Anthony Vazzana has been a Green Sun Energy Services client since April of 2019, when the roof and the solar array were bought on the same day. The roof was finished on 25 May 2019 and the array a week later.
5,300 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 374 feet of rakes, eaves and valleys, and a ridge vent along the peak. Fifty-three hundred square feet is a large roof, and it came off and went back on in the six weeks between signing and finishing.
40 panels and 13 kW
Forty Hanwha Q.PEAK DUO panels at 325 watts each came to 13 kW on Ecolibrium Solar mounting, finished on 1 June 2019, running into a SolarEdge SE10000H inverter with an optimizer on every panel. JCP&L is the utility and the first year was designed for about 16,547 kWh, close to 1,270 kWh for every kilowatt installed.
What a large roof actually buys an array
Forty panels on 5,300 square feet is not dense coverage — there is roof left over, and that is the advantage rather than waste. On a small roof an array goes wherever it fits, and some of it inevitably ends up on a face that is second-best. On a roof this size the panels can be placed only where the design wants them: the faces with the right aspect and the fewest obstructions, with the awkward slopes simply left empty. The production figure reflects it. Room to choose is worth more than room to fill.
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 become a second job with a date already on them — panels off, roof on, panels back. Forty panels makes that a serious piece of scheduling. Seven days of sequencing meant it never has to be scheduled, and the array went down onto a deck that had been stripped, seen and covered properly.
Project Facts
- Location
- Freehold, NJ
- Services
- Roofing Installation, Solar Panel Installation
- Client since
- April 2019
Solar
- Panels
- Hanwha Model # Q.PEAK DUO-G5.325
- Panels
- 40
- System size
- 13.00 kW
- Inverter
- SolarEdge SE10000H-US000NNC2
- Mounting system
- Ecolibrium Solar
- Estimated first-year production
- 16,547 kWh
- Share of the home's electricity
- 92%
- Electric utility
- JCP&L
Roof
- System
- GAF Timberline Lifetime Roofing System
- Area replaced
- 5,300 sq ft
- Warranty
- 50 years
Questions from Freehold homeowners
SolarWhat should a Freehold homeowner look for in a solar company?
One that can design, permit, interconnect, install, commission, monitor and service the system, and explain the structure accurately. That means twelve months of real usage, a realistic production model, correct kW and kWh arithmetic, orientation and shading, structural capacity, the rooftop code requirements, the electrical articles for photovoltaic systems and grid interconnection, rapid shutdown, manufacturer installation instructions, utility interconnection and net metering, incentive registration, roof age and condition, penetration and waterproofing detail, the panel, inverter, mounting and workmanship warranties, monitoring, and service after the installation. The question worth asking is not who quoted least, but which company has designed the best long-term system for the house and will still be able to support it years from now.
RoofingCan new gutters be color matched to my house?
Aluminum gutter systems are available in multiple factory-finished colors, so homeowners can coordinate them with fascia, trim, siding or roof color. Exact color availability depends on the supplied product line.
SolarDoes the electric meter get changed?
The utility has to provide metering capable of properly measuring the electricity delivered to and received from a net-metered customer. Which meter that is, and how it gets swapped, varies by utility.