Kevin from Kendall Park, NJ has been a Green Sun Energy Services client since October of 2019, when he bought a roof and an array together. The generator in the yard was already there – another company installed it in 2014 – and its servicing came to us a few months later.
2,500 square feet of new roof, and 252 feet of gutters
Finished on 13 December 2019: a single layer stripped to the sheathing and carted away rather than roofed over, then 2,500 square feet of GAF Timberline HDZ in shakewood, warranted fifty years, with continuous soffit vents at the intake. Two hundred and fifty-two feet of gutters and leaders went on at the same time – worth doing while the roofers are up there for the same reason it is worth doing before the panels arrive, since gutters hang from the fascia the array’s lowest row sits above, and nobody wants a second crew working around a live system to fit them afterwards.
36 panels and 11.52 kW
Six weeks later, on 27 January 2020: 36 all-black Hanwha Q.PEAK DUO 320-watt modules on a SolarEdge inverter, rail-free, split 6.40 and 5.12 kW across two roof faces and estimated at 12,793 kilowatt hours in the first year. A hundred and seventy-two feet of critter guard closed the sheltered gap beneath the panels. The inverter is deliberately oversized against the array rather than trimmed to fit it, which costs a little at the start and leaves room afterwards.
A 20 kW Generac taken on at year six
Installed by another company in January of 2014, on a 90-amp managed whole-house transfer switch. In February of 2020 Kevin moved its servicing to us, and it has been on our Gold plan since: annual maintenance, remote monitoring that Green Sun runs directly, and extended parts-and-labor cover behind it. Six years is a useful moment to take a machine on – early enough that nothing has been neglected, late enough that the original installer has stopped answering the phone.
Everything here hangs off 100 amps
The roof went on six weeks before the panels, which is the ordinary and correct sequence and the cheap part of this job. The genuinely constraining fact is the service: 100 amps, not 200. A standby generator, an 11.52 kW array and the house itself all depend on the same modest panel, and the 90-amp transfer switch is sized to the service the property actually has rather than to the generator’s ambitions. It also sharpens the difference between the two systems. The array reduces what this house draws through that 100-amp service on an ordinary day; the generator replaces the service altogether on the days it has nothing to give. Neither substitutes for the other, and on a small service that is easier to see than usual.
Project Facts
- Location
- Kendall Park, NJ
- Services
- Roofing Installation, Solar Critter Guard, Solar Panel Installation, Standby Generator Service
- Client since
- October 2019
Solar
- Panels
- Hanwha Model # Q.PEAK DUO BLK-G5.1 320
- Panels
- 36
- System size
- 11.52 kW
- Inverter
- SolarEdge SE10000H-US000NNC2
- Mounting system
- Ecolibrium Solar
- Estimated first-year production
- 12,793 kWh
- Electric utility
- PSE&G
- Critter guard fitted
- 172 ft
Standby generator
- Manufacturer
- Generac Model # 6244
- Rated output
- 20 kW LP / 18 kW NG
- Fuel
- Natural Gas
- Electrical service
- 100 amp
- Transfer switch
- 90 amp
- Load management
- Managed Whole House
Roof
- System
- GAF Timberline Lifetime Roofing System
- Area replaced
- 2,500 sq ft
- Warranty
- 50 years
Very professional, kept me informed on the progress of our solar installation throughout the entire process. Would definitely recommend.
Green Sun Energy Services replied
Thank you, Kevin. Keeping you informed matters more on a project like yours than on most: a new roof, a 11.52 kW array and generator service at the same house in Kendall Park have to happen in the right order, and the roof always goes first. Glad the sequence was clear as it went along.
Questions from Kendall Park homeowners
Standby generatorWhy do outages last longer on some Kendall Park 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.
SolarCan the old mounting hardware be reused after a reroof?
It depends on the manufacturer's requirements, the condition of the components and the warranty. The roof penetrations and weatherproofing components matter most, and a reroof is often the moment to replace the attachment and flashing rather than reinstall ageing roof-interface hardware.
RoofingWhat goes on a low-slope roof section?
A membrane roofing system designed for low slopes, rather than conventional shingles forced onto a pitch they were not made for. Many houses have both, and the transition between the two is a detail worth getting right because it is where the two systems have to meet.
Standby generatorWhat gas pressure does a generator need?
It is model-specific and has to be read off the specification sheet rather than assumed. A current 22 kW model, for instance, specifies a minimum natural-gas pressure of 3.5 inches water column. Different models carry different requirements.