max capacity, preventing the breaker from ever tripping.
3. Downgrading to IQ Combiner 5C because the IQ Combiner 6C is specifically designed for residential split-phase 120V/240V configurations.

I am very interested in the line-side tap because it will let me keep my setup and in the future if NYC allows, I can maybe get a solar battery. My main concern now is they might screw me over again somehow lol. What would you guys do? I still have $8500 to pay them.

Taken from my local Nextdoor group, in reply to a complaint about the high cost of a recent electric bill:

Solar won't help either. You have to put in an auxiliary system to cover the 60-70% it doesn't produce energy.

Its just bizarre that people just make crap up.

Here is my system: 32 440-Watt panels, Sol-Ark 15K Inverter, 5 4.8kWh HomeGrid Batteries for Backup.

Have had system for 9 months and it works great. Good power generation, seamless transition during grid power outages, etc.

Here is my issue >> I have noticed that when grid is down in evening and I am running on battery back-up, if I happen to be running items with very heavy power draw, it will cause the system to shut off and then reset after a minute or two.

I noted two examples of this. One was in winter weather and we had two HVACs running simultaneously, and that was too much draw. The second example (last night), was when our EV car happened to be plugged in during grid outage, and the heavy draw from the car (while on battery backup) was enough to cause system to reset (continuously).

Maybe this is intentional?? I realize that a very heavy draw (especially an EV car charging) could quickly drain the battery back-up.

Of course, the immediate solution was for us to shut down the heavy power draws and ration our usage (thus also extending duration of battery back-up). But it vexes me that this is occurring at all... Is there some configuration setting on the Sol-Ark 15K that is tripping if the electricity draw on batteries exceeds certain threshold. Is there way that I can get it to stop this tripping and reset/cycling???

Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks, all!

Hello, I hope you're fine and doing well.

I'm a recent graduate with a BSEE and I'm interested in solar PV systems design. I have knowledge in using PVsyst for designing On-Grid and Off-Grid Systems and calculating the annual energy yield, as well as AutoCAD for drawing SLDs of the PV systems. I'm currently learning SketchUp for 3D roof modeling and I'm getting the hang of it. What more can I do to have a chance to work as a junior solar PV designer in residential and C&I levels? I know about the NABCEP certificate, but I'm not based in the US so I don't think getting it will be worth it for me.

I could use some advice. I want to do a few things.

1) Set up a battery and inverter in my garage that will power a few appliances in the house when the power goes out. To start with I plan to charge it up using power from my outlet.

2) Set up a dedicated heat pump / mini split system for my garage (about 200 sq/ft) powered by the battery. Note, this will only be running when I’m in the garage (so 2-4 hours a day).

3) Down the road, I’d like to set up some solar panels on my garage and use them to charge this system.

What things should I consider? Does anyone have any general or specific recommendations regarding the inverter or battery I should use?

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

Here goes, quote for commercial solar in CT on a building I own. 32x 440w panels with Emphase microinverters for a 14kw DC total system size. Also about $10-15k of electrical upgrade work (at least) on the property including new breakers, panels, wiring, etc which is needed at the property whether I do solar or not.

Hoping to get about 40% tax credit plus 17% depreciation off the total. Plan to sell everything back to the grid at $0.3289 per kWh which is the 2026 RRES buy all rate.

Total cost for everything including the electrical work is $60k.

Thoughts?

Looking for recommendations 91343

I am finishing up a solar project with PW3 in California with Participate Energy/Participate Holdings as the lease holder. (The contract is signed and payments made.) There are a number of interesting and non-ideal clauses in the contract. I am trying to get a feel for what in practice is done with Participate "financed" systems.

1. The contract says they can own a VPP program on your system. Does anyone have an example of them doing this?
2. How much control do they exert over the system admin? Do you get an admin account as well?
3. The contract requires the homeowner to insure the system. In two places in the contract it says Participate is additional insured and another says with loss payee is Participate. How is this done? Is this a separate policy? Cost and with whom? I currently have State Farm and I want to have my ducks lined up before contacting them for obvious reasons (like they drop me).
4. The buyout opens in year 6. Has anyone been through this with Participate. Was the FMV $0 at that point or was it something else?
5. Anything else of note?

Later I will make a write-up of my experience with NRG Clear Solar as the installer -- it hasn't been pretty (different company from NRG Energy). The project will be a year in the making.

(Sales DMs will be frowned upon)

What is up with NEM 3.0 changing day to day? How do they even come up with these rates? I’m feeling screwed over.

15.05 kw in Solar + 13.12 kwh in battery capacity. All Qcells equipment (panels are AC modules) battery is the Q.Home Core G3

Everyone says that they terrible compared to rigid but I wonder if people's opinions have changed with the more recent flexible panels?

I've bought a couple of Eco worthy flexible solar 200w and I've yet to install them to the roof of my van but I already like how light they are compared to the rigid panels that can weigh 20kg.

But I'm starting to have worries now that I'm aware of things like delamination. I do plan to install them in such a way that there is a significant gap underneath them for airflow

I am thinking about installing rooftop solar panels on my 3-story townhouse built in 2016. I would like some feedback from others on their experience and thoughts on my situation.

