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Considering solar panels, looking for sizing/financing advice
- Thread starter willow_hiller
- Start date
It all looks very nicely done.
You probably don't want my guess - just hope you get under the 4 months it took us. Did they say yet whether you can get the inspection done or whether they will have to submit updated plans to the county? If plans don't need to be updated, I think that could easily be a 6-8 week saving, based on my experience.
Mine too. My plans needed to be updated because they had to move one of my panels from the original drawing and my city requires the panel location to be part of the permit (apparently some localities don’t require this). But in my case it was a good 7+ weeks before they got the permit updated. And then once that happened it only took two days to get the inspector out to complete the inspection.
The installers seemed confident it would go to county inspection next. My electrical permit just said "36 panels mounted flush to roof" so it's possible the permit doesn't mind the layout.
Also, I guess it wouldn't be a home project without something going wrong. Tesla called back to say they spotted some "CTs" installed upside down in the panel, so the electrician is coming back tomorrow.
pdx_m3s
Active Member
Congrats. That looks great. They sure do work fast!
That is good news on the permit. Since we had solar roof installed, it didn't change (but I think it did list 70 solar shingles on each face,) so wasn't certain about how much the county cared about that. The changes that caused us issues were more on the electrical side.
And at least Tesla noticed the issue and is proactive about fixing it. Interesting that they noticed it after they left. Did you get a QA person to come by to inspect the work?
No, but I imagine they took photos of everything and sent it back to their master electrician. When I asked the electrician on site about the master contact info for the MEA grant he said he was just a journeyman.
Very grateful they noticed this issue and are correcting it so quickly. I decided to schedule the install in the middle of a week-long stay-cation. So this is the perfect time to get everything sorted.
Just looked up what a CT is in this context. Evidently it's a Current Transformer and it's likely a part of the home consumption monitor: The importance of current transformers (CT) in today’s solar installs
So beside a master electrician looking at photos, it's also possible Tesla HQ saw the reading from the test run and the CT was reporting negative consumption.
So beside a master electrician looking at photos, it's also possible Tesla HQ saw the reading from the test run and the CT was reporting negative consumption.
You would have noticed it when you started looking at the tesla app and wondered why the consumption didnt look correct / was reading the wrong direction etc.
Wow, I know there's been some discussion on these forums about solar panel impact on home insurance. We just updated our home description on USAA and their category "31-40 solar panels" added about $60,000 to our rebuild value 
Only about $20 extra per month on premiums, though.
Only about $20 extra per month on premiums, though.
Wow, I know there's been some discussion on these forums about solar panel impact on home insurance. We just updated our home description on USAA and their category "31-40 solar panels" added about $60,000 to our rebuild value
Only about $20 extra per month on premiums, though.
I just changed insurance companies (from AAA to Metlife) and the agent quoted me a premium for my home. I told them I had solar on my home during the "interview" phase where they ask you questions about the home, but I guess he "forgot" to put it on the quote. I only found this out because after policy start, metlife sent someone out to inspect the outside of the home, and the person asked me if I had solar. I said "yes, 34 panels I told the agent when i signed up". They said "oh.. ok" and then left.
About a week later I got a premium change (increase) of $200 for the year, and valuation of my home was increased by them 98k (lol)...
Also just got a call from Tesla, county permit inspection already scheduled for next week!
I wonder how much I can bug Pepco to speed up their end of the approval...
I wonder how much I can bug Pepco to speed up their end of the approval...
Wow, I know there's been some discussion on these forums about solar panel impact on home insurance. We just updated our home description on USAA and their category "31-40 solar panels" added about $60,000 to our rebuild value
Only about $20 extra per month on premiums, though.
With USAA, you should be able to knock that number down if you want (since you have a sense of the actual cost) - I don't think it would be a specific rider for the solar, just a part of the overall rebuild estimate. But it may not matter too much on the overall premiums.
Good luck on PEPCO. Do you already have a smart meter? If so, after Tesla submits the Part II application, watch for the meter to reset to all 0's (and possibly flip back and forth to some sort of test mode.) If you don't get a notice about the net meter within the week timeline they promise, definitely check with them. This is where my notices stopped getting properly sent out.
I have the same kind. Essentially, one night the meter reset to all 0's and started flashing between that screen and some sort of Test screen. Also, when I looked at the green dot data, it showed an estimated reading for that hour (and charged me twenty-some cents, when it should be $0 since I was operating on PWs, but I was certainly not going to try and dispute.) Unless they sent an undercover technician at 1:00 AM, this was all handled remotely.
As I'm sure you have seen, PEPCO does not track inflow and outflow separately - just the net - so once you do get PTO, you should see the numbers going down at times, and the little line below the numbers moving right to left instead of left to right.
That looks similar to our meter and ours was capable of doing net metering. It is really neat to see a -xxxx kW displayed!
I don't think our meters show the kW number - just the kWh number. Unfortunately, since we don't cover our summer usage with solar, I never got to go below all 0's. But I did get satisfaction seeing the little cursors start moving right to left across the screen the first time, which is the indication that power is flowing into the grid instead of from it. It does move faster the more power, but no actual numbers.
Our home is all electric, and the family we bought it from was using the fireplace and electric resistive heat to warm the house in the winter, hence the hundred MWh consumed on the meter!
Our next upgrade is a new heat pump to replace the one that's probably 20 years old now. SEER 9, said our HVAC technician. We're hoping once we get a modern heat pump in that can comfortably operate below 32 degrees, our panels will more than cover our annual usage. As it stands now, we're estimating the 12.24 kW system will only cover about 90%.
Ours is also kWh. Sorry for the error. But still it reads negative when you send power back into the grid.
Our kWh number will go backwards, but since it started climbing during the month between reset and PTO, and since I don't offset, the numbers are still positive (and I don't know if it actually would go to -1 or all 9's.) Does your meter actually record kWh in and out as two numbers? We only ever get the combined amount.
