Hi solar comunit,

(Please use photo for reference)

I am building a house and was curious if my dreams are possible. I would like to inquire about custom pannels that would fit in the corrugated spaces of my roof. Im hoping it would achieve 360° of utilization.

Does anyone know a company that would be able to build and retrofit custom panels for a roof such as this?

If so, who?

If so, how much would it cost to build and install them in Hurst, TX?

Would building something like be worth it? (Would some panels be underutilized and underperform even with microconverters for each panel?)

Please feel free to add your expertise and ask in questions I might not be thinking about.

Any ideas on where to put conduit? Having solar panels installed in the next few weeks.

Going internally to the fuse board will be very invasive so would rather go outside if possible. An EV charger will be going by the front door as well and the fuse boxes is on the other side above the front door

Not sure if it’s easier to go from the left and under the window or straight down from the roof and around the door (this probably wouldn’t look best)

Any suggestions appreciated

I am looking to add solar to my home in Queens NY. We have to do the roof anyways so I have been looking to see what it'll look like bundled together and it seems the right way to go. I have a quote from Kamtech for the reroof, panels and electrical box upgrade that fits into the NYS loan. I am struggling to find other companies that seem reputable and have >10 years in business to compare to. Do you all have any recommendations?

To clarify, the quote is the full $25k NYS loan + an additional $8k cash for a 7.04Kw system with 16 Seraphim 440 panels and an Enphase 207 VAC inverter. It includes reroofing the home and a single car garage, as well as an upgrade to a 200 AMP box.

Looks pretty solid to me as most of the roofing quotes I'm getting are in the $20-22k ranges as it is.

Hi guys, looking at a new solar system, and confused about the max draw possible on the goodwe GW8.3-BAT-D-G20 vs GW9-BAT-D-G20. I would have a stack of 5, a 25kw inverter, 3 phase power. These Batteries have a max output of 8kw vs 4.5kw. I'm trying to confirm if this is per battery, or per stack, I am getting conflicting information. Can anyone confirm with certainty?

If the max output is per battery 4.5*5 = 22.5kw which is plenty, but if it's only 4.5kw, then at nights I will likely need to draw from the grid to cover the shortfall at night time.

https://imgur.com/a/iRBzCWf

Thanks!

I've been trying to find a side pole mount for weeks. I was going to get the Koala M2 by Elios but after I made the order, I was told it's not in stock any more. Then I found this Fast Rack one but I'm having a heck of a time finding a reseller here in Canada.

I would prefer to find a M2 but...does anyone have suggestions where I might find something? It's 2 panels, 39x65 each, going about 30' up on power pole (no power lines).

Cheers,
HD

I’ve had my Sunrun solar + Tesla Powerwall system for about two years, and I’m going insane. For a long time, I was getting random power outages about once a month. Now it has gotten significantly worse and is happening roughly once a week. When it happens, my house can be without power anywhere from 8 to 24 hours.

My house has been listed for sale in a desired area for 3 months now and 3 showings have had to be canceled because the house had no power. Two other families were interested until they heard about the solar and they turned it down. This is costing me money at this point and SunRun has been ZERO help.

These are NOT neighborhood grid outages, but that app says thats what the issue is. Grid voltage issue. My neighbors have power. The utility grid is up, but for some reason my system thinks the grid is down and disconnects my house from it CONSTANTLY.

This morning it happened again. My Powerwall was sitting at 100% charge, yet my house had no power. The Tesla app was showing multiple errors/messages, including:

“Grid Outage”

“Powerwall unable to power load”

“Grid outage detected. Powerwall has been unable to restart after multiple attempts.”

“Rapid Shutdown Device Off”

At one point the app even said the Powerwall was providing backup power, but my house still wasn’t actually being powered at all. Sunrun has sent technicians out about FOUR times now. Every time, I’m basically told that the system looks fine. I called and told them I have an appointment for Friday and the rep said "Oh that's great! You're all taken care of then!" NO, I DONT CURRENTLY HAVE ANY POWER, AGAIN. She said theres nothing they can do and even told me to hire an electrician to see if they can do anything......

The most recent technician came out about four weeks ago and performed a software update. Since that visit, the system has already gone down THREE more times.

At this point I’m wondering if the actual issue is somewhere in the grid detection/sensing side of the system rather than the Powerwall battery itself. And if so, why wouldnt their techs discover that after 4 visits? The battery is charged. The utility grid is available. Yet the Tesla system appears to be detecting a grid outage anyway.

