Hello everyone! My first post on the forums I have always been interested in installing solar and in renewable energy in general. I am installing solar on my parent's house (currently i am an electrical engineering student) Anyways I thought I would tell a bit about our experience so far and ask any questions I may have for those who have been there done that. First off I will say the process has been lengthy and stressful to say the least. I live in Southern California Palmdale to be more specific. Our utility provider is Southern California Edison their process for grid interconnection is now relatively easy and straight forward they really don't require anything besides you filling out an agreement form and uploading documents and details about your system and provide a modern online way of completing the process. They do require the system to be permitted and inspected by the local AHJ or authority having jurisdiction, for us that is the City of Palmdale building and safety. This is where the headache begins. Its a shame how difficult and deterring Palmdale makes this process, they have not adopted any expedited permit process nor are they willing to work with owner builder installers. They insisted that homeowners can build any project on their own house and pull their own permits except solar. Of course they cant point me to anything that says so. On top of that their staff are very rude and belittling trying to make me feel as if I am not qualified or capable of performing the job. They thought they were going to turn me around and that I would never be back (little do they know I have over $4000 in solar equipment taking up my paring space in the garage). Needless to say I went back with all the documents they required except structural calculations which have to account for 110mph wind and a 20psf snow load. They insisted we needed an engineer with a wet stamp to approve these calculations which I know is a lie based on this topic. https://www.solarpaneltalk.com/forum...stamp-required Being in electrical these calculations and the drawings they were looking for were difficult for me to do so I hired an engineer James Adams who has a website called solar roof check which specifically does all these calculations and James will look over the data and provide a detailed report with his stamp for $200 which to me was a deal so I don't have to deal with generating these calculations myself (They look worse than my college physics courses). After proving all that and going back a third time they realized I wasn't going to give up and began to become irritated and frustrated with me (the supervisor inspector Chuck Jolin) so he sent out another inspector to deal with me who was very nice and took all my paperwork and said he will do a plan check and that we could get the permit as long as the plan check is ok. I paid the ridiculous price of $400 for the permit and that's where we are now. They also wont let us pull the permit ourselves insisting that a licensed contractor or electrician has to pull the permit which is also bogus. We have a family friend electrician who will go in to pull the permit for us though so its not a big deal. Has anyone else dealt with such a painful process? Also I am installing these panels on an exterior patio structure with asphalt shingles on the roof and want to know if flashings are required on the roof since its not really part of the house and when it rains water pools up below the patio anyways so i dont see the point (but the inspectors may disagree). I can't find anything that states of flashings are required for this circumstance or not. Thank you all for your suggestions and help,
Jacob
Jacob
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