Jhon Espin has been a Green Sun Energy Services client since October of 2023, when the roof and the solar array were bought on the same day. The roof was finished on 29 December 2023 and the array ten days later.
Two layers off, 3,000 square feet on
This roof had been covered over once before, so two layers of old shingle came off down to the sheathing rather than one — twice the tear-off, twice the disposal, and the only way anyone sees the deck an array is about to be fastened to. Deck protection went over the exposed sheathing, then a GAF Timberline HDZ system in Weathered Wood carrying a 50-year warranty, aluminum drip edge along 355 feet of rakes, eaves and valleys, and a ridge vent along the peak.
22 panels and 8.91 kW
Twenty-two Qcells 405 watt panels came to 8.91 kW on Snap-N-Rack mounting, finished on 8 January 2024, running into a SolarEdge SE7600H Energy Hub inverter with an optimizer on every panel. PSE&G is the utility and the first year was designed for about 11,773 kWh — a little over 1,300 kWh for every kilowatt installed, which is what a well-oriented and largely unshaded roof returns here.
A car charger wired to the inverter, not the panel
An EV charger went in with the array. It is its own unit, but it connects to the inverter rather than to the electrical service panel, which changes what it can do: through the day the car charges directly from what the roof is producing, and after dark it draws from the grid. A charger fed from the service panel has no idea whether the sun is up — it is simply another load on the house. This one sits on the solar side of the system, so the array’s daytime output has somewhere useful to go instead of being exported.
An Energy Hub inverter, and what it leaves open
The inverter is the Energy Hub version rather than the plain one. Nothing about the system today depends on that. What it means is that if this household ever adds a battery, the inverter it already owns is the one that runs it, rather than being the first thing that has to come out. It is a decision made once, at installation, and it cannot be made retrospectively.
Why the roof went first
An array is bolted to a roof for twenty-five years and more, so shingles at the end of their life underneath one are a second job with a date already on them — panels off, roof on, panels back. On a roof already carrying two layers, that job would have arrived sooner rather than later. Ten days of sequencing removed it.
Project Facts
- Location
- Piscataway, NJ
- Services
- Roofing Installation, Solar Panel Installation
- Client since
- October 2023
Solar
- Panels
- Qcells Model # Q.PEAK DUO BLK ML G10+ 405
- Panels
- 22
- System size
- 8.91 kW
- Inverter
- SolarEdge SE7600H-USNBBL14 HD Wave Energy Hub
- Mounting system
- Snap-N-Rack
- Estimated first-year production
- 11,773 kWh
- Share of the home's electricity
- 80%
- Electric utility
- PSE&G
Roof
- System
- GAF Timberline Lifetime Roofing System
- Area replaced
- 3,000 sq ft
- Warranty
- 50 years
Questions from Piscataway homeowners
RoofingWill gutter guards stop ice dams on a Piscataway home?
No. Ice dams come from snow melting on the warmer parts of a roof and refreezing at the colder edge, which is driven by attic heat loss, insulation, air leakage, ventilation and the weather. Keeping the gutters clear is worth doing, but it is not a substitute for the attic and roof design that causes the problem.
Solar and RoofingWhat happens when the roof under an existing solar array needs replacing?
The array is professionally removed before the roofing work and reinstalled once the new roof is complete — commonly called a remove and replace. New roof-interface and mounting components are usually advisable rather than reusing ageing penetrations and attachment hardware, though the mounting-system manufacturer's instructions decide what may be reused.
RoofingCan a roof warranty transfer to a new owner?
Certain warranties can, subject to that warranty's own conditions and a required notification procedure with its own time limit. It is worth knowing the process before the house goes on the market rather than during the sale, and a transferable warranty is a genuine selling point.