Service
Custom Solar Installation
Every roof is different. We design around yours instead of forcing your house to fit a standard package.
Why most solar quotes look identical
Large national installers work from a small set of pre-built system designs. It keeps their sales process fast, but it means the array gets laid out to suit their template rather than your roof, your shade, and the way your household actually uses power.
That is how homeowners end up with panels on a north-facing plane, an array that fights a chimney or a vent stack all afternoon, or a system sized to a sales target instead of a utility bill. It is also how you end up hearing that the layout you actually wanted "can't be done."
PG&E territory makes this expensive to get wrong. Rates here are among the highest in the country, and the gap between a system that covers your usage and one that covers most of it shows up on every single bill for the next twenty-plus years.
How we approach a custom design
We start with your actual usage — twelve months of it, not an estimate — then look at what your roof can genuinely support. Orientation, pitch, shading through the day and across seasons, roof age and condition, and where the equipment can live without turning the side of your house into a machine room.
Because we are a licensed C-10 electrical contractor first, the electrical side gets designed properly rather than patched at the end. That matters more than most homeowners expect: service capacity, panel condition, and conductor sizing determine what is actually possible, and they are the most common reason a job stalls after the contract is signed.
If you have a layout in mind that other companies turned down, it is worth a conversation. Unusual roof geometry, detached structures, and ground mounts are the kind of work we take on — within whatever the city inspector will approve.
How it goes
What to expect
Site visit and usage review
We walk the roof, open the main panel, and go through a full year of your utility history. No design work happens off satellite imagery alone.
System design and written quote
You get a layout, a system size, and an itemized price. If the electrical service needs work to support the system, that is in the quote up front rather than as a change order later.
Permits and utility paperwork
We pull the building permit with your city and file the interconnection application with PG&E. You do not chase any of it.
Installation
Most residential installs are a short, self-contained job. Lower overhead than a national installer generally means we can start sooner.
Inspection and permission to operate
We meet the city inspector, then wait on PG&E's permission to operate. The system goes live once PTO lands — that step belongs to the utility, not the installer.
Questions
Solar Installation FAQ
How long does a residential solar install take?
The install itself is usually a matter of days. The longer part of the timeline is the paperwork on either side of it — city permitting before, and PG&E's permission to operate afterward. Those are utility and municipal timelines, and no installer controls them.
Do I need a new electrical panel to go solar?
Sometimes. It depends on your existing service capacity, the condition of the panel, and the size of the system. We check this during the site visit and tell you before you sign, because finding out mid-job is how projects turn into surprises.
Can you work with a roof that other companies turned down?
Often, yes. Complex rooflines, multiple planes, and shading are design problems rather than automatic disqualifications. Roof condition is the real limit — if the roof is near the end of its life, it should be replaced before panels go on it.
Will solar alone eliminate my PG&E bill?
Not entirely. You stay connected to the grid and keep paying non-bypassable charges and a minimum delivery charge. Under NEM 3.0 the credit for exported power is also much lower than it used to be, which is why storage now matters so much for the economics.
Also from us
Related services
Whole House Battery Backup
Storage that keeps the house running through an outage — and, under NEM 3.0, does most of the work on your bill.
Learn more →Solar Panel Repair & Replacement
Production dropped? Got a surprise true-up? We diagnose what is actually wrong instead of selling you a new system.
Learn more →Solar Panel Removal & Reinstallation
Re-roofing a house with solar on it? We take the array off, keep it safe, and put it back correctly.
Learn more →
Ready to talk about solar installation?
We look at the actual job and give you a written price — including any electrical work it needs, up front.
Monday – Friday, 9:00am – 5:00pm · We do NOT send auto texts or emails. We will only reach out to you directly about your inquiry.