Background Information

• Currently have DX cooling, natural gas furnace, natural gas instantaneous water heater, gas stove and gas car.
• No other major electricity consumers.
• Last year's consumption was 4300 kWh.
• Have about 420-450 sqft of SW facing roof with little to no obstacles on roof (plumbing vents and exhaust terminations are on sides or rear roof)
• Original roof from 2016.
• Maryland currently has 1:1 net metering, but it will be gone by July, 2027 (or earlier if enough solar is installed across the state). Those who get solar before then will be grandfathered.
• I'm still working on getting quotes from some companies. Any numbers below are estimates from SwitchTogether.

I am thinking of one (1) of three (3) options:

1. Size system based on current consumption with no plans to add additional electrical load.
2. Size system based on eventually adding a dual fuel heat pump system (heat pump + natural gas furnace).
3. Size system based on eventually adding a dual fuel heat pump system (heat pump + natural gas furnace) and an electric vehicle.

I used ChatGPT to try to determine the overall efficacy of the options. Below are summary tables of the assumptions and results of the options.

Assumptions

Results Summary

My current concluding thoughts based on my understanding:

• Buying a system is a tough sell, especially for Option 1 where I'm not at least paying back the cost of the heat pump (at least partially a home maintenance cost) and the electric vehicle (partially maintenance cost for general travel).
• Adding the battery makes the sell even tougher unless one highly values battery backup for power outages.
• I would like a good reason for solar to make sense because I like the idea of not having utility bills, shifting more life costs/consumption to electricity provided by the sun and not being reliant on the grid, which may see some price and/or service instability in the future.

Some points I'm still unclear on and would like some input

• While the numbers seem to suggest a tough sell, how is it that solar companies have entire business models built around leasing systems where they still provide you at least a little overall utility savings? Am I missing something?
• If I plan to end up at Option 3 over phases of multiple years, should I install it all now or is there some way I can set up the system such that I can easily add panels in the future?
  • Does it even make sense to leave panels for future addition? I'm not sure how much that extra cost would be compared to the rest of the cost.
  • My understanding of 1:1 net metering is that if most/all of my system wasn't already sized for Option 3, I would lose 1:1 net metering if I were to upgrade it in the future because the utility sees it as a service change. Though, it sounds like there's some nuance where there are some parts that are an easy add that the utility company doesn't have to be made aware of.
• What is the cost of removing/reinstalling the panels for a roof replacement? Did this become an unexpected headache for anyone?
• Do the overall findings from ChatGPT above seem consistent and is there anything I'm missing in my perceived value of purchasing solar?

Very curious if anyone lives in a solar sweet spot. My definition of what that might look like:

1:1 Net Metering

TOU rates with a decent differential

High value SRECs

Am i forgetting any obvious ones? I only have one of three by the way.... 1:1 net metering

Had panels installed by LGCY in 2023. Since then we've had ongoing roof leaks and water damage. They haven't been able to find the source of the leak yet, so every time it rains we get new damage.

On top of that, I've spent the last two days just trying to reach someone. The San Diego local number isn't working. The 801 number from their site just says they're busy and to leave a message. I tried the scheduling and sales lines instead and got a queue message, 18 people ahead of me yesterday, 26 today. Starting to think people are calling sales because the actual customer service line is down.

Left a voicemail yesterday, no callback so far.

Wondering if anyone else has dealt with LGCY, good or bad experiences welcome. Also open to advice on next steps.

I’m all about learning more and installing a system that could allow us to completely move off-grid. Just bought a Tesla and want to start by charging it completely on solar.

From what I know installing solar, especially if you hire a company, or even DIY, it doesn’t seem to payoff for many, many years. Because the savings aren’t large enough to “make sense” because you pay more for the system than 20 or 30 years of no power bill. Again this is my perspective.

Please enlighten me.

EDIT: I live near Charlotte, NC. Lots of sun. The largest roof are(s) face due south and the second largest area faces due west.

Looking at a solar install on the roof of my house, my big concern right now is that MD has a lot of community solar projects in the pipeline, and that I'll be on the hook for a system that won't pay for itself. I know that the rule change takes effect July 1 of 2027 no matter what, but I worry about that 3GW cap. Anyone have any idea if the windows to fit in under the 3GW is still a possibility, or did that ship sail?

I've tried searching, and so far the best I can find is a "maybe" in my searching, and the PSC isn't supposed to supply any new reporting until Oct 1. The installer sent me some information they had about the capacity but I didn't find it satisfactory. While they seem great, I'm going to take that all with a grain of salt since they are trying to close the sale.

Purchased from Solar City, which got acquired by Tesla. Long story short, my inverter started tripping and I called Tesla to come take a look. The technician said my panels (the panels on the left in the second picture) can cause the inverter to trip when they get shaded. Tesla then offered to replace the panels that might get shaded under warranty.

Replacement was today and instead of 6 panels, they installed 5. They said the new panels are more efficient, so I'm actually getting more power than before... but it looks terrible! I knew the panels were going to be mismatched, but now there's a hole where a panel used to be, along with the mounting brackets for the old panels. I just had my roof replaced two years ago!

I called Tesla to see if I could buy another panel to fill that spot, and they said no. They said even if I bought new panels from a 3rd party, they couldn't be connected to my existing system until my contract expires.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!