Paul from Hillsborough, NJ has been a Green Sun Energy Services client since May of 2024. Both jobs were booked in the same week and finished eight days apart that summer, which is the sequence that makes the pair worth doing together.
A 3,500 square foot roof
The roof came off and went back on at the end of July of 2024, 3,500 square feet in the GAF Timberline system, with 266 feet of rakes, eaves and valleys detailed as part of the work. Those edges are where a roof usually gives way first, because water tracks back under a shingle at a valley and wind lifts a rake in a nor’easter, and worth counting separately from the open field of the roof.
8.74 kW of solar
Nineteen REC panels went on the new shingles on the sixth of August, 8.74 kW in total on Snap-N-Rack mounting, with a first-year production estimate of 10,517 kWh. Nineteen is an odd-looking count and it is the roof that sets it: the array is laid out on the planes that face the sun and stops where the roof does, rather than being rounded to a tidy number.
Why the order mattered
An array is fixed to a roof for the life of that roof. Fitting one to shingles that are nearly worn out means taking the whole thing down and setting it back when the roof is finally replaced — panels off, mounts off, roof on, everything refitted. Replacing the roof eight days before the panels went up means the array will not have to be disturbed for as long as the new roof lasts.
Project Facts
- Location
- Hillsborough, NJ
- Services
- Roofing Installation, Solar Panel Installation
- Client since
- May 2024
Solar
- Panels
- REC Model # 460AA-PURE-RX-DC
- Panels
- 19
- System size
- 8.74 kW
- Inverter
- SolarEdge SE7600H-USNBBL14 HD Wave Energy Hub
- Mounting system
- Snap-N-Rack
- Estimated first-year production
- 10,517 kWh
- Share of the home's electricity
- 100%
- Electric utility
- PSE&G
Roof
- System
- GAF Timberline Lifetime Roofing System
- Area replaced
- 3,500 sq ft
- Warranty
- 50 years
Questions from Hillsborough homeowners
SolarAre panels designed for the wind near Hillsborough?
Yes. The array and its mounting system have to be designed to resist the applicable wind loads, and coastal and exposed locations can carry different wind-design conditions from sheltered inland ones. It is one of the reasons the mounting system and its engineering are chosen for the site rather than by habit.
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.
SolarWhat happens to production in winter?
Panels keep producing, but shorter days normally mean lower monthly output than spring and summer. Cold modules actually operate efficiently; what reduces winter production is day length, sun angle, cloud, snow cover and shading. A properly designed system models production across the whole year rather than a good month.