Carl in Parlin has been a Green Sun Energy Services client since October of 2019. Neither the generator nor the solar array on this property was installed by us, and both are now looked after by us, which is the whole point of this page.
200 feet of guard around the array
In January 2024 we fitted 200 feet of black PVC-coated critter guard around the existing array, on six-inch posts.
The problem it solves is squirrels, and it is worse than most homeowners expect. The gap between a roof-mounted panel and the shingles beneath it is a dry, sheltered, predator-free cavity that happens to be exactly the right height for a nesting squirrel. Once they are established they chew — on the DC wiring between panels, on the optimizer or microinverter leads, and on the roof itself. Damage is usually discovered as a production drop rather than as an animal, which means it has been going on for a while by the time anyone looks.
Guard is a mesh skirt clipped around the perimeter of the array so nothing can get underneath it. It has to follow the array’s actual outline rather than a rectangle drawn around it, which is why the figure here is 200 feet of edge on an array that would fit in a fraction of that as a footprint.
An 8 kW machine on a Silver plan
The standby generator is a Generac 8 kW from the 5000 series, model 5870, installed by another company. Its servicing came to us in October 2019 on a PowerBase Silver plan, and it was last serviced on 20 October 2025.
Eight kilowatts is a small machine by the standards of most pages on this site, and there is nothing wrong with that. A generator sized to essential circuits keeps the heating running, the refrigerator cold and the sump pump working, which is the part of an outage that actually causes damage.
Neither of these was ours to begin with
There is a gap in this trade that nobody advertises. Solar companies sell arrays and move on; generator dealers sell machines and move on; and the household is left with two pieces of equipment on a twenty-year horizon and nobody with a reason to look at either of them again.
Critter guard on somebody else’s array and a service plan on somebody else’s generator are the same job, really. The equipment does not care who sold it. It only cares whether anyone is still paying attention to it.
Project Facts
- Location
- Parlin, NJ
- Services
- Solar Critter Guard, Standby Generator Service
- Client since
- October 2019
- Manufacturer
- Generac Model # 5870
- Rated output
- 8 kW LP / 7 kW NG
- Fuel
- Natural Gas
- Transfer switch
- 35 amp
- Load management
- Managed Whole House
Questions from Parlin homeowners
SolarCan New Jersey change its net-metering rules?
Yes. Energy statutes, Board of Public Utilities regulations and utility tariffs can all change. A proposal should describe the rules as they currently stand rather than guarantee that they will hold for decades.
Standby generatorCan a generator be installed in a flood zone in Parlin?
Yes, but the generator and its electrical equipment may need to be elevated or otherwise protected. The installation is evaluated against the property's FEMA flood zone, its Base Flood Elevation and Design Flood Elevation, the municipal flood ordinance, any applicable freeboard, and NJDEP requirements where they apply. It is a property-by-property assessment rather than a rule of thumb.
Standby generatorDoes a permanently installed generator need a disconnect?
Yes. Permanently installed generators fall under the disconnecting-means requirements of the National Electrical Code's generator article, and the equipment and electrical design have to satisfy those requirements alongside the machine's own listing and instructions.