Happy May Day to all!
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Hubby and I retired last year and moved from Pennsylvania to California. At our house in Pennsylvania, we had an array of photovoltaic panels put on the roof, and then had it expanded when we bought a Tesla, so that we could charge the car on sunlight. On moving to California, where it’s much sunnier than Erie County, PA, we of course wanted to install a solar array at our new house as well. Indeed, we have eliminated all but one gas appliance (range), and the planned solar array would have the power to run the house and charge two electric cars, making the household carbon-free (after we change out the gas range). (We still have one gas-powered car, and will continue to use it for some years until we can afford to buy a second electric car—but NOT another Tesla. I’ve had it with Elon Musk.) We budgeted for the cost of the new array, and hubby did the research into who to contract with for design and installation not long after we arrived.
In Erie County, there is only one business that installs solar arrays: Solar Revolution. In contrast, California is overflowing with companies that install solar arrays, so trying to winnow out the less reputable companies is a pretty important task. Hubby relied on Yelp reviews and a certain amount of word-of-mouth in narrowing down the field to three companies. Two of them are local, and one operates in several states. After hearing the pitches from the three salesmen, and doing some price negotiation, we chose the multi-state company. We signed a contract toward the end of September 2021. The contract stated that the array would likely be completed on or around December 1, 2021.
The salesman passed us off to a “concierge,” whose role was to guide us through each step in the process: design, permitting, construction, and bringing the system on-line. It all started smoothly enough. Because we wanted a ground-mounted array, the design team requested a map of the property showing the locations of utility and septic lines, and the design was ready by early November. Next came permitting. Here things started to fall apart. We were warned that permitting was often a source of delay because of heavy bureaucracy, but that’s generally not the case in San Diego County. (I have heard that permitting in the City of San Diego is not so smooth.) Weeks passed, but we heard nothing from the solar company. We tried e-mailing our concierge, but only got the default out-of-office message. We tried calling the company’s main contact number, but only ever spoke to a message machine, and no one ever called back. Eventually, when attempting to e-mail the concierge, the response was that the address no longer existed. This behavior persisted through November and December of 2021, and then through January and February of this year. Had the company just gone belly up? I was thinking we should kiss our deposit goodbye and seek out another company, but hubby persisted.
Finally, on March 1, hubby called the company and actually spoke to a human being. Said human told us that our concierge had been fired, and that our contract had somehow been mislaid. We were assigned a new concierge, and the permitting step was resumed. The permit was issued on March 3—no delay there. We were told at that time that our solar array would be completed is a week once the subcontractors showed up to do the work. We took delivery on the solar panels around this time as well. This is where part 2 of the story begins, involving the subcontractor with the task of installing the system.
A work crew showed up the following week to start the task of digging holes for the array supports (which required that the footings be secured in concrete) and digging the trench for the conduit running from the array to the house. We were told this would take a day. It ended up taking this crew about two weeks of intermittent work (they didn’t show up every day). Then, before any further construction took place, the County had to inspect it. The trench and holes flunked inspection because they were not deep enough. That was the last we saw of that particular work crew.
A week or so passed and nothing happened. Hubby made another call asking when work would resume on our system. Eventually, a new work crew came to correct the errors of the previous one. This took a couple of days, but this time, we passed County inspection. The next week a third crew arrived and constructed the conduit to take the electrical line from the point it reaches the house to the electric meter. They almost but not quite completed this task.
By now, we’re in early April. A new crew showed up to pour the concrete for the array support posts. One of the holes had to be relocated because the one that existed was a full foot out of line with the others. (How did this get past the inspector?) Once the posts were in, and the concrete had taken a couple of days to solidify, we were ready for construction. A crew arrived to put up the frame on which the panels were to be attached, but they couldn’t actually attach them because the fasteners they brought were the wrong size. A week passed. Hubby called again. A crew arrived and attached all but three of the panels (they ran out of fasteners—must be the fault of those math textbooks with too much CRT). More days passed. Hubby called again. They returned and completed the construction of the array, and worked to draw the electrical line through the conduit—but they got called away in the afternoon to correct an error committed by another crew on another job. (The crew left a customer with no electricity in their house.) Wires (not hot) were left lying willy-nilly on our patio. More days passed. Hubby called again. (He’s now on a first-name basis with the head of the subcontractor’s work crews.) Last Friday, April 29, the crew returned and completed the connection of the array to the electrical meter, and, finally, it is generating electricity! ...Except that one of the micro inverters isn’t working (and they didn’t have an extra one with them), and we don’t yet have the wifi technology to monitor the system’s output. Also, the crew drew blank stares when we asked about their burying the trench for the conduit. “We didn’t bring shovels.”
So after all that, we’re still not quite finished. Five months have passed from the original estimated date that the array would go on line. This has been an extremely frustrating experience (which is not quite over). I am hoping the very last of the work will be finished in the coming week, and we can all get back to our lives.
Back in Pennsylvania, it took about three days for Solar Revolution to install the panels and bring them on-line, and that involved changing out our breaker box and the main line to the house from the electric company. True, that install wasn’t ground-mounted, and so there was no need to build a structure to support the array, but if it had, I can’t imagine it would have taken more than a week for the entire job.
I’m just hoping that our new array will be as trouble-free as our previous one, apart from the the frustrating process of its implementation. Also, knowing that our array went on line on Friday, maybe we can take credit for this?:
You’re welcome.
Sorry for the length of tonight’s post. Comments are below the fold.
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From belinda ridgewood:
In Hunter's Ukraine update this afternoon, BOHICA noted the wounding of a top Russian general by Ukraine forces, and jqjacobs wondered if there's "a special medal for getting your ass blown off?" In response, Charles Jay had a great recycling-based idea.
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