Install Schedule for tomorrow in SoCal - suggestions, guidance, wish me luck?

[jaysen]

Hello all!l lurker, first time poster. I've got my insulation scheduled for tomorrow in Southern California, Inland Empire area, for an 8.16kwh system....

I've taken some advice from some of the other posts. I will have a nice chest filled with Gatorade, water, and sodas for the installers.

Introduce my self to the lead to walk project before... Talk about best locations to run conduit with minimal exposure to the street.

Any other advice, comments, suggestions?

Thanks,

Jason

 

[jaysen]

Wow. So much for my first post. I'm posting on mobile didn't realize all of my fat finger spelling and grammatical. My apologies!

Can't seem to figure out where the edit button is at?

 

[BrettS]

Sounds like you’re all set. The only other advice I have for you is to take lots of pictures to post here for us. We love to see pictures of the installs in progress.

Good luck

Edited to add, if you’re on mobile you can click the “more” button under your post, and then edit. But you only have a limited time to edit the post. I think it’s 60 minutes from the time it was posted.

 

[SMAlset]

We had our first day of a 2-day install yesterday, over 100F and really great group of solar panel/PW teams. They’ll be finishing up Friday. We picked up a bunch of those individual Hagen Daz ice cream cups (they have their own spoon under the lid so nice for covid — plus great rich taste). Added a few bags of ice to a grocery insulated bag and then cups and it was a work break hit in the hot afternoon.

We are so appreciative of the great work they are doing, especially in this heat and on a cement roof. I still can't believe guys are doing this work at these temps. Had wondered if we would be rescheduled. Our guys were here at 8am and the PW team left around 7pm, solar were still on our roof around 6pm or later.

 

[jaysen]

Thanks for the advice!

I definitely have my camera and drone charged up... Hopefully they don't think I'm too weird

 

[BrettS]

We had our first day of a 2-day install yesterday, over 100F and really great group of solar panel/PW teams.

Wait. So your system is half installed and you still haven’t posted any pictures for us? I’m hurt

 

[SMAlset]

Wait. So your system is half installed and you still haven’t posted any pictures for us? I’m hurt

We asked if they minded if we took photos and the lead said no but please don’t post until it’s completed. Honoring their request.

Our job is more complicated due to the fact the wall we wanted to put our 3 PWs, GW2 and inverter on was the wall opposite the interior garage wall that had our main service panel on the outside. Plus it’s a double garage so longer run. The interior garage side of that service panel wall has a bunch of electrical equipment mounted on it, so space is already tight for placing the 2 interior load centers we need there and things are having to be moved. That exterior garage wall also gets hit with a southwest sun exposure and the exterior is stucco. More to post this weekend.

Gotta love these electricians who get to layout the equipment after seeing it in person for the first time apart from photos submitted. Have to say very neat clean work.

 

[JeremyWhaling]

If you eventually want to monitor your panel level data via solar edge, ask to take a picture of the optimizer layout page that has all the stickers from the optimizers on it. Otherwise you'll just be guessing if you have an under performer.

 

[njhtran]

Good luck. I placed my order in May and still waiting for SCE to turn on. I'm beginning to lose my patience.

 

[bob_p]

During the first day of our installation, they turned off the power to do the major electrical work to add the new Gateway and solar/PowerWall breaker panel and run the house power through the Gateway.

This took almost the entire day - as the installer put it "should be the last time our house wouldn't have power".

In addition to taking precautions for keeping food cold and opening windows for ventilation, we got permission from our neighbor to run a long extension cord from one of their outside outlets. We ran the cord through a nearby window and used that room during the outage - running a fan for circulation, and powering computers & lights, so we could use the room. Fortunately, that room was also where the cable modem was located so we were able to keep our internet powered during the outage.

Other than the room getting a little warm, we were able to keep busy during the extended power outage.

 

[jboy210]

Good luck. I placed my order in May and still waiting for SCE to turn on. I'm beginning to lose my patience.

Could be worse. Our installation was completed in the beginning of April. Still waiting on PTO from PG&E.

 

[BrettS]

Could be worse. Our installation was completed in the beginning of April. Still waiting on PTO from PG&E.

I feel I’m quickly moving into your shoes. My install was completed at the end of June and my city inspection is *finally* scheduled for today. I don’t really even know what to expect from my utility for PTO, but hopefully it’s not going to be another two months.

I might cry if I don’t pass the inspection

 

[Troglodytes]

Make sure that anything you thought of for your system is mentioned to the install lead. For instance, if you thought that maybe in the future you might remove a tree and add more panels/inverters to the system mention that before they start.

Some installers/leads will do what they think is best for your system that deviates from the plans because they know best. Let them know what you are thinking about in the future for your system so that they can add it into their considerations. More panels in the future, might remove a tree, ...

Ask them to install a Cat5/5e/6/... cable that you supply for your inverters. It can dangle from the system without being plugged in by them. Even if you don't hook it up in the future for panel monitoring its there if you change your mind or the next person. Maybe 2 minutes of their time if you already have a short cable for them.

Ask for the QR code sheet showing where the power optimizers were installed.

Ask for their copy of your plans when they finish. All kinds of notes and what not when they finish.

Get a can of spray paint that matches your shingles/tiles and have it ready for them to paint brackets and conduit mounted to the surface of the roof.

