Roof Replacement -- should we add solar now?

I heard that if you pay $1,000 extra to SunPower when you have them install solar panels, then they'll remove the panels before you get a new roof, and then put the panels back on when the new roof is on. They guaranty their work.

I suggest you check to see if this is correct. I worked with Dylan DeHondt (832)350-0153) at SunPower when I had my panels installed and he was very good.

I understand it is ideal to do solar panel install at time of roof replacement.

I'm sorry to add to your anxieties around the project, but the California Public Utility Commission is about to change the compensation approach for rooftop solar and it will undoubtedly be less economic for homeowners--potentially much less.  To enroll under current compensation, you need to have a project in the queue (NOT completed, but documentation started) ASAP; probably no later than May 2022

We just added solar on our roof and it took a day. My baby was even able to sleep through the work (though it was loud). I wouldn’t worry about the installation timing as a factor in your decision. I have also read that it’s very easy to do with a new roof too as a lot of the companies can do both.

The CPUC and PG&E are going to change some net metering rules soon so you’ll have a better buy back rate on the energy you produce if you get in with the current rates. 

We considered Solar too but put the project on hold.  I heard taxes/fees on electricity from solar is increased or about to be increased in Cali so the calculation of how long it will take you to get back the cost of adding solar via electrical bill saving is really changing. For us, we were going to add solar to save on electric bill and it seems to no longer make sense so we are waiting to see what happens.  If you can afford to do it without electricity bill savings then that’s not an issue but it caused an issue for us, so something to look into before spending the money.  

I would recommend installing the solar and re-roofing at the same time with the same contractor. We used Interstate Roofing & Solar (Bill Wong, 510-639-0833), who did the whole job almost five years ago. They gave us a slight credit on the roof portion by combining all the work. Also, by having a roofer who knows solar do the whole job, there is no finger pointing if problems arise. We had no issues. Bill Wong is an established professional and easy to work with. I would highly recommend him. In fact, he is usually so busy that now he usually only does roof work combined with solar installation. We used Bill Wong 14 years ