Christmas Light Installation, Solar Panel Installation and Standby Generator Installation in Oceanport, NJ by Green Sun Energy Services.
Bruno from Oceanport, NJ has been a Green Sun Energy Services client since October of 2012, which makes this one of the oldest relationships on the site. The array and the generator went in within four months of each other; the lights came twelve years later.
48 panels and 11.28 kW, from 2013
Live on 24 February 2013: 48 Canadian Solar 235-watt modules on Enphase M215 microinverters, rail-free mounting, split 6.35 and 4.94 kW across two roof faces and estimated at 11,948 kilowatt hours in the first year, with a GE production meter fitted alongside. Forty-eight panels is what eleven kilowatts cost in roof space in 2013 – a current array reaches the same output with roughly half the panels. The production meter is the part worth noticing: an independent count of what the system actually makes, rather than only what the inverters say it made.
A 20 kW Generac on a whole-house switch
July of 2013, four months behind the array. A Generac rated 18 kW on natural gas – 20 kW on propane – behind a 200-amp service-rated managed whole-house transfer switch. The house is 3,000 square feet with two refrigerators, a separate freezer, a dishwasher, a washer, a gas dryer and two sump pumps. In a shore town the sump pumps carry more weight in that list than the square footage does: a pump that stops during a storm is how a basement floods, and the storm is precisely when the power goes. The machine has been on our Gold plan since – annual maintenance, extended parts-and-labor cover and remote monitoring that Green Sun runs directly.
460 red and white C9 bulbs
November of 2024. Four hundred and sixty C9 bulbs in red and white along the roofline, put up by us and taken down by us after the season. C9 is the large traditional bulb, and at 460 of them this is a full roofline rather than a gesture over the front door – the sort of run that is straightforward from a ladder in November and thoroughly unwelcome from one in January.
Four months apart, and why both
The array and the generator were bought within four months of each other by a household that had worked out they are not alternatives. A grid-tied array shuts down when the grid does – the inverter has to, so that no house feeds power into lines somebody may be working on. So the panels do nothing at all on the night the water is rising and the sump pumps have to run, which near the water is the night the whole purchase is really about. What the array does instead is carry the cost of the ordinary year, every year, quietly. Both are still doing the job they were bought for, and on equipment of that age that is the only endorsement worth anything.
Project Facts
- Location
- Oceanport, NJ
- Services
- Christmas Light Installation, Solar Panel Installation, Standby Generator Installation, Standby Generator Service
- Client since
- October 2012
Solar
- Panels
- Canadian Solar Model #
- Panels
- 48
- System size
- 11.28 kW
- Inverter
- EnPhase M215-60-2LL-S22/S23 Micro-Single
- Mounting system
- Zep Solar
- Estimated first-year production
- 11,948 kWh
- Share of the home's electricity
- 40%
- Electric utility
- JCP&L
Standby generator
- Manufacturer
- Generac Model # 6244
- Rated output
- 20 kW LP / 18 kW NG
- Fuel
- Natural Gas
- Home sized for
- 3,000 sq ft
- Transfer switch
- 0 amp
- Load management
- Managed Whole House
Holiday lighting
- Lights
- LED C9, red, 12-inch spacing
- Bulbs installed
- 460
- Also installed
- Lighted Deluxe Colorado Pine Garland - each 9' section consists of 312 tapered branches, a 14" diameter, with 100 warm w…
- Included
- 18" red bows with gold trim for garland
Green Sun Energy is a Class A outfit. I did my research before taking the plunge, and nothing else even compared. They are detail oriented, and do an excellent job (I am VERY picky). No complaints. Executed as promised. Job done right. Highly recommend." - Bruno M. from Oceanport, NJ | Solar Review Source: Google
Green Sun Energy Services replied
Thank you, Bruno. Doing the research first is the right way to buy any of this, and being the one that survived the comparison is a good place to be. Solar, a standby generator and holiday lighting at the same house in Oceanport since 2012 is three very different jobs and one long relationship. Picky is welcome here.
Questions from Oceanport homeowners
Holiday lightingWhat electrical rules apply to holiday lighting in Oceanport?
The National Electrical Code, as New Jersey adopts it, contains requirements for temporary installations that cover holiday decorative lighting: the temporary-installation article itself, the ground-fault protection requirements, and the rules for receptacles in damp and wet locations. Listed equipment also has to be installed and used according to its listing and instructions.
Standby generatorIs the output the same on propane and natural gas?
Not necessarily. Many models are rated differently depending on fuel; a current 22 kW machine is rated 22 kW on LP and 21 kW on natural gas. The model-specific ratings should be compared before the generator is sized, not afterwards.
SolarCan the panels come off and go back on for a new roof?
Yes -- it is commonly called a removal and replacement. The work involves taking off the modules and mounting equipment, protecting the electrical equipment, roofing, fitting new attachments, rewiring, reinstalling, testing and recommissioning. Permitting and utility requirements are reviewed where the configuration changes.
Holiday lightingDo I need to decorate the entire house?
No. A well designed partial display can look much better than covering every surface with unrelated lighting. A strong roofline and a few strategically lit landscaping features can produce a very complete appearance.