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Considering Tesla Solar + PW, but ouch...those reviews are REALLY bad...

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I ordered 7.28 and still in permitting phase. Tesla permit was rejected 3 times asking for corrections by LA county. Mine is standard solar panels (8.16kwh) + 2 PWs. Tesla must have so much experience with this configuration and mine is a relatively new house build in 2003. Last I heard Tesla resubmitted corrections on 9.3. With holidays I guess I will have to wait for whole week to hear from L.A county.

And permitting failed the 4th time today. Seems like they asking more corrections. Super upsetting.
 
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That could be tesla, or it could be the AHJ being difficult for the wrong reasons. You would never really know, but I bet you @Vines could tell many a story of something to that effect.

FWIW, my issues with Tesla and permit issues were squarely their fault therefore I'd be inclined to believe @mnsweeps issue is no different.

1. Inspector comes on site and Tesla forgets the permit / job card, therefore inspection fails and had to be reschedule.
2. Tesla submitted my permit to the city with the wrong design layout , which causes a cascade of bureaucracy issues and then ultimately them "losing" my permit in the mail.
 
I am trying not to jinx it for my install. I started my process with Tesla at the end of Jun with orders for both solar roof and solar panels. My 27 year old shingle roof needed to be replaced. After I got the numbers, and quotes, I decided to go with the re-roof and solar panels. Tesla refunded the $100 for the solar roof, without me even asking. Requested a couple of changes (ended with a 8.16 kW system), and added 2 PW as well. Was not able to schedule Tesla till the re-roof was finally schedule. Re-roof was completed Aug. 14. Permit was filed with LADBS (L.A. City not County like in mnsweeps case) Jul. 20th. 1 correction was requested. Permit was issued Aug. 5th. Tesla install was scheduled for Sep. 1st. They had an opening that came available a few days before, but that would not have worked out as they asked me the evening before. Anyway, the install of the 24 panels were done by about 1.30 p.m. and the 2 PW install was done by 4 p.m. The LADBS inspection happened this morning. Now to wait for LADWP to do their thing.

I have to say, I am pretty impressed with the all the people I have worked with at Tesla. I have had 1 project advisor, 1 project coordinator, 1 site evaluator, 4 PV installers, 2 electricians, 2 guys out to get ready for the inspection, and all of them were pretty good. Had a safety person and a QA person from Tesla drop in as well. My Project Advisor has gone out of his way to help. Over this long weekend, I noticed on Sat. that the LADBS had scheduled the inspection for today. Then yesterday it was schedule for 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. I was concerned as nobody from Tesla had told me anything, and the stickers, etc . was not put. Then this morning around 7 a.m., I got a text from a guy from Tesla saying the inspection was today from 9 - 11, and he will be here by 7.30 to get everything ready. I didn't have any issue as this info was updated over a long weekend. Over the weekend, I did some off-grid testing for about 9 hours each day. :) As I mentioned, I hope I did not just jinx my project.
 
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Running out of patience, I talked to the permit inspector and he mentioned he asked Tesla to put the 2 Powerwalls on a different permit. The original permit which Tesla submitted only had solar panels (not sure why ..looks like Tesla messed up and forgot to add the 2 powerwalls). So basically now I will have 2 permits which is fine as long as they are approved fast. ..what a world..
 
Running out of patience, I talked to the permit inspector and he mentioned he asked Tesla to put the 2 Powerwalls on a different permit. The original permit which Tesla submitted only had solar panels (not sure why ..looks like Tesla messed up and forgot to add the 2 powerwalls). So basically now I will have 2 permits which is fine as long as they are approved fast. ..what a world..

Our city made Tesla apply for a second permit for a 3rd PW we later added. Some cities apparently let installers modify their permit while others don’t. Sounds like your county is like that? Maybe it’s to collect another fee. I assume drawings have to be reviewed so more time spent and cities are hurting now with covid and loss of tax revenue.

OP you can see how stuff like this can delay getting a scheduled date. However I’d say in my case too many other installs ahead of us was the over riding factor and new Gateway2s and the new 340W panels that came out mid-wait (neither causing a complaint) caused the design team to update all current pre-install projects with the new equipment on plan drawings.
 
Running out of patience, I talked to the permit inspector and he mentioned he asked Tesla to put the 2 Powerwalls on a different permit. The original permit which Tesla submitted only had solar panels (not sure why ..looks like Tesla messed up and forgot to add the 2 powerwalls). So basically now I will have 2 permits which is fine as long as they are approved fast. ..what a world..

yup. par for the course when it comes to Tesla permit competence.
 
