Solar, Generator and Roofing in Princeton Junction, NJ | Panels Off and Back On in 2023

Princeton Junction, NJ · Client since November 2017

Gerald from Princeton Junction, NJ has been a Green Sun Energy Services client since November of 2017, and the house has taken three trades since – including, in 2023, the one nobody plans for.

31 panels and 8.99 kW

Live on 6 February 2018: 31 SolarWorld 290-watt modules on Enphase IQ6 microinverters, rail-free mounting, with the monitoring gateway indoors beside the service panel in the basement rather than out in the weather. The roof it went onto was judged sufficient at the time.

An 18 kW Generac on a managed whole-house switch

May of 2022. The calculation asked for a minimum of 16 kW under NEC Article 220 Part IV and a Generac rated 17 kW on natural gas went in – 18 kW on propane – behind a 200-amp managed whole-house transfer switch with a smart management module and whole-house surge protection. The house is 2,052 square feet with two refrigerators, a dishwasher, a washer and an electric dryer, and the electric dryer is what pushes the number up: electric drying is one of the few loads in an ordinary house that can rival everything else running at once. The machine has been on our Diamond plan since it was commissioned – annual maintenance, extended parts-and-labor cover and remote monitoring that Green Sun runs directly.

A new roof after storm damage

March of 2023. This was not a roof that had reached the end of its life on its own – it was storm damage, which is the version nobody schedules. Two layers came off down to the sheathing (two, not one, which is its own piece of history) and 2,800 square feet of GAF Timberline HDZ in charcoal went on, warranted fifty years, with continuous soffit vents at the intake.

The array off, and back on nine days later

There is no way to reroof a house underneath a live array, so all 31 panels came down before the tear-off and went back up on 10 March, nine days after the roofers finished. These are the same panels, the same Enphase IQ6 microinverters and the same rail-free mounting returning to the same roof – a genuine lift and reset rather than a replacement. Nine days is what that costs in time when the two jobs are run by one company that already knows how the array is fixed down.

Why one contractor mattered here

A worn-out roof gives you years of warning. A storm gives you none, and it arrives at a house with an array bolted to the thing that was damaged. That is the moment when having the roof and the panels answered by one company stops being a convenience and starts being the whole point: one survey, one schedule, one crew that already knew how the array was fixed down and what was underneath it. Nine days from the roof being finished to the panels being back on and producing. Split between a roofer and a solar company who have never spoken, the same job becomes two site visits, two liability boundaries and a house that stays open to the weather while everybody agrees whose turn it is.

Green Sun Energy Services sent a technician out to fix my generator. The technician’s name was John. He was very polite and professional. He was very efficient and took the time to explain to me the cause of the problem and the steps he took to resolve it. I am very happy with Green Sun Energy’s response to my generator problems and I have full confidence in their wonderful staff and technicians.