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Your impression of what you want to do is exactly where I started! I was going to do all the design & drawings, all the nonlicensed physical work I could, buy all of the equipment and pull the permit....after my experience trying to find a licensed electrician that would do just the signoff, which I was unsuccessful at, I opted to use a solar contractor. That decision encountered more problems as most make their money off the labor and the materials....more off the materials. Since I had already bought most of the expensive equipment no one would bid the job and I called at least 20 companies. I ended up having 2 bids, one was about 50% higher than the company I hired. Plus the company I hired is doing all of the roofing work, the other guy would not. I also called a lot of roofers to install the racking and no one would do it. Talk is cheap about how a DIYer job can be easily completed with the right skills and knowledge, I spend weeks on the phone finding someone that could do the jobs I can't do and never found anyone. Someone has to pull the permit, good luck if you can do that on your own. I don't know what city you live in but Scottsdale is a little more friendly then most in Arizona if you are a licensed contractor and have the right relationships.....I do not. Just look at the drawing package required by the city for the permit, its not home sketches, they want to see detailed CAD drawing and I could not find anyone that would do that as a separate job unless you bought all your equipment from them, then it was between $500 to $1000 for that permit ready drawing package.
BTW I have been a PM and BSEE for over 30 years, I know what is required and can talk the talk, in Arizona if you can do what you envision, then list everyone you used here so others can do the same thing. I told a bunch of companies that this is a growth area for their business, even had one guy that wanted to go into business using a DIYer model. Usually, the response was "I have more work then I need and my money is in the equipment". I saved easily 50% on the equipment costs buying it myself. I also have an LLC so I was able to buy equipment by just registering my company for the wholesale pricing and of course eBay and craigslist. I have access to the Solaredge design system which was huge when negotiating with contractors as I already had the design laid out for my roof, most contractors rely on the fact that you don't know squat about your house, the building codes, design requirements, electrical requirements, your specific house loads, what you are trying to accomplish. if you are from AZ and you remember the 80's when every tom dick and harry was selling solar hot water heaters. most of the systems were designed overnight, fell apart almost as fast as the contractor left your property and the state of AZ almost went bankrupt on the tax rebates.....this is a similar situation but the city permit system is the firewall from letting that happen again so probably why its hard to pull the permit without being a legitimate licensed contractor.
hope this helps
the company I used is Southface Solar and Electrical.....owner is Corey Garrison and I dealt directly with him after a couple of hiccups, usually, you will have a salesperson involved. I highly recommend his company after everything I went through.
if you don't have the background and skills to design your own system and know exactly what you want to accomplish then you are open to the skill of the "salesperson". sort of like buying a timeshare or 80's solar hot water heater. be careful, do your homework, nothing is free and after September 1st your export tariff just went down 10% with APS. Every year for the next 10 years it will go down 10% until 10 years from now you won't get anything for your excess energy. That means without a serious big ass battery system you are wasting your money. The ultimate scam, the AZ utilities have shifted the financial burden of building new generation to the homeowner, they get your excess power basically free in 10 years and still sell it for their exorbitant rates. And the funny thing about electricity, it is lazy, it follows the path of least resistance so your excess generation is probably going to your neighbor's house and the utility is making a profit off of your investment. by just metering the loads...now that is the best business model in history and all it cost APS was getting the right corporation commissioner elected to the board that regulates them!
BTW I have been a PM and BSEE for over 30 years, I know what is required and can talk the talk, in Arizona if you can do what you envision, then list everyone you used here so others can do the same thing. I told a bunch of companies that this is a growth area for their business, even had one guy that wanted to go into business using a DIYer model. Usually, the response was "I have more work then I need and my money is in the equipment". I saved easily 50% on the equipment costs buying it myself. I also have an LLC so I was able to buy equipment by just registering my company for the wholesale pricing and of course eBay and craigslist. I have access to the Solaredge design system which was huge when negotiating with contractors as I already had the design laid out for my roof, most contractors rely on the fact that you don't know squat about your house, the building codes, design requirements, electrical requirements, your specific house loads, what you are trying to accomplish. if you are from AZ and you remember the 80's when every tom dick and harry was selling solar hot water heaters. most of the systems were designed overnight, fell apart almost as fast as the contractor left your property and the state of AZ almost went bankrupt on the tax rebates.....this is a similar situation but the city permit system is the firewall from letting that happen again so probably why its hard to pull the permit without being a legitimate licensed contractor.
hope this helps
the company I used is Southface Solar and Electrical.....owner is Corey Garrison and I dealt directly with him after a couple of hiccups, usually, you will have a salesperson involved. I highly recommend his company after everything I went through.
if you don't have the background and skills to design your own system and know exactly what you want to accomplish then you are open to the skill of the "salesperson". sort of like buying a timeshare or 80's solar hot water heater. be careful, do your homework, nothing is free and after September 1st your export tariff just went down 10% with APS. Every year for the next 10 years it will go down 10% until 10 years from now you won't get anything for your excess energy. That means without a serious big ass battery system you are wasting your money. The ultimate scam, the AZ utilities have shifted the financial burden of building new generation to the homeowner, they get your excess power basically free in 10 years and still sell it for their exorbitant rates. And the funny thing about electricity, it is lazy, it follows the path of least resistance so your excess generation is probably going to your neighbor's house and the utility is making a profit off of your investment. by just metering the loads...now that is the best business model in history and all it cost APS was getting the right corporation commissioner elected to the board that regulates them!
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