Solar Installer

Start here: how a system gets built

Pricing a system and reading the margin

Homeowners

Every household from first inquiry to signed, with their usage, roof and how they are paying.

Install projects

Each signed system from survey to permission to operate: size, price per watt, costs, margin and dates.

Permits and utility approvals

Building permits, HOA approvals, inspections and the utility's interconnection, with who is waiting on whom.

Equipment stock

Panels, inverters, batteries and racking in the warehouse, what they cost and when to reorder.

From lead to project

From project to power

Every project moves through the same stages. The coordinator owns the paperwork, the crew lead owns the roof.

Press Mark installed when the crew leaves a finished roof, and Mark PTO received when the utility's letter arrives. Only then may the customer switch the system on to export.

Anything waiting more than its usual time shows on the Dashboard, so the coordinator can call the office the same day.

Install date passed

On a roof this week

My projects

Waiting on an office

Corrections to send back

The building permit

HOA approval

Homes in an association need the architecture committee's approval before the install, sometimes before the permit. Ask on the site survey. Committees meet monthly; a missed meeting costs four weeks.

Install, then inspection

After the crew presses Mark installed, book the final inspection the same day. The inspector checks the attachments, the labels and placards, the rapid shutdown and the conduit. Keep the approved plan set in the garage for them.

Interconnection and PTO

The utility needs its own application, separate from the permit, and it only approves export once the inspection has passed. When the permission to operate letter arrives:

What good looks like

If a project waits on an office longer than its usual time, call them. A polite call moves more permits than a second email.

Price per watt

Contract price divided by the system size in watts. An 8.4 kW system sold for 26,500 USD is 3.15 USD per watt. Our cash and loan price sits between 3.05 and 3.30 for panels only; tile roofs and long conduit runs sit at the top of that range.

Batteries

A battery adds about 12,000 to 14,000 USD to the contract and lowers the margin percentage, because the battery itself is most of the cost. Sell it for what it does, backup during outages and storing midday power for the evening, not as a profit line.

The costs on each project

Margin ranges

Begay and Okwuosa show the battery pattern: higher contracts, lower percentages, and still worth doing.

Sizing honestly

Estimated production uses 1,650 kWh per installed kW a year, a fair figure for our high, sunny climate on a south or west roof. Bill offset compares that with the household's last twelve months. Size to 90% to 105%. Oversizing sells more panels but leaves the homeowner exporting power at a low credit, and that shows up in reviews a year later.

Cancellations

A signed contract can be cancelled during the legal cooling-off period. Mark the project Cancelled; margin leaves its numbers blank so the dashboard stays honest.