Hi, my mom's house has La Mesa mailing address and I have gotten a couple of PMs on this site praising that same company. It seems like they must do great work.

Can you post all the specs and price on your system ?
>>>as above, with SE P400 Power Optimizers and a SE SE7600 inverter, and panel-level monitoring. Cost about $3.50/watt

How many other proposals did you get ? Could you post details on those also?
>>>five others, one from a good company providing Sunny Boy SMA systems, one from a good company with Enphase micro-inverters (almost went with them; they have done systems for several people I work with, and everyone has been happy). One came piggy-backed on a roofers estimate, one was a couple of guys with little electrical experience, but strong on marketing ( oddly, with higher prices, and no redeeming qualities).. The SMA system was similar in price, the Enphase a couple thousand more, if I recall right. We have trashed all the other bids at this point.

Please tell us how you decided to go with Jamar ?
>>>Our neighbors had spent a lot of time on this forum and suggested we call Vince at Jamar before signing with anybody: I am SO glad we did that! It was soon clear that it was a better system from an excellent company at a good price. No regrets.

I'm curious about your roof. What type is it ? Did the roofing company put in anchors for the solar installers to use while they were re-roofing ? Or was other coordinating done between the two companies ?
>>>Asphalt shingle. Jamar coordinated to install anchors after the old Cal-Shake roof was stripped and sheeting installed. Both companies dovetailed perfectly, and now the 50 year GAF-backed roof warranty applies to the mount waterproofing as well.

In what part of La Mesa do you live ?
>>>SD County actually, on the south slope of Mount Helix, with a La Mesa mailing address also.

What kind of numbers are you getting back as far as solar power produced ?
>>> averaging almot 50 kWh per day, less if cloudy or rainy.
What were your electric bills prior to getting solar installed ?
>>> figured about 11,000 kWh per year, dollar amount varied with tier that we got into.
What is the approximate square footage of your house ?
>>> 2900 ft^2
Do you have air conditioning?
>>> Yes, usually only run it for a few weeks in summer. Often we have a cool breeze in the evening.
How many people live in the house and what type of electric usage do you have ? What time of day do you think is your heaviest use ?
If not running the A/C, biggest drain is pool pump at 2500 W, usually runs about 4 hours/day. We're looking into a variable-speed pump to cut that down (should've probably done that BEFORE going solar!). Nearly all of our lights are LED, stove is gas, refrigerators & computers, etc use about 5 kWh/ day.
Will a Time Of Use type metering option be available to you ? (Not sure if that is the exact terminology.)
>>>Not sure. We are net-metered now, so I don't think there's and advantage to time-of-use anyway.

How difficult is it to set up that monitoring that you mentioned, I mean the Rainbird, Zigsbee, etc. ? Do you have a background in engineering or computers, or anything that gives you a bit of an advantage?
>>> No background, just a lifelong geek. The Zigbee system came with the solar system, basically allows wi-fi-like connection to our home network, panel-level monitoring to a computer or smartphone, etc. >>>The Rainforest Eagle also uses a Zigbee link to read from the SDGE smart meter directly. It's not all set up yet, but the info to do it is right here in this forum:





Congratulations on your new system ! ! !
>>>Thanks!

About all the questions -- well, we are just curious and want to know ! ! !
>>>No worries!

Thanks !

Now I'm playing around with monitoring (because I'm a geek), with a Rainforest Eagle to read from the SDGE smart meter, the Zigbee from the inverter, and getting set up with PVoutput and Wattvision. I still need to get an API key from SolarEdge to work the solar output data into the mix.

I'll look forward to seeing your data on PVOutput! Please consider joining Team San Diego once you are set up. My system is linked in my signature.

>>> I absolutely will do that! I just got my admin access and API key from Rick @ Jamar (which he sent back to me about 30 seconds after I requested it...man, he must type fast!). I will try to play with it this evening. I still need to massage PVoutput a bit, too, before I'll be ready to go public.
BTW, sensij, thank you for your many posts in other threads: very helpful!


If you do eventually increase your consumption to be more than the kWh generated by your system, consider a TOU plan. If you can charge your EV or set your pool pump to run only at night, when electricity is cheap, the more valuable electricity you generate during the day may still be able to offset the cost of your increased consumption.

>>>Yes, a work colleague figures his Nissan Leaf was *free* after a couple of years from savings on his electric bill. I have a short commute, and only work part-time now that I'm "retired", so I can't really justify an electric car "yet". I do have some friends with Tesla's: very impressive cars!
I must learn more about TOU metering; I read SDGE's on-line info, but I need to really go back over it in detail.

>>>Yes, a work colleague figures his Nissan Leaf was *free* after a couple of years from savings on his electric bill. I have a short commute, and only work part-time now that I'm "retired", so I can't really justify an electric car "yet". I do have some friends with Tesla's: very impressive cars!
I must learn more about TOU metering; I read SDGE's on-line info, but I need to really go back over it in detail.

I'll look forward to seeing your data on PVOutput! Please consider joining Team San Diego once you are set up. My system is linked in my signature.

If you do eventually increase your consumption to be more than the kWh generated by your system, consider a TOU plan. If you can charge your EV or set your pool pump to run only at night, when electricity is cheap, the more valuable electricity you generate during the day may still be able to offset the cost of your increased consumption.

Another great idea, which I have heard before but had forgotten.

JPM just out of curiousity, do you have a ballpark idea of cost of install of a separate TOU meter for an EV charging outlet/station ? Funny thing, the young fellow who rents my back unit works for a very large local electronics company which is about 15 miles from my house. He can charge his Chevy Volt for free up there when he goes to work every day, so no worries for him, what a deal.

do you have a ballpark idea of cost of install of a separate TOU meter for an EV charging outlet/station ?

I'm going to have to explore TOU.

They used to offer free EV charging where I work, but then somebody complained that it was unfair to fossil-fuel burners, so no more free charging. It's a strange world!