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Send them your photo along with your suggestions. You would be sacrificing 6 panels on what I assume is a western (southwestern?) exposure for either none there or reduced down to 4. How late in the afternoon was this photo taken and is this more or less consistent during the year?
Thank you. I sent a 1-page pdf with that photo and my 2 preferred layouts, explaining the shade. The shaded side of my house is facing directly West. My advisor has been very responsive and forwarded it to the design team the same day.

The photo was taken on 9/5 at 6:06pm, so I believe that shade is worst at this time of year with the sun further north. In the spring/winter/fall with a more southern sun I don't believe that side shaded as much by my next door neighbor's house. I think it's still worth it to optimize the placement.

Unfortunately my advisor let me know it could take 2-3 weeks for an updated layout at this time.
 
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Thank you. I sent a 1-page pdf with that photo and my 2 preferred layouts, explaining the shade. The shaded side of my house is facing directly West. My advisor has been very responsive and forwarded it to the design team the same day.

The photo was taken on 9/5 at 6:06pm, so I believe that shade is worst at this time of year with the sun further north. In the spring/winter/fall with a more southern sun I don't believe that side shaded as much by my next door neighbor's house. I think it's still worth it to optimize the placement.

Unfortunately my advisor let me know it could take 2-3 weeks for an updated layout at this time.

If the shading only occurs in the late afternoon you will not lose that much. Solar power is mostly generated when the sun is high in the sky, the so-called peak Solar Hours. You can check that on various online resources. I believe LA has about 6 peak hours centered somewhat around noon. This site does a much better job explaining the concept
 
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If the shading only occurs in the late afternoon you will not lose that much. Solar power is mostly generated when the sun is high in the sky, the so-called peak Solar Hours. You can check that on various online resources. I believe LA has about 6 peak hours centered somewhat around noon. This site does a much better job explaining the concept
I appreciate it. I was thinking about getting either...
1. More total generation (all south facing)
2. More generation during 'peak' hours to feed back to the grid (not shaded during summer peak hours)

Maybe the changes won't end up making a huge difference though. I'll check it out.
 
Thank you. I sent a 1-page pdf with that photo and my 2 preferred layouts, explaining the shade. The shaded side of my house is facing directly West. My advisor has been very responsive and forwarded it to the design team the same day.

The photo was taken on 9/5 at 6:06pm, so I believe that shade is worst at this time of year with the sun further north. In the spring/winter/fall with a more southern sun I don't believe that side shaded as much by my next door neighbor's house. I think it's still worth it to optimize the placement.

Unfortunately my advisor let me know it could take 2-3 weeks for an updated layout at this time.

We called in today about our upcoming maintenance appointment and the phone starts with an announcement about getting lots of calls from people in the fire impacted areas. So guess not surprised by the layout timeframe. But glad you got through and were able to submit the info to them.
 
Has anyone had their order say small when clearly it's in-between a large an X-large and does it even matter?

Is this common to not have an A/C backed up with this many solar panels and 2 Powerwalls? I asked the advisor and he still hasn't gotten back to me. I am assuming it requires too much power to start up as its a new 5 ton A/C just installed 2 months ago but if I were to get 3 Powerwalls would that provide full backup?



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Has anyone had their order say small when clearly it's in-between a large an X-large and does it even matter?

I haven’t seen that before, but we have seen various other typos on panel layouts. I’m not sure it really matters too much but I’m sure they can correct it.

Is this common to not have an A/C backed up with this many solar panels and 2 Powerwalls?
What can and can’t be backed up has nothing to do with how many solar panels you are getting and everything to do with the number of powerwalls. 2 powerwalls is usually just barely enough to start getting into whole house backup territory, but in some cases 2 is still not enough. It’s likely that the two powerwalls aren’t enough to support your 5 ton AC unit. You would likely need to move up to 3 or possibly even 4 powerwalls for that.
 
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Paid deposit Saturday morning, got this back a few hours later. Is it automated or does someone evaluate everything submitted?

From what I've read on code, they can actually do a 4th row towards SE edge of house (fire access seems to apply to the peak and sides). Also, there are no vents, just some different color tiles being mistaken for vents in the satellite photo? So I'm assuming they'll adjust the layout.

upload_2020-9-13_9-25-42.png
 
Paid deposit Saturday morning, got this back a few hours later. Is it automated or does someone evaluate everything submitted?

From what I've read on code, they can actually do a 4th row towards SE edge of house (fire access seems to apply to the peak and sides). Also, there are no vents, just some different color tiles being mistaken for vents in the satellite photo? So I'm assuming they'll adjust the layout.

View attachment 587740

Send them a picture if you can showing no vents. And if possible, send them a ridge to eve measurement. You really have to take an active role in layout management (and overall project management) with Tesla.
 
Paid deposit Saturday morning, got this back a few hours later. Is it automated or does someone evaluate everything submitted?

