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Who's gone Solar

bojangle said:
Still waiting...it will be 5 weeks tomorrow since it passed city inspection. Probably about 3 weeks since they sent PG&E the paperwork to approve. Tesla took a good week after the passed inspection to even open up the payment method and then took about another week or so to confirm they received the payment.

Things just move slowly when you work on solar time I guess.
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Not sure why the cogs of life are moving so slow, but I went from install to PG&E green light in 11 days.
 
TwistedGRAY said:
Not sure why the cogs of life are moving so slow, but I went from install to PG&E green light in 11 days.
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Geez, what the hell?!?

Good that you got yours going. I'm still waiting. I've heard nothing yet. How did it work for you? Did you get a message from Tesla?
 
bojangle said:
Geez, what the hell?!?

Good that you got yours going. I'm still waiting. I've heard nothing yet. How did it work for you? Did you get a message from Tesla?
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I got an email from PG&E on the 10th, and an email from Tesla on the 11th to say "flip the breaker". I also got a text, but I forget when that came in (since deleted).


Editing to add - I also paid Tesla via credit card on the day I got the invoice, and it was immediately updated in their system as well. This was of course shortly after it was installed and the system inspected, but I noticed that you had a delay with the payment on your end - no delays here.
 
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We started down this road, and I think we just made the cutoff. Right before we were to install, our solar company finally looked at the survey photos and noticed a patch of shingles were missing from our roof, courtesy of the winter wind storms.

So.....Anyone have a good rec for a roofer in the east bay area that doesn't want a first born child to replace a roof?
 
TwistedGRAY said:
I got an email from PG&E on the 10th, and an email from Tesla on the 11th to say "flip the breaker". I also got a text, but I forget when that came in (since deleted).


Editing to add - I also paid Tesla via credit card on the day I got the invoice, and it was immediately updated in their system as well. This was of course shortly after it was installed and the system inspected, but I noticed that you had a delay with the payment on your end - no delays here.
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Yeah, I've had a number of delays. It took them about a week after install and city approval to even send me the link to pay, and then about another week for them to acknowledge receipt of the funds and to send the paperwork to PG&E.

I contacted Tesla today thru chat and was told that there was some number missing from a form, or something like that, causing another delay. They said PG&E was reviewing it all now and they expected I'd hear something soon.
 
I need to get up on the roof and seal all the vent protrusions and trim the shingles at the edges, but I'm basically ready for the install on Monday. :party
 
bojangle said:
Yeah, I've had a number of delays.
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We started the process in early March with Sumpower.

Got the PGE letter confirming we were under Nem2 so all looked good.

Had the site survey on May 17th and then crickets; no final plan provided.

Numerous e'mails, lots of excuses and yesterday they did a second site survey as they claimed they had "lost" the first one.

Yesterday's survey was very thorough unlike the first one, and the tech tells me they had hired a subcontractor back then to help them with the rush of surveys and that they had been fired for non performance.

Would have been nice if they had just told us that rather than hem and haw.

So, at least two months behind so just hoping to have the damned thing up and running by year end at this rate.

Waiting for the next shoe to drop.
 
GAJ said:
We started the process in early March with Sumpower.

Got the PGE letter confirming we were under Nem2 so all looked good.

Had the site survey on May 17th and then crickets; no final plan provided.

Numerous e'mails, lots of excuses and yesterday they did a second site survey as they claimed they had "lost" the first one.

Yesterday's survey was very thorough unlike the first one, and the tech tells me they had hired a subcontractor back then to help them with the rush of surveys and that they had been fired for non performance.

Would have been nice if they had just told us that rather than hem and haw.

So, at least two months behind so just hoping to have the damned thing up and running by year end at this rate.

Waiting for the next shoe to drop.
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Not surprising.
 
OK, install completed; took two days as the attic was too hot by the time they had installed all the roof fittings to work in. so maybe a total of 12 hours with 3 efficient guys working.

Photo is of half the panels; full layout shows all 20 400 watt panels.