I am trying not to jinx it for my install. I started my process with Tesla at the end of Jun with orders for both solar roof and solar panels. My 27 year old shingle roof needed to be replaced. After I got the numbers, and quotes, I decided to go with the re-roof and solar panels. Tesla refunded the $100 for the solar roof, without me even asking. Requested a couple of changes (ended with a 8.16 kW system), and added 2 PW as well. Was not able to schedule Tesla till the re-roof was finally schedule. Re-roof was completed Aug. 14. Permit was filed with LADBS (L.A. City not County like in mnsweeps case) Jul. 20th. 1 correction was requested. Permit was issued Aug. 5th. Tesla install was scheduled for Sep. 1st. They had an opening that came available a few days before, but that would not have worked out as they asked me the evening before. Anyway, the install of the 24 panels were done by about 1.30 p.m. and the 2 PW install was done by 4 p.m. The LADBS inspection happened this morning. Now to wait for LADWP to do their thing.

I have to say, I am pretty impressed with the all the people I have worked with at Tesla. I have had 1 project advisor, 1 project coordinator, 1 site evaluator, 4 PV installers, 2 electricians, 2 guys out to get ready for the inspection, and all of them were pretty good. Had a safety person and a QA person from Tesla drop in as well. My Project Advisor has gone out of his way to help. Over this long weekend, I noticed on Sat. that the LADBS had scheduled the inspection for today. Then yesterday it was schedule for 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. I was concerned as nobody from Tesla had told me anything, and the stickers, etc . was not put. Then this morning around 7 a.m., I got a text from a guy from Tesla saying the inspection was today from 9 - 11, and he will be here by 7.30 to get everything ready. I didn't have any issue as this info was updated over a long weekend. Over the weekend, I did some off-grid testing for about 9 hours each day. :) As I mentioned, I hope I did not just jinx my project.
Congrats on the quick turn around. I am in the same position as you are and need to reroof before solar. How does your roof warranty work in regards to the tesla penetrations? My prospective roofer mentioned that the penetration areas would not be covered under warranty, and I doubt tesla would install the footers then come back to install the panels once roofing is done.
 
Congrats on the quick turn around. I am in the same position as you are and need to reroof before solar. How does your roof warranty work in regards to the tesla penetrations? My prospective roofer mentioned that the penetration areas would not be covered under warranty, and I doubt tesla would install the footers then come back to install the panels once roofing is done.

Hi jpizz123,

My roofer's warranty is for 10 years, and so is Tesla's roof penetration warranty. The footers that Tesla uses are different from what others use, and it goes on top of the shingles. After they screw them into the rafters, they fill it with some sealant, to reduce any chance of a leak. I am not too concern. We rarely have rain in So. Cal. anyway. :(

Regards,

GHTech
 
Hi jpizz123,

My roofer's warranty is for 10 years, and so is Tesla's roof penetration warranty. The footers that Tesla uses are different from what others use, and it goes on top of the shingles. After they screw them into the rafters, they fill it with some sealant, to reduce any chance of a leak. I am not too concern. We rarely have rain in So. Cal. anyway. :(

Regards,

GHTech

Never say never. SoCal can get some torrential rains when the Pineapple Express and other sub-tropical flows take aim at the West.
 
I had solar installed by Solar City about 10 years ago. My memory of that is a bit hazy but I remember it being fairly uneventful and the system has Just Worked (tm).

I added 3 Powerwalls, starting the reservation process in late 2018 with install in March 2019. They didn't do a physical site survey (doing all of their plans based on photos) but that didn't seem to have been a problem in my case. Construction crew (2 installers) were great...they answered all my questions. They had to come back out to put in some additional disconnects that my AHJ (surprise!) decided they needed. The only real problem I had was it took a year for me to get PTO (it took them a long time to get paperwork submitted to PG&E, possibly multiple times, then the inspection failed over something totally unrelated to the Powerwalls and I had to deal with that)...but at least during that time we were able to leave everything up and running. Towards the end I was talking on the phone and trading emails with one of Tesla's back-office people as we were keeping each other updated. Support has been responsive to the one or two issues that have come up in the last 18 months. The app works well for making the few changes I might need to do on a daily basis and I have some custom monitoring software polling the gateway for measurements.

Like someone upthread said, treat this experience like a construction project and not like buying a phone (or even a car).

All things considered I'm a pretty happy camper especially after last year's PG&E PSPS events.

Bruce.
 
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Hi jboy210!

Agreed. That is why we re-roofed and replaced the 14 year old solar with the PV and PW from Tesla. Have lived in this area for the last 26 years, and seen some of those winters as well.

Regards,

GHTech

I only lived there for 2 years in college. I still remember seeing the LA river nearly overspill its banks, and a few times they rescued kids from getting washed down from Glendale to Long Beach.
 
I might be the exception. I have a system that is generating about 1/2 of what it's supposed to, thus far. If i were to do it over again, i would look for a company that can promise the output of your solar system (within a reasonable %) at the very least from the beginning of the system's lifetime. Tesla apparently gives you an estimated # in your design document that apparently means nothing because they can't promise to any degree that the system will output that.

Can you post your roof layout and location and what production you're actually getting?
 
Can you post your roof layout and location and what production you're actually getting?

I'm getting between 40-54kW generated daily.

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