From what I've read on code, they can actually do a 4th row towards SE edge of house (fire access seems to apply to the peak and sides). Also, there are no vents, just some different color tiles being mistaken for vents in the satellite photo? So I'm assuming they'll adjust the layout.

View attachment 587740

I don't understand your comment about a 4th row. You ordered a 8.16kw 24 panel array and they put them them all on the best roof location. Are you looking for something aesthetic?
 
I My 8.16 kW and 2 PW system was installed nearly 2 weeks ago. I have a whole house backup. They installed a soft start on my 4 ton 14 year old A/C unit. The PW have been able to start it up fine during my off-grid test.

i have similar system at permitting stage 2 PW design states “partial home backup” yet lists everything under backup loads including 4 ton 2 year old AC (tesla lists as being able to run on 2 PW for what thats worth) and my gen 2 wall connector
I contacted advisor why it does not list “whole house backup” responded about a week ago ..”i have reached out design team “ ..
 
i have similar system at permitting stage 2 PW design states “partial home backup” yet lists everything under backup loads including 4 ton 2 year old AC (tesla lists as being able to run on 2 PW for what thats worth) and my gen 2 wall connector
I contacted advisor why it does not list “whole house backup” responded about a week ago ..”i have reached out design team “ ..

It says Tesla can run on 2 PW? Seems impossible , right? My model 3 has a 75 kwh battery.. there is no way in hell 2 PWs at 26 kwh total can charge it. I have a partial backup with no AC and no Tesla charging backed up. My house is 2 storied with 2 AC condensors.
 
It says Tesla can run on 2 PW? Seems impossible , right? My model 3 has a 75 kwh battery.. there is no way in hell 2 PWs at 26 kwh total can charge it. I have a partial backup with no AC and no Tesla charging backed up. My house is 2 storied with 2 AC condensors.

they are assuming you would throttle back charging i’m sure / tesla connector does this semi-auto to some extent from what i’ve read ( no way off grid on full 48amp / 12kw max unless solar helping out a lot midday and assuming you are just topping off car )
 
they are assuming you would throttle back charging i’m sure / tesla connector does this semi-auto to some extent from what i’ve read ( no way off grid on full 48amp / 12kw max unless solar helping out a lot midday )

hmm and if you miss throttling back it would drain the PW within a few minutes and your home won't have any power (if the grid is down).. seems risky and a PITA.
 
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Anybody know when the price for 4.08kW system changed from $10,000 to the current $8,200?

I originally ordered an 8 kW system in June. But I decided it best to upgrade my electrical service before the solar install, and that upgrade was completed in July. Then in August my power provider denied my 8kW application because it exceeded 120% of my trailing 12 month usage. So I lowered my order to 4.08kw, and that was approved. Just last week got my new purchase agreement which shows $9,900 ($10k less $100 deposit). But today I learned that 4kW pricing is now $8,200.

My install is scheduled in 3 days, on Wednesday. I’ll call my advisor first thing tomorrow, and see if Tesla will change my purchase agreement to current pricing, or if I’ll need to cancel & start anew.
 
Anybody know when the price for 4.08kW system changed from $10,000 to the current $8,200?

I originally ordered an 8 kW system in June. But I decided it best to upgrade my electrical service before the solar install, and that upgrade was completed in July. Then in August my power provider denied my 8kW application because it exceeded 120% of my trailing 12 month usage. So I lowered my order to 4.08kw, and that was approved. Just last week got my new purchase agreement which shows $9,900 ($10k less $100 deposit). But today I learned that 4kW pricing is now $8,200.

My install is scheduled in 3 days, on Wednesday. I’ll call my advisor first thing tomorrow, and see if Tesla will change my purchase agreement to current pricing, or if I’ll need to cancel & start anew.

They will. Probably not done as a new contract but as a check after PTO. That's how ours is being handled. Sucks that your utility cut your panels back. Do you have an EV that you would charge at home or getting one? I know that was one of the questions on our Interconnect application from PG&E here. We have an 8.16kW system and had fairly low annual usage as I had decided to suffer through high summer temps with our AC last year and wasn't doing much cooking in our double oven. Since I had free SC from a reward since December I was using it up so not charging at home too which didn't provide a true picture of what we'd be using otherwise. The fact we were able to check an EV on the app I think might have helped in our case.
 
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I don't understand your comment about a 4th row. You ordered a 8.16kw 24 panel array and they put them them all on the best roof location. Are you looking for something aesthetic?

I wasn't clear. I just meant I'm surprised they didn't do a 4th row, but less across. I guess it depends which way they run the racking for less work/materials cost. It's the back of the house, no aesthetics involved but would be nice to know there is some room for future expandability on the back roof.

Send them a picture if you can showing no vents. And if possible, send them a ridge to eve measurement. You really have to take an active role in layout management (and overall project management) with Tesla.

I sent 3 different photos of that side of the roof in the initial submit, that's why I'm confused. Thanks for the tip, I'll follow up. I already reached out to my rep yesterday, I'm sure it'll be handled soon. :)