Hopefully the inspector comes out within a week (I doubt it) and that we are up and running within the month of August, (not holding my breath).

4 months or so from signing contract to install so I guess not as bad as I feared.
 

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They came yesterday AM to install. The dude moved the van and took a humongous branch off of a tree. Kind of funny. He said they would be done in about 4 hours. OK. Then 30 minutes later a knock on the door with bad news. The felt underlayment on our 27 year old concrete tile roof is crispy and falling apart on the south facing roofs where the install will be done. No install today. I appreciated that he let me know but fuck. I got a guy coming to inspect for repairs Sat AM. Hopefully this guy can do it and soon and proper more importantly. Anybody know anyone that can pull up concrete tiles and replace the felt stuff?

I thought our forever concrete tile roof would last forever. Googling I found that concrete tile can last a long time but the felt not so. Depending on the elements, exposure and what not, it has to be replaced some times within 10 years or so. Seems there is a material that is rubberized or something that will last longer then the "normal" stuff.

Fuck

Then the kitchen sink backed up...
 
yea the underlayment don't last forever, unfortunately. They make new synthetic underlayment that apparently is much more durable. If you need a guy, I recently had this guy redo many of my gutter lines on my concrete tile roof, he took off bird guard and first row of tiles, added new paper and metal drip edge, replaced bird guard and added gutter guard. That's the hardest part to fix correctly on a tile roof, replacing all the felt in the middle sections is easy grunt work, all you have to do is pop tiles and then layer the paper correctly (bottom to top so water flows correctly, use correct fasteners).

Anyway, dudes name is Fernando. Very reasonable prices and he's honest (I don't think he's licensed, even though the site suggests otherwise). Tell him Tim referred you.

https://www.sdgutterbayareacleaners.com/

Since you have an array going on top, make sure you inspect the paper before the tiles go back on, you don't want any later problems. If you can work on motorcycles, I'm sure you feel comfortable doing this.
 
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Thanks mercurial. I'll maybe contact him after I see how my meeting with roof dude goes tomorrow morning. And yes I there seems to be a more durable underlayment product.
 
Oh shit that sucks, Ken. Hopefully you can get it taken care of asap.

My install went smoothly. I had him relocate the service box and cut-off switch from what they had planned so now they have to resubmit paperwork before the inspection.
Glad that project is done. It was eating up a lot of my time and mental energy.
 
:laughing

True story. And it only lasts a day before I start another project. Next up: moving the security screen door to the front of the porch so I have a locking vestibule.
 
My post install City inspection is today and they are soooooooooooo helpful.

They gave us/the contractor a time window of 8am to Noon and expect the contractor to be on site when they arrive so they are here diligently waiting.

Sure would be great if something like a portable phone existed so they could make an "on my way call."

F'cking prima donnas.
 
Passed city inspection yesterday; PGE activated us today.

Efficiency from PGE?

Whodathunk!

Producing 6kwh on our 8kwh system right now which isn't bad.
 
GAJ said:
Passed city inspection yesterday; PGE activated us today.

Efficiency from PGE?

Whodathunk!

Producing 6kwh on our 8kwh system right now which isn't bad.
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Meanwhile, I'm sitting here waiting over two months for those motherfuckers. This is bullshit.
 
UPDATE - One year after going live.

Our first NEM year-end true-up bill came in at the end of July. We signed our contract in April 2022 and went live in mid-July last year.

We generated 87 excess kWh of electricity, netting us a whopping bill credit of $7.16 at a rate of around $0.08/kWh.

When we initially ran our internal rate of return calcs we were using the then current rate of $0.32/kWh and assumed inflation to be 7.75%. This resulted in a simple payback of 5 years and an IRR of around 18%.

As it turns out, the rate hikes were bigger than that in the last two years, and the average rate is now $0.50/kWh. Our usage levels were about spot on accurate, so the IRR is now almost 25%, and simple payback comes out to 4.1 years.

This is shaping up to be a good investment, especially given the future rate hikes that are likely.
 
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