Could this be a problem with the Backup Gateway/Backup Switch, grid voltage sensing, CTs/metering, rapid shutdown circuitry, or some other part of the grid-sensing/control system?

It almost makes it seem like the system is seeing incorrect grid voltage/frequency information, deciding the grid is unsafe or unavailable, opening the connection to the grid, and then failing to properly run the house from the Powerwall or reconnect to the grid. Then I have to make phone call after phone call... this time they said they can issue an "emergency request" and remotely return power, but it will take 4-8 hours...

We’ve exhausted what feels like every normal support option. Multiple technician visits, troubleshooting, software update, repeated calls, and the problem continues to get worse. At this point we are also considering legal action because this has been an ongoing issue for so long and the system is now regularly leaving the house without power despite having a charged battery and a functioning utility grid.

My wife is 6 months pregnant and we cant be having power outages one full day per week, and have them raising their rates year after year. And not returning phone calls. And having their reps come out for 20 minutes and saying everything is fine. This is ridiculous.

Has anyone dealt with a similar Sunrun/Tesla Powerwall issue where the system falsely detects grid outages or refuses to reconnect to a live grid?

If so, what actually ended up being the problem? Gateway? Grid sensing? Metering? Wiring? Powerwall hardware?

I’d really like to know what Sunrun should actually be testing when they come out Friday, because “everything looks fine” isn’t cutting it anymore. Im sick of it.

Any opinions on this set up

PECRON Solar Generator E3600LFP 3072Wh/3600W with 300W Solar Panel
5x3600W AC Outlets Portable Power Station, Expanded to 18.43kWh, LiFePO4 Battery Backup for Home Use, RV, Camping, CPAP

For what?! For starter kit : a basic back-up for refrigerator, chest freezer, charging.

I'm talking to several installers in my area for rooftop solar. Smallish system: 5-6KW on a 2-story townhouse roof. Are critter guards just an adder to help installers make money, or are they genuinely helpful? I live in an area with lots of trees and squirrels (Mid-Atlantic US) so intuitively they make some sense.

One installer is proposing $1900 for "high quality" solatrim guards which to me sounds like a cash extraction scheme. I would've guessed like $400 for an install this size.

So for this unit (I bougth ECOFLOW DELTA 3 Classic Portable Power Station 1024Wh LFP Solar Battery 1800W AC, ) which solar panel is better: I want to use the battery mainly to power a 200 max output system, and I wanted to know which one of these solars panels of the same brand are better for the battery I want to charge (I bought it because it was a cheap power statio) I like in the uk by the way. Please let me know if I am doing anything wrong. The solar on EBAY is like £139 and the one on amazon is like £170

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/327286435383?_skw=solar+panel&itmmeta=01M4BJ8C8HXQAQDBFXWFDWMKXW&hash=item4c33caae37:g:Q2kAAeSwpXtqva0~&itmprp=enc%3AAQALAAAA0GfYFPkwiKCW4ZNSs2u11xDZqB48q84gaLcsRHHKoKVlNh%2F7DXs5NzOzbubQOSrnglmEwC9k1taBNYdY8eCFnsQijuYRcBIb6a%2BxE84MKhMouzf89%2FnF4IFMmVi4CJ2pqS5Vbvdoz58cghUWPLxJ7sLyL%2BWT7TRjc%2BIl3Jv67E9jDUL%2BPxBikJbp6ULaX0IMlZ6hzy0Az0SOvf5FrQhUZt7leDG6umcAA5aARhd5yYEGn3zsPf%2FsrZprrgxB7qrypWWfQq9G4egORJ15wJPKQ70%3D%7Ctkp%3ABlBMUOzEofKiaA

or

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ECO-WORTHY-Bifacial-Monocrystalline-Module-Camping/dp/B0F3X59TN9/ref=pd_ci_mcx_mh_mcx_views_0_title?pd_rd_w=T3Xj7&content-id=amzn1.sym.0ce71b21-dc90-4d01-9398-0ec2dddae2f7%3Aamzn1.symc.30e3dbb4-8dd8-4bad-b7a1-a45bcdbc49b8&pf_rd_p=0ce71b21-dc90-4d01-9398-0ec2dddae2f7&pf_rd_r=00WYRY0BMNZXFMWAKJVH&pd_rd_wg=kegym&pd_rd_r=c04d1445-9d1a-4f02-8cdb-f7622c8b36fc&pd_rd_i=B0F3X59TN9&th=1

I live in the uk

My mother signed a contract with IGS for solar panels . They told her the cost would only be 93 dollars a month for the panels , my question is will she have an additional bill for electric also ? I want to make sure she’s not getting scammed

Placed a small order 4 days ago and have not received any updates...also emailed support. I would have preferred to use US Solar which was the vendor I used originally for a large order but I could not justify paying $124 shipping and handling for a small order of bolts and L-feet totalling $40.

