Just a word of warning to anyone considering rooftop solar ….
I has a system installed 10 years ago. I was very satisfied — consistent performance, no maintenance, no issues. It was a mediocre economic decision at best, but I was happy to install some renewable energy and had to money for the investment.
Until this year ...
The roof leaked. The roofer is convinced it was because the panel mounting system was installed over the top of the shingles and any sealant they used failed. The only remedy that they will guarantee is to reroof. That’s not great but OK, the roof is near its end of life anyway. I would have really liked another 5 years, though.
Roofers don’t handle solar panels. The company that installed it won’t return calls for maintenance -apparently they are too busy with new installs. Another company does solar maintenance, but their price to remove and reinstall panels is nearly ½ of the entire system price from 10 years ago. And their customer response time is very slow — it took weeks or more to get the information I needed. I’m still looking for other options.
So the upshot is — if installed with a new roof, mounting brackets can be properly installed by a roofer and properly sealed, before shingles are laid. That way the roofer can guarantee the entire job and provide a full warranty. Not all roofers offer this, but at least one in my area does. The the solar installer can come and install panels on the brackets. Again, it seems not all solar companies will do that.
Had I known all this 10 years ago, I would probable made a different decision — maybe reroof then, maybe wait on the panels till the roof was ready to be replaced, maybe not to use rooftop solar at all. As it is, my experience was that rooftop solar installed on an existing roof was a bad idea.