Have them confirm which panels were on the truck before they start doing too much with them. Did you order 315s and get 340s? Lucky you! 315s instead of 340s... well, time for some calls..

Pictures at all phases of the project are helpful for you later on!

 

[jboy210]

I feel I’m quickly moving into your shoes. My install was completed at the end of June and my city inspection is *finally* scheduled for today. I don’t really even know what to expect from my utility for PTO, but hopefully it’s not going to be another two months.

I might cry if I don’t pass the inspection

Best of luck. Tesla had a person dedicated to the inspection process. He showed up an hour before the inspector. He started by putting on all of the red panels and labels required by the City/State. He had sets of label stickers in little cases for each device. He had a diagram showing each of my boxes and which labels went where and in which order. As the time got closer for the inspector to show up, he opened up the panels so the inspector could see them. When the inspector showed up they walked through the inspection very quickly. It took around 15 minutes including the time to sign the inspection passed documents and say hi and bye. It was all very quick, professional, and clinical.

Here are some images.

 

[BrettS]

Best of luck. Tesla had a person dedicated to the inspection process. He showed up an hour before the inspector. He started by putting on all of the red panels and labels required by the City/State. He had sets of label stickers in little cases for each device. He had a diagram showing each of my boxes and which labels went where and in which order. As the time got closer for the inspector to show up, he opened up the panels so the inspector could see them. When the inspector showed up they walked through the inspection very quickly. It took around 15 minutes including the time to sign the inspection passed documents and say hi and bye. It was all very quick, professional, and clinical.

It’ll be interesting to see how it goes. They needed to submit changes to my permit before the inspection since they wound up having to put a panel in a different location than was shown on the original drawings. I think the work to get the drawings redone and submitted to the city is what caused the huge delay. But I had someone from tesla stop by my house on Monday to add some documents to the permit documents that are hanging by my garage. I asked him if anyone from Tesla would be here for the inspection and he said no, that the inspector would just come and do his inspection and sign off, but I take that with a grain of salt because he may just be a runner and not really know how the process works.

They already applied all the red labels at the time of install, so I don’t think I need any more red labels. They also had little cases like that with the stickers.

The inspection is scheduled to happen between 12 and 4PM, so the window opens in about an hour and 15 minutes from now. Hopefully I’ll be able to report back with good news in a few hours.

 

[wjgjr]

It’ll be interesting to see how it goes. They needed to submit changes to my permit before the inspection since they wound up having to put a panel in a different location than was shown on the original drawings. I think the work to get the drawings redone and submitted to the city is what caused the huge delay. But I had someone from tesla stop by my house on Monday to add some documents to the permit documents that are hanging by my garage. I asked him if anyone from Tesla would be here for the inspection and he said no, that the inspector would just come and do his inspection and sign off, but I take that with a grain of salt because he may just be a runner and not really know how the process works.

They already applied all the red labels at the time of install, so I don’t think I need any more red labels. They also had little cases like that with the stickers.

The inspection is scheduled to happen between 12 and 4PM, so the window opens in about an hour and 15 minutes from now. Hopefully I’ll be able to report back with good news in a few hours.

Your experience is a lot like what we went through. Inspection was delayed due to needed permit changes (though we don't have any requirement to post permits anywhere) and all the labels were applied at install. We were initially told no Tesla employee would be present for the inspection, and that only changed because of COVID-19 rules which at the time meant no county employees in the house, so Tesla had to be in the house to open things up and provide video evidence.

As this applies to OP, it is worth noting that if there are any changes made from the plans (and hopefully the installer will let you know,) keep on top of Tesla to ensure they are submitting necessary paperwork to the city, utility, or whoever else has to inspect/approve them. Sometimes this gets done very slowly and/or Tesla doesn't update all the relevant agencies of the changes, which results in inspection and PTO delays.

 

[mnsweeps]

Good luck. I placed my order in May and still waiting for SCE to turn on. I'm beginning to lose my patience.

your solar panels were installed in May and you still waiting on SCE to give you PTO?

 

[BrettS]

Well, the inspector has come and gone. He showed up about an hour early and walked around and looked at things (I didn’t even think he opened any of the electrical panels, unless he did it before he came to my door). After about 5 minutes he signed off on everything and left. Tesla was not present for the inspection.

 

[jaysen]

Wow, thanks everyone. Lead showed up promptly at 7 am as expected... Asked to take a picture of the optimizer layout page, he was totally cool with it! Had the Yeti ready with Gatorade and water. Showed me where the conduit was going to run - this was was easy, my house has really only one way to run and it'll be clean!

I don't know which panels are supposed to be installed. Layout does not specify only gives a range from 330 to 345, same with inverter. I'm guessing the 8.16kw system gets the SE7600H-US - can someone confirm?

Anyone know which panels this system uses?

 

[SMAlset]

We have a 8.16 solar system and the SolarEdge 7600H-US inverter. Your panel will be the 340s. Did you get emailed to you the plans? If not call and ask. The info is printed on the plans. From memory, general site plan, roof placement, we had 2 line drawing plans (overall and then one for the inverter & added NGOM and disconnect), pages with equipment labels, might have forgot something else.

Good luck on your job. Are you experiencing wildfire smoke where you’re at?