Daniel from Helmetta, NJ has been a Green Sun Energy Services client since September of 2021. The roof and the array were bought together, in one conversation, and went on five days apart the following January.
4,100 square feet of new roof
The old covering came off in a single layer on 6 January 2022 – stripped back to the deck rather than shingled over – and went back on as a GAF Timberline Lifetime system. There are 454 linear feet of rakes, eaves and valleys on this house, which is a great deal of edge for the size, and edges are where water finds its way in.
12 kW and 32 LG panels
The array followed on 11 January: thirty-two LG 375-watt panels, 12 kW in total, estimated at 16,429 kWh in the first year, on a Snap-N-Rack mounting system.
Why the roof went first
An array has a working life measured in decades and the roof underneath it does not. Putting solar on a covering near the end of its life means taking the array down and putting it back up again to replace the shingles – work that buys nothing. Doing the roof first, in the same week, means the panels will very likely never have to move. It is the single most useful thing to get right about a solar installation, and it is only available before the panels go on.
Project Facts
- Location
- Helmetta, NJ
- Services
- Roofing Installation, Solar Panel Installation
- Client since
- September 2021
Solar
- Panels
- LG Model # LG375N1C-A6
- Panels
- 32
- System size
- 12.00 kW
- Inverter
- SolarEdge SE10000H-US000NNC2
- Mounting system
- Snap-N-Rack
- Estimated first-year production
- 16,429 kWh
- Share of the home's electricity
- 87%
- Electric utility
- JCP&L
Roof
- System
- GAF Timberline Lifetime Roofing System
- Area replaced
- 4,100 sq ft
- Warranty
- 50 years
Questions from Helmetta homeowners
SolarWhich utility handles interconnection in Helmetta?
The electric distribution company that serves the property. In New Jersey that is Jersey Central Power & Light, PSE&G, Atlantic City Electric or Rockland Electric depending on the address, and municipal electric systems can have their own requirements.
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.
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.