Softwash Service, Solar Panel Installation and Standby Generator Installation in Middletown, NJ by Green Sun Energy Services.
Subhek from Middletown, NJ has been a Green Sun Energy Services client since November of 2018, and the house is large in every direction that matters here: 5,500 square feet, a 400-amp service, and an exterior that takes nearly twelve thousand square feet of washing.
64 panels and 20.48 kW
Live by 28 January 2019: 64 LG modules across two SolarEdge inverters, 20.48 kW rated and estimated at 27,540 kilowatt hours in the first year. Two inverters rather than one is what an array of this size asks for – it keeps each within its sensible working range, and it means a fault takes out half the production rather than all of it. The roof needed nothing whatever.
A 22 kW Generac on twin 200-amp switches
June of 2020, and this is the interesting installation. The whole-house calculation under NEC Article 220 Part IV came to 22 kW; the machine that went in is rated 19.5 kW on natural gas. The difference is made up by load management – six smart management modules, working behind two 200-amp service-rated transfer switches that between them cover the 400-amp service. That is what those modules are actually for. They are not an accessory: they are the reason a house whose unmanaged demand exceeds the generator can still be carried whole, rather than cut down to a nominated list of circuits. The load survey is the usual suspects at unusual scale – a double electric oven, two refrigerators, a dishwasher, a washer, a gas dryer and a sump pump spread across 5,500 square feet. The machine has been on our Diamond plan since the day it was commissioned.
11,859 square feet of soft washing
April of 2025. Soft washing is low pressure and a cleaning solution rather than a pressure washer, which is what lifts algae and mildew off siding without driving water in behind it. At nearly twelve thousand square feet of surface the method matters more, not less: on an exterior this size a pressure washer would find every seam, and the damage it does is behind the siding where nobody looks until the following winter.
Why a large array does not remove the need for a generator
Twenty kilowatts of solar and a standby generator look to a lot of people like two answers to the same question. They are not. A grid-tied array shuts down the moment the grid does – the inverter has to, so that a house is never feeding power into lines somebody may be working on. So on the night the power fails, an array this size contributes exactly as much as no array at all. What it does do is carry the day-to-day cost of running a house whose electrical demand needs a 400-amp service and six management modules to arbitrate. The two are bought for opposite days of the year, and this house has both.
Project Facts
- Location
- Middletown, NJ
- Services
- Softwash Service, Solar Panel Installation, Standby Generator Installation, Standby Generator Service
- Client since
- November 2018
Solar
- Panels
- LG Model # 320N1K-A5
- Panels
- 64
- System size
- 20.48 kW
- Inverter
- SolarEdge SE7600H-US000NC2 HD Wave
- Mounting system
- QuickMount
- Estimated first-year production
- 27,540 kWh
- Share of the home's electricity
- 91%
- Electric utility
- JCP&L
Standby generator
- Manufacturer
- Generac Model # 70432
- Rated output
- 22 kW LP / 19.5 kW NG
- Fuel
- Natural Gas
- Home sized for
- 5,500 sq ft
- Electrical service
- 400 amp
- Transfer switch
- 400 amp
- Load management
- Managed Whole House
Exterior cleaning
- Surface cleaned
- 11,859 sq ft
Everything went as planned. We would highly recommend Green Sun Energy Services.
Green Sun Energy Services replied
Thank you, Subhek. Yours is one of the fuller relationships on our books: a 20.48 kW solar array, a 22 kW standby generator and a soft wash of the exterior, all at the same house in Middletown. The array lowers what the house draws, the generator covers the days the grid does not, and the wash clears the roof and siding of the algae and mold that damage them.
Questions from Middletown homeowners
Standby generatorCan a generator be raised on a platform?
Yes. Manufacturer guidance specifically covers installations on platforms and other supporting structures, and directs them to the applicable fire-safety standard, including a noncombustible surface extending beyond the generator for the configuration addressed. Flood and structural requirements have to be satisfied as well.
SolarCan the utility require upgrades before approving a system?
Yes. Some interconnections require utility-system modifications -- transformer capacity, voltage, protection equipment, secondary conductors, service equipment or other distribution work. Who bears the cost depends on the applicable interconnection rules and the utility's determination.
Soft washingCan pressure washing make windows leak?
High-pressure water can expose weaknesses in seals, caulk or flashing and can force water into areas normal rainfall may not reach. A professional exterior wash should not direct concentrated high pressure at window edges.
Standby generatorCan the generator share a propane tank with the furnace?
Potentially, if the tank, the regulators and the piping can supply the combined demand of the generator and every other appliance that might run at the same time. It is the whole connected load that has to be considered, not the generator on its own.