Stefan from Bridgewater, NJ has been a Green Sun Energy Services client since May of 2023, and had the charger and the array installed a month apart – the charger first, which is the order that makes the arithmetic work.
A ChargePoint, and a long wire run
29 August 2023. The household bought the charger and we installed it in the garage on a dedicated 60-amp circuit at 11.5 kW, adding roughly 36 miles of range an hour. The work here was the wiring rather than the box. The run from the panel out to the garage measured well beyond ten feet, which is the distance most charger quotes quietly assume, and a long run means heavier conductors to keep the voltage drop inside limits. It is the most common single reason two quotes for what looks like the same charger come back at different numbers.
23 panels and 9.66 kW
A month later, on 29 September: 23 REC 420-watt modules on a SolarEdge HD Wave inverter with an optimizer on every panel, rail-free, split 5.46 and 4.20 kW across two roof faces and estimated at 10,650 kilowatt hours in the first year. A hundred and seventy-six feet of critter guard went around the perimeter, and JCP&L interconnected the system in October.
Why the charger went first
A car is the largest single addition most households ever make to their electricity consumption. A daily commute can add as much again as everything else in the house put together, and it arrives all at once on the day the car does. Size an array before that happens and you have sized it against a bill that is about to change. Doing it in this order, a month apart, meant the 9.66 kW array was designed for a household that already had the charger in it rather than one that was about to – which is the difference between covering the new consumption and covering the old.
Project Facts
- Location
- Bridgewater, NJ
- Services
- EV Charger Installation, Solar Critter Guard, Solar Panel Installation
- Client since
- May 2023
Solar
- Panels
- REC Model # 420AA-PURE-R
- Panels
- 23
- System size
- 9.66 kW
- Inverter
- SolarEdge SE10000H-US000NNC2 HD Wave
- Mounting system
- Snap-N-Rack
- Estimated first-year production
- 10,650 kWh
- Share of the home's electricity
- 100%
- Electric utility
- JCP&L
- Critter guard fitted
- 176 ft
EV charger
- Charger
- Customer Supplied ChargePoint Model # CPH50-NEMA6-50-L23
- Charging port
- CCS (J1772)
- Circuit breaker
- 60 amp
- Estimated range added per hour
- Estimated Range Per Hour: 36 mi / 58 km
Questions from Bridgewater homeowners
EV chargingCan I install an EV charger myself in Bridgewater, NJ?
Homeowners may have limited rights to perform electrical work on property they own, but permitting, code compliance, inspection, and safety requirements still apply. Because EV charging is a continuous high-load application, professional installation by a qualified electrical contractor is strongly recommended.
SolarHow does an optimizer system differ from microinverters?
An optimizer system puts DC power optimizers at the modules and a single central inverter elsewhere; a microinverter system puts a small inverter at each module. Both can provide module-level monitoring and rapid shutdown when properly designed -- they are different architectures rather than one being the upgrade of the other.
SolarWho receives the certificates on a purchased system?
A homeowner who owns a qualifying registered system can generally own the associated certificate rights, unless those rights have been assigned or sold under another agreement. The purchase contract and the programme registration documents should make that unambiguous.