I think we're going solar

Not usually.

The deal I'm offered is 25 years parts coverage on the panels themselves, provided by the panel manufacturer. Something shorter than that on the inverters. 5 years coverage on labor warranted by the electrician himself.

That's good enough for me.

 

you're fortunate to have a local person installing. i'm stuck with numerous bids from megacorps whom i don't trust to be there when i need them.

 

Residential solar is only getting more popular. More and more electricians will know how to deal with them in the future.

So while there might seem to be extra risk today, it's falling and accelerating.

On that note, my insurance guy tells me that my homeowners' policy can already cover the system without a premium bump- apparently I've already got enough coverage for "detached structures and outbuildings" to cover the added value.

 

you can't even find an electrician around here, never mind one with good solar knowledge who is willing to up on the roof and replace a panel or whatever correctly.

all the good contractors have been rolled up into megacorps who don't compete on price or ability, but marketing.

i'm probaly over concerned, but there isn't any solar around here that i've seen go up, so no one to stop and ask questions.

 

Consider getting a package deal with an electrician that works with the vendor that you might get the panels from
.

 

thanks, can you explain further? i don't understand what that means.

 

In other words for example we went with a company called Revco - because we found out they were installers of (our Preferred Choice) SunPower panels & inverters. They arranged for the installers & electricians to do the roof work & the hook up to the main service panel and so forth. Buying from an installer should be a one stop shop.
.

 

i'm a little slow, but if i understand you correctly, all my bidders are one stop shops, and two of them even work closely with a roofer.
sunpower is one of the bidders. 25k after tax credits, 101% coversge, 10 year breakeven, waaree panels and sunpower inverters

this guys not happy,

sunpower

but my quote is the same as the others

 

Is there a sort of residential electrician who isn't?

I mean, when I called mine to have a ventilator installed in the kitchen they did the whole thing. All of it, one-stop. So I called them again to have a bathroom ventilator installed a couple of years later. They did that whole thing.

Another upgraded our main load center from a difficult-to-support antique to a modern 200A service across two panels for more spaces...again a one-stop deal.

Now I'm working with yet another electrician who specializes in solar, and he has proposed a package that is promised in no way different than that of the other contractors I've already used.

I guess I don't see why any project proposed or planned by an electrical contractor wouldn't be a one-stop deal.

 

i suppose there are electricians who don't do solar. it's funny, none of the solar companies mentions in their presentation that your panel might be insufficient.
that comes with a sight survey which they don't do until you give them a 'refundable' deposit.
same with final solr panel locations and efficiency projection, as well as roofing cost.

 

Even panels that are "full" with breakers it can easily be expanded by the use of tandem (or piggy-back breakers) as mine was when I got solar.

For example:
https://www.thespruce.com/tandem-breakers-1152736#:~:text=Look%20at%20the%20manufacturer's%20labeling,slots%20you%20can%20use%20them.

Mike

 

"Where Tandem Breakers are Allowed
Tandem breakers are safe and legal to use only when the panel is designed for them and only in the slots that accept tandem breakers. Look at the manufacturer's labeling on the inside face of the panel door. If the panel accepts tandem breakers, the label should indicate how many you can use and in which slots you can use them."

The labeling inside my panel door showed that tandem breakers were allowed on 10 of the bottom 12 slots, not quite contiguous. Fortunately, there was a good candidate location to change a little-used single breaker (for the accessory circuit to my original ductless heat pump) to a little-used tandem breaker (for the accessory circuit to the new, additional heat pump).

The other necessary item running short on my panel: legal slots for the neutral and ground wires. Same-gauge ground wires could be doubled up on the ground / neutral bar(s) (shared bars on mine, but not on all), but neutral wires cannot share holes. Different size holes on the bars have different gauge allowances when taking multiple wires. On my most recent project, adding several circuits (including for EVSE), I had to do significant re-arrangement of grounds and neutrals to get everything to fit. Because of this limit, it is now effectively full.

 

I had to have my main panel replaced during a remodel because the electrician said the back was illegally cut to provide separate breakers on the generator, then he added a separate panel for the generator.
During some work after that, an electrician told me the new panel wasn’t rated for tandem breakers

 

That's a good one too. Parents-in-law have Solar Edge, which has 25 years warranty (standard for some parts, at a slight premium for other parts iirc). An optimizer was broken. Replaced for free since under warranty. They only had to pay the labor... 70€. Buying a new optimizer would have been 50€ and their panels are fairly easy to reach (still an hours work, but just to show that despite the 'warranty', it still set them back more than the part's worth).

I'm converting to Solar Edge too since I have quite a lot of shadow and different panes. And it allows me to mix different secondhand panels of different power

 

If we had a newer roof I would have gone so there by now. Any thoughts on this issue?

 

My thoughts after some research are, do I want to invest in a new roof now, even though I might get 5 or 10 more years out of it, or ride it out and relook at things when the time comes.
From a strictly financial perspective, it seems better to wait.
From an environmental perspective, it makes sense to jump in if you can afford it