Solar installer vs roofers
hi GBA gurus,
I’m currently navigating the solar install for my new construction home in zone 5b (assuming it will be built some day given everything going on…). Has anyone had experience hiring their roofer/electrician to install a DIY system for them instead of going through official installers? Surprisingly roofers don’t seem to have experience with them here, but for new construction this seems completely natural, as most of the installation effort appears to be in installing and flashing the rails. It would seem to be far more efficient to have the roofers do that in situ with the roofing installation rather than after the fact. Has anyone gone this route? Pitfalls?
I’ve calculated I want about a 5 kw system, which is only 12-16 panels. I have been looking at two sources for this: local/national installers and DIY online sellers like acwholesale. acwholesale prices a 4.8kw system out at 8k which includes everything but installation and permits. The quotes I’ve been getting from the insallers for the same system are close to 26k installed. Rolling that 26k cost (a bit under 20k with incentives) into my loan would mean doubling my electric bill. The justification for this I’ve been given is that it locks in your electric rate which is always increasing. But energy is fairly cheap and most of the cost increase appears to simply be inflation. Overall then I think going with these installers, even with heavy incentives, makes little financial sense if weighed against investing that money or buying into carbon offsets to solarize the grid. Is this conclusion incorrect?
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Replies
For new construction and solar I would look at getting a standing seam metal roof installed.
You can get clips that mount right on the seams (ie S-5) making the solar install much simpler.
If you look at the cost of shingles + mounts + racking, VS standing seam+clips, the cost delta is very small and you end up with a much longer life roof.
Most jurisdiction have a lot of hoops you have to jump through to install the solar. The big bucks you pay the installer is partly to navigate this.
DIY micro inverter setup is pretty straight forward install but you still have to go through all the hoops to get it connected to the grid.
metal roof was a lot more for the entire roof, however I do have a shed roof covering a walkway facing south that has metal. I was hesitant to put solar there because then I would be looking right down on it, but if it saves a few thousand bucks...
as for the permits, is it a fools errand for a DIYer to tackle? My time has value, but nearly 20k buys a lot of my time...
I've done the full DIY with permits. Not a fools errand but not easy either.
A lot of this is dependent on local rules though.
There are now all back panels, these tend to blend a lot better. If you have a south facing metal roof, I would definitely use that.
As for working on a steep roof, I generally tend to agree with you, best to outsource. What I found works if you do need to get up there is to set up scaffolding. Just the presence of a platform at the eaves takes the edge off and makes it much more pleasant to work.
For shingled roof, about the only thing I would get the roofers to install is the brackets.
I think you can get ones that are deck mounted and can go under the shingles. If these are installed at the same time as your shingles, it would save any roof penetrations. You would have to do the measurements and layout up front so that the brackets do end up in the right spot.
I have found trades people typically like to stick with what they know.
If you are a DIY type of person, grid tied solar is easy. Like said above, standing seam is by far the fastest and easiest, but flashing into comp shingles is not hard either.
I am doing a lot of the house build myself, but I tend to draw the line at getting up on the roof, not only because of the 12/12 pitch but also because I would need help putting up the panels. I guess I'll see what I can get away with. My hope is that the roofers would be up for it for a few thousand extra bucks, but I guess I'll just have to see. I would think it would be a great selling point for them though, why wouldn't they want to eat into the solar installation market?
They definitely will want to eat into that solar installation market, if the roofing market dries up.
Any room for a ground mount? Look at the panels you plan on purchasing first to see what type of framing they have. Some manufacturers use frames that only fit a particular type of clip so you may be limited on which type of racking system you can use and therefore pre-installing mounts may not work out so well if the panels you chose are not the ones you purchase.
Unfortunately no, land is expensive.