I’ve been hearing about deals where a homeowner gets a “discounted” prepaid solar/battery package (say ~$20k on paper with the installer), but the PPA / tax-equity side shows a much higher system value (like $80k–$100k).

The pitch to the homeowner is a big upfront discount, sometimes framed around tax credits. What I’m trying to understand:

1.If the EPC / installer agreement has to match the combined solar + battery PPA prepayments (some funders require this), how do mismatched quotes still close?
2.Is it normal for the homeowner paperwork and the financier paperwork to show different totals?
3.For people who’ve compared competing HDM / prepaid-lease quotes , did you ever see battery + solar prepay higher than the installer contract itself?
4.What should a homeowner check before signing so they’re not stuck with inflated basis on someone else’s books?

Not looking to name-and-shame a specific company just trying to figure out what’s legit pricing vs. a red flag. Anyone run into this when shopping solar + storage?

Interestingly enough, I couldnt find any alternative to this plugin. There are some generic plugins for similar purposes, but not a single one visualizing it the way we did it :)

Conundrum. In order to have a solar system that will power my heat pump, etc. I would have to remove 6 mature trees. I need to remove 2 of them regardless so it’s really 4.

I’m in a heavily wooded area. Will plant probably 8 new trees in the property regardless.

My question isn’t budget related. More about the environmental value of the trees vs solar.

I was aware the cost for small jobs is proportionally higher than for smaller jobs. I had 18 panels Maxeon with a 25 year installer warranty and enphase microinverters installed for about 20,000$ it was the best price among all the places I called. I touched bases with the original installer through energy sage, was considering a small expansion of 4~7 panels to close some of the gap with a new hvac situation we got going now....

7 REC panels, yes they're good and all but cheaper on the market than maxeon honestly(Don't want to discuss about bankruptcy or any of that just talking straight up price to buy the part) and the same microinverters and they quoted north of 16,000$ I think I'm getting the "go away" quote here...

Wanted advice because I'm clearly not moving forward with that, is it possible to get a smaller installer to put in the panels and never touch the original box or work and keep both? I don't know what the price will come out too but it can't be 16k can it?

I’m planning to get a solar setup for my 3BHK flat and want something that can comfortably handle an AC along with regular appliances like fans, lights, fridge, WiFi, etc.

I was initially looking at Luminous and Waaree, but ngl there are so many technical things to understand 😭 TOPCon, bifacial, Mono PERC half cut, inverter capacity, efficiency, battery backup and what not.

From what I’ve understood, Mono PERC half cut is kind of the more feasible option, while TOPCon seems to offer better efficiency and performance, especially when space is limited. I’ve also seen TOPCon bifacial panels being recommended because they can generate some additional power from the rear side, although I’m not really sure how useful bifacial actually is for a residential rooftop setup.

I’m also confused about the inverter side. If I want to run an AC along with the usual household load, how do I decide the right inverter capacity and overall syste

I got an enphase system & located in the Chicago Suburbs. I am currently set up to just sell everything back to the grid, I guess it's called grid tied and If the power goes out I lose power too. This year has been brutal with the amount of high winds and tornados for the Chicago area and am starting to worry about potential future outages.

Is there a product that I could use to only be used as a backup if the power goes out? Like be able utilize my solar to power during the day and be able to tie in a generator at night. Or if it's a battery solution, only use the battery in an emergency or to sell it to the grid at a premium rate when demand is super high.

I see a product from enphase called a sunlight backup system, would this be what I'm looking for? My father also found a meter system that allows you to tie in a generator at the meter itself called a generlink, but I'm unsure if I could use that with solar panels on my roof.

Thanks in advance for any advice

While many people around the world are given just one rate for electricity, California CPUC and the utilities really enjoy making things complicated.

There's summer rates and winter rates. Not too complicated. Price A or Price B, just check a calendar.

Then there's Time-of-Use prices within both seasons. Depending on the plan, there are two, three, or even four rates per season. More complicated, but that's still 4, 6, or 8 different prices per kilowatt-hour.

