Before your installation
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Before You Sign Your Contract
- •Tell us about your house
- •Turn your goals into a plan
- •Read your contract carefully
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Before Your Installation
- •Going over the details
- •Review paperwork
- •Ordering equipment
- •The final touches
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During Your Installation
- •The installation
- •Meet your system
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After Your Installation
- •Electrical inspection
- •Final payment
- •Your new utility meter
- •Living with solar
Solar installation next steps: After you sign your contract
After you sign your contract, we immediately begin getting the details of your project in order. If you received an estimated solar installation date that is several weeks out, please don’t worry if we aren’t in frequent contact with you. As you can see below, we have to take care of a lot of paperwork before we can do any work on your house or business.
Going over the details
Within a few days of signing your contract, you will receive a welcome email from us outlining our solar installation next steps. You’ll need to make your down payment–typically 10 percent of the total–at signing. We accept check or credit card for this payment with no processing fees.
Our design team will look over your proposed system, make any necessary refinements, and create installation documents for our installation crew and the various jurisdictions from which we’ll need to secure permits and other authorizations to proceed with the solar panel installation.
Reviewing paperwork
We generate the paperwork for your utility that allows us to connect your solar energy system to the grid and for you to sell excess power back to the utility.
For Oregon residents, we will be submitting paperwork to the Energy Trust of Oregon (if applicable).
We also secure electrical and possible building permits if required by the city. Depending on your jurisdiction, we can get some of these permits over the counter, meaning we can apply for them online or quickly from the local planning department. Some systems in some cities require a design review, which can take a few weeks and may require an engineering analysis.
Ordering equipment
When we send you the receipt for your down payment, we will also send an invoice for the equipment deposit–typically 70 percent of the cost of your system–with a due date. Once we receive your equipment deposit, we order your panels, inverters, and racking equipment from our suppliers.
It’s important to get your equipment deposit in on time, so we can make sure your equipment arrives by your scheduled installation. Like many other industries, lead times for equipment will vary depending on the manufacturer and availability of certain models.
Final touches
A couple of weeks before your solar installation, one of our project managers will contact you to go over the details of your solar energy system and answer any questions you might have. Depending on the scope and complexity of your project, this may be done in person or over the phone. The project manager will also confirm your solar installation date and time.