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I will mention a company or two to make things simple, but I am not getting any kickbacks. Panels are cheaper now, I guess, so you might be able to do even better. The whole process would have been a lot easier if I didn't have to go through all the alternatives, which I will not even mention. There may be other and better ways to do it on this forum, but this seems a straighforward option.
PG&E and other utilities are trying to change the rules to make solar far more expensive, so you may want to consider moving on it now. I live in California. I did the install in 2018.
First, I had to put in a new roof anyway, so I got a standing seam metal roof. That makes it easy to attach the panels, using clamps.
I researched my electric bills and it was so variable I took a guess and based things mostly on bang-for-buck. Currently in California it does not pay (much) to get more panels than you need (which is basically insane, because I could easily put in twelve more panels, but that's politics for ya...).
I used a solar installer that gave me a solar irradiance esttimate for various locations. I also paid that installer to do the permit application and NEM processing, If you are brave you could do this all yourself, and there is talk of doing NEM processing from your computer soon.
I shopped around and landed on Solaris. I bought 12 REC 290 panels (but there are better panels now), 12 Enphase IQ7 microinverters (but get the IQ8's or newer if possible), one string (bus) for the inverters, racking, warning stickers for the conduit and panels, and bits and pieces. Panels were shipped via will-call, so I picked them up at the local dock with my trailer (you can often pay extra to have a truck come to your house, but that's way more trouble than it's worth for me)
I am fine with working on roofs, so I put it all in myself. It required only one roof penetration for the conduit. Grounding was a little unusual but I just read the directions, I just plugged the black lead into a breaker and the white lead to the neutral bar, flipped the breaker and it works great. The inspector was fine with it all.
The IQ7 microinverters (which invert the DC voltage from the solar panel to AC voltage for the grid) mount underneath each panel. When the inverters sense the grid voltage, they use the panels to increase the voltage in the grid (slightly).
PG&E had to put in a SmartMeter.
I did not get the Envoy monitoring system because the inverters run fine without it, I monitor the system just by waiting for a sunny day, turning off all the power draws in the house, and looking at the SmartMeter. The best I have gotten is about -3.2kW, which is pretty good I hear. I think the inverters blink green with the Envoy but blink yellow when working without it.
Subsequently I put in a propane generator (a Champion for about $2,500). It's apparently possible to have the Envoy etc. control everything (panels, generator, even Enphase batteries if you have them) but I prefer to make the switch manually. We had a two power outages this week and I didn't even bother.
I chose to do without batteries because they are really spendy, and would not run the house very long. We have a Leaf so the generator can charge the Leaf when needed.
I have had zero problems with the system and our bill is close to free. If you know basic electrical, there are no serious safety issues that I can think of. Just be willing to read the directions, don't fall off the roof, and the rest is mostly plug-n-play.
PG&E and other utilities are trying to change the rules to make solar far more expensive, so you may want to consider moving on it now. I live in California. I did the install in 2018.
First, I had to put in a new roof anyway, so I got a standing seam metal roof. That makes it easy to attach the panels, using clamps.
I researched my electric bills and it was so variable I took a guess and based things mostly on bang-for-buck. Currently in California it does not pay (much) to get more panels than you need (which is basically insane, because I could easily put in twelve more panels, but that's politics for ya...).
I used a solar installer that gave me a solar irradiance esttimate for various locations. I also paid that installer to do the permit application and NEM processing, If you are brave you could do this all yourself, and there is talk of doing NEM processing from your computer soon.
I shopped around and landed on Solaris. I bought 12 REC 290 panels (but there are better panels now), 12 Enphase IQ7 microinverters (but get the IQ8's or newer if possible), one string (bus) for the inverters, racking, warning stickers for the conduit and panels, and bits and pieces. Panels were shipped via will-call, so I picked them up at the local dock with my trailer (you can often pay extra to have a truck come to your house, but that's way more trouble than it's worth for me)
I am fine with working on roofs, so I put it all in myself. It required only one roof penetration for the conduit. Grounding was a little unusual but I just read the directions, I just plugged the black lead into a breaker and the white lead to the neutral bar, flipped the breaker and it works great. The inspector was fine with it all.
The IQ7 microinverters (which invert the DC voltage from the solar panel to AC voltage for the grid) mount underneath each panel. When the inverters sense the grid voltage, they use the panels to increase the voltage in the grid (slightly).
PG&E had to put in a SmartMeter.
I did not get the Envoy monitoring system because the inverters run fine without it, I monitor the system just by waiting for a sunny day, turning off all the power draws in the house, and looking at the SmartMeter. The best I have gotten is about -3.2kW, which is pretty good I hear. I think the inverters blink green with the Envoy but blink yellow when working without it.
Subsequently I put in a propane generator (a Champion for about $2,500). It's apparently possible to have the Envoy etc. control everything (panels, generator, even Enphase batteries if you have them) but I prefer to make the switch manually. We had a two power outages this week and I didn't even bother.
I chose to do without batteries because they are really spendy, and would not run the house very long. We have a Leaf so the generator can charge the Leaf when needed.
I have had zero problems with the system and our bill is close to free. If you know basic electrical, there are no serious safety issues that I can think of. Just be willing to read the directions, don't fall off the roof, and the rest is mostly plug-n-play.
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