Solar Panel Installation and Roofing Installation in Summit, NJ | A Slate Roof and 25 Panels

Summit, NJ · Client since February 2017

Ellen Sheng has been a Green Sun Energy Services client since February of 2017, when the roof and the solar array were bought on the same day. The roof was finished on 1 May 2017 and the panels went on five days later.

2,500 square feet, stripped to the deck

A single layer of old shingles came off down to the sheathing and left with the dumpster. Deck protection went over the exposed sheathing, then a GAF Timberline HDZ system carrying a 50-year warranty, aluminum drip edge along 221 feet of rakes and eaves, and a ridge vent along the peak.

The one decision that cannot be changed afterwards

The record notes that the household changed the shingle from Williamsburg Slate to Slate on 16 February, eight days after signing and well before anything was ordered. It is a small entry and it is worth pointing at, because of everything on a roofing contract the appearance is the only part that is purely a matter of preference — and the only part that becomes permanent the moment the material is delivered. Everything else can be argued about on the day. A change of mind eight days after signing is free; the same change of mind on the morning of the tear-off is not a change of mind at all.

25 panels and 7 kW

Twenty-five JinkoSolar 280 watt panels came to 7 kW on rail-free mounting, finished on 6 May 2017, running into a SolarEdge SE6000A inverter with an optimizer on every panel and a production meter built to the ANSI accuracy standard. The array sits on the right-hand slope at a 22-degree pitch facing south-southwest, modelled at about 90 percent of the reference case. JCP&L is the utility.

Five days between the two crews

Roof finished on the Monday, panels on the Saturday. That gap is only available when both jobs are sold as one — a single survey, one set of drawings, one inspection schedule, and a roofing crew that already knows where the array is going. An array is bolted down for twenty-five years and more, so shingles at the end of their life underneath one become a second job later. Five days of sequencing removed it, and these panels went onto a roof that was five days old.

Questions from Summit homeowners

RoofingWhat should be included in a Summit roofing contract?

A good contract should identify the contractor, registration information, scope, materials, quantities or allowances, permits, cleanup, payment schedule, change-order process, warranties, start/completion expectations, and exclusions. New Jersey home-improvement rules also impose specific contract requirements, so a vague one-page estimate is not ideal.

RoofingHow much should gutters slope?

Gutters need enough pitch toward the outlets to drain effectively without creating an obvious visual slope. The exact pitch is set by the installer based on gutter length, outlet location, the fascia and drainage requirements. A gutter that looks perfectly level can still carry intentional drainage pitch.

SolarWhat does a 460-watt panel mean?

It is rated to produce up to about 460 watts under standardised laboratory conditions. Twenty-five of them make 11.5 kW DC; twenty-six make 11.96 kW. The panel count and the wattage should multiply out to the DC system size stated in the proposal -- if they do not, something has been rounded that should not have been.