After signing the contract and making a down payment on my solar array, it was time to get going on the installation. I worked closely with the scheduler/project manager.
Once you move forward, the scheduler/coordinator is probably one of the most important persons you will deal with. They keep everything moving through various channels, are you prime point of contact, and they schedule all of the various install activities.
Part of the deposit for the installation was for their engineer to draw up plans for the installation. I suspect they have some kind of software that does most of the heavy lifting and that the engineer just reviews and signs off on it. The planning went pretty quick. Next came submitting those plans to the City of Houston, and to Centerpoint, this city’s grid provider. The City sent the plans back and asked for a modification, which also went quickly.
After that, we hit a wall with my HOA. HOA’s generally suck, but mine is not terrible, though they did take a while to get back to me on it. It took several calls and emails, but it was finally approved. By law, in the State of Texas, an HOA cannot keep you from installing solar, but they can put a bunch of annoying roadblocks in your way.
My HOA “requires” a) the install plans be submitted to the HOA’s Architectural Committee, b) you get a signed statement from all your adjacent neighbors saying they are okay with the install, c) the install cannot be on a street facing roof, and some other random stuff.
In reality, they only asked for the install plans. I would have been mad if they asked me to get my neighbor’s approval. The guy behind me moved in a couple of years ago, and the first thing they did was put solar panels up all over their roof. They didn’t ask me if it was okay, and I doubt they even asked the HOA! LOL!
My HOA manager said there were 3 solar installs in the neighborhood, though if you go around and count roofs, it’s easily double that within a short walk from my house! Anyhow, that hurdle cleared, we set a date for the install, and I sent in another payment so they could buy the solar panels and other equipment.
Finally, install day rolls around in July. It was about 6:30 am when a flat bed semi pulls in front of my house. A guy hops out disconnects a forklift from the truck, then gets a pallet of solar panels and other gear wrapped in plastic and puts it down on my driveway. Pretty exciting!
A couple of hours later a couple of trucks roll up and a bunch of guys hop out and start getting after it. There were about 4 guys installing roof rails and solar panels, and running wires through the attic. Another 2 guys, including the team’s electrician, started working on installing a new electrical panel and hooking up the solar to the panel.
The installers took about 7 hours, while the electrician took a couple more. But amazingly, they were pretty much done in one day! The electrician came back the next day to go over the install with the City inspector to make sure everything was up to code. He fixed a couple of very minor things at the suggestion of the inspector. Now all that remained was to get “permission to operate” from the grid provider.
On my contract it said that permission to operate could take weeks, but amazingly it took less than a day after the inspector was here. I think now that so many people are going solar, the process has sped up a lot more from what it used to be.
That was it. My solar array was making electricity. I had one minor issue with one of the arrays of panels not communicating with the controller box, which was quickly fixed by my installer. I made the final payment at permission to operate.
For just shy of a year now, the system is running smoothly. In the summer it reduced my overall energy use, and over the winter there were a lot of days I put more energy back into the grid than I used.
I supposedly have a solar buyback from my energy provider, but in practice it seems they charge you a lot more than they pay back for the same unit of energy! And you pay a “delivery fee” to the grid provider no matter how much electricity you do or do not use.
Some minor issues that came up…
The system was undersized a bit. I went for a 9.2 kW system (23 x 400 watts per panel), which in reality puts out about 7 something kW, depending on conditions. Should have gone for a 12 kW system, which would have been 7 more panels. There is still plenty of space on the roof, so will probably upgrade in the future.
I went back and forth with the salesperson asking for different bids for slightly different setups, so the final contract had some stuff on it that was either not useful or didn’t get done. However, the owner of the company was good about it and didn’t charge me for some stuff, and also said I could get additional equipment installed in the future (we were primary talking about a generator connection), which I probably won’t be doing anyway after learning about it more. (Which brings up another point… learn all you can about the equipment you are asking for before you ask for it. Ha!)
One thing that was stated on my contract that was not done was electrical conduit to run the wires through the attic. I suspect that it is a rare job that ends up getting that done. I do have some messy wires running through the attic, and they did offer to straighten it out. Right now it’s not a priority, but I may take them up on it if they come back for additional work.
Anyhow, bottom line — I am very satisfied with my system and confident in the installation.
In the near future I plan to add enough battery storage to run my air conditioner when the grid goes down. A/C is quite literally life support here in Houston, and that will only become more of a reality over time.
Are you thinking about going solar? Have any questions? Let me know below! Thanks for reading.
Solar Roadmap
Unlock the full benefits of going solar with this action-packed Solar Roadmap, your guide to slashing electric bills, tapping into major tax incentives, and cutting your carbon footprint. From choosing the right installer to adding batteries for maximum savings and backup power, these articles make turning sunshine into serious savings simple.
- Why go solar?
- How to pick a solar installer
- Understanding your solar contract
- One crazy way to save money on solar!
- Solar installation day (this article!)
- Adding batteries