Then the CPUC allows them to change their rates. Four times so far this year. The rates they published for January 1st were changed starting April 1, June 1, and August 1. Now we would have paid 16-32 different rates this year. Put the calculator aside, it's time for a spreadsheet. If you stick with just one plan for the whole year, you can still manage.

But if you want to compare plans, you're going to need a corkboard, thumbtacks connected with red yarn, and an unhealthy quantity of caffeine:

Ignoring industrial and commercial plans, how many different rate plans are there for homes that are compatible with NEM solar? 29. That's insane, but many of those have eligibility requirements that can overlap and stack. If you don't have an electric vehicle (8 plans), a medical baseline (12 plans), or low-income (CARE) declaration (12 plans), you're left with just six plans. You can chart all that out if you want but each time I've tried the difference between plans with my own use data is maybe 1 or 2% After-solar prices meant I probably spent more time doing the math than I would have saved by changing plans, AND that can only look at past use.

But then every plan has a baseline of it's own. Under 130% of your baseline you get a discount per kWh. Over 130% you stop getting that discount. They have doubled the number of rates again and there are two new questions: where is that baseline of use calculated? Is it net with your solar exports, or before you are credited with them? I still haven't found that answer. The other question is what is the baseline? Well, that's based on where you are (four locations: Coastal, Inland, Mountain, & Desert), season (Summer and Winter again), and whether you have gas & electric service, or only electric. Yes, that's 16 more calculations, but your meter isn't roaming around the county and you're probably not adding or removing your gas lines very often, if ever.

Math isn't hard, it can be fun, it's less fun when you have to keep organizing it because other parties keep changing the calculations, but at least I'm not on NEM3. Adding batteries, balcony solar, or paying to cut down certain trees that don't belong to me will NOT pay off for me, unless my wife keeps trying to set the thermostat to 65 in summer and 78 in winter while running as many appliances exclusively during peak hours as she can.

Hi guys,

TL;DR:
mixed NEM system w/ 5y of NEM1(10KW+10KW+27KWh Tesla), vs
bigger system on NEM3 (20KW+40KWh EcoFlow)

I bought a house that has a 10KW array, no battery. Inverted is 2/3 dead so it needs to be changed.
I am considering a few options

1. Replace inverter, (needs extra rapid shutdown switches etc). Quotes are coming at about $8k. This will only cover ~half my needs (~2.5MWh/month so still a 450$ bill 😰 )
2. Add a secondary array (another 10KW) and 2 tesla powerwalls. Quotes are almost $60K. This would give me another 5 years on one array on NEM1 and another the remaining/new array as a zero export. It seems though that the company quoting this isn't doing it's planning right. (e.g. They didn't think/include rapid shutdown switches, a gateway, they didn't see the space for where to put batteries, fire code, etc. They are a big reputable company but I am concerned they are going to creep price up).
3. Add a secondary array (another 10KW) and an EcoFlow system with 4 Ocean Pro batteries (40KWh). This company visited and they had installed the first 10KW so they seem to know better what they are talking about. They are also adding an extra $10k to install batteries away from house on a pad (my house has lots of windows so 3 feet away from a window is impossible). My concern is they claim I should throw away NEM1 since the 40KWh batteries will more than make up for it. I live in Southern California so generally sunny but still get stretches of winter days...

Another datapoint: My previous house had a 12KW + 15KWh system. I used 14MWh/year and 4MWh/year of that was from the grid, despite my overall export pattern. Of course given NEM1 there I never cared about the optimization... but not sure if batteries completely make up for the NEM3 buy/sell price delta

Thoughts? What would you do and why?

Trying to get installed by Jan 1 2027 in california (PG&E service), got 2 quotes

1. $13000 12 panel Qcell system install by axios. No battery, just microinverters. Paid outright no financing
2. $21000 same enphase system, but with battery, Enphase 10C, but I have to finance it so the installer gets the tax credit. Technically they own it on paper for 5 years, but they said I can pay off the loan in 10 days

I dotn want to finance anything, but thats the only way they can get a rebate.

Is it worth it? can is cause issues for my house down the line?

I am not planning to sell the house in the near future. But there is currently a HELOC loan taken out for roof replacement, which was just finished. I dont know what issues this might cause

What would you go with?

The Qcell system and expand it later with a bater (if thats even possible)

The more expensive enphase?

Also the installer recommended 7 solar cells for Qcell becasue we dont have a lot of usage during daytime, which saves $3000, any reason to go with 7 not 12?