Solar Panel Installation, Standby Generator Installation and Standby Generator Service in Farmingdale, NJ by Green Sun Energy Services.
Lon in Farmingdale has been a Green Sun Energy Services client since July of 2012. The array came first and the standby generator followed the next summer.
37 panels in November 2012
Thirty-seven Canadian Solar 245-watt panels, 9.07 kW in total, on Zep Solar mounting with an Enphase M215 microinverter behind each one and a GE production meter. Estimated first-year production is 10,136 kWh and the utility is JCP&L. It was commissioned on 25 November 2012.
The panel rating is worth pausing on. Thirty-seven panels to reach nine kilowatts is what 2012 looked like; a 245-watt module was a perfectly ordinary product then. A modern panel does 435 watts, so the same nine kilowatts today would take twenty-one panels and rather less roof. That is not an argument against a 2012 array — it has been producing for fourteen seasons and the microinverters report on it panel by panel — but it does explain why older arrays cover so much more roof for the same output.
A 14 kW generator six months later
The standby machine is a Generac 14 kW, model 6052, delivering 13 kW on natural gas, which is what this house runs on, behind a service-rated transfer switch. It was commissioned on 4 June 2013 and was last serviced on 20 March 2026.
Solar first, then the other half
This is the order most households arrive in, and this account shows why the second decision follows the first so often.
Solar was the answer to a question about the electricity bill. It is a good answer, and it does nothing at all about outages — a standard grid-tied array shuts down the moment utility power fails, and it has to, because feeding power into lines that crews are working on would be dangerous. A house with 37 panels on the roof and no generator sits in the same dark as the house next door.
Five months after the array was commissioned, this household signed for the generator. Not because the solar disappointed them, but because it had answered the question it was bought to answer and left a different one standing. Two refrigerators’ worth of food is a good illustration of the second question: nothing about annual production keeps them cold on the third day of a November storm.
Project Facts
- Location
- Farmingdale, NJ
- Services
- Solar Panel Installation, Standby Generator Installation, Standby Generator Service
- Client since
- July 2012
Solar
- Panels
- Canadian Solar Model # CS6P-245MX-ALL-BLK
- Panels
- 37
- System size
- 9.07 kW
- Inverter
- EnPhase M215-60-2LL-S22/S23 Micro-Single
- Mounting system
- Zep Solar
- Estimated first-year production
- 10,136 kWh
- Electric utility
- JCP&L
Standby generator
- Manufacturer
- Generac Model # 6052
- Rated output
- 14 kW LP / 13 kW NG
- Fuel
- Natural Gas
- Home sized for
- 2,171 sq ft
- Transfer switch
- 0 amp
- Load management
- Managed Whole House
"It can be confusing listening to all the companies coming after you to go solar. We chose Green Sun because their installations are the best and because they do not promise anything they cannot deliver. It is easy for people to tell you how much you will save but Green Sun is honest about everything. They have been taking great care of our panels and are very responsive. We are actually making out better than we thought we would. Go Green Sun!!!" - Lon & Judy from Farmingdale, NJ. Solar Review Source: Facebook
Green Sun Energy Services replied
Thank you, Lon. Not promising what cannot be delivered is the only sustainable way to sell solar, because the numbers arrive on a bill whether or not anybody was honest about them. Your array has been producing in Farmingdale since 2012, with a generator following in 2013. Two systems and one long relationship.
Questions from Farmingdale homeowners
Standby generatorWhy do outages last longer on some Farmingdale streets than others?
Mature tree cover over overhead lines is the usual reason. Limbs coming down in wind, snow or ice take the lines with them, so heavily treed streets tend to see both more frequent outages and longer restoration times than open ones. It is one of the honest arguments for standby power rather than a portable generator.
SolarDoes solar work well in Farmingdale?
Yes. New Jersey receives more than enough annual sunlight for residential photovoltaic systems to produce substantial electricity. Panels run on light rather than heat, so they keep producing through the winter. What varies from house to house is roof orientation, pitch, shading, system size, equipment and local weather.
Standby generatorWhat does remote monitoring actually tell you?
Depending on the generator and the connectivity, remote monitoring can report status, maintenance notifications, alarms, exercise information and operating history. Its real value is that a fault announces itself between service visits, instead of being discovered during the outage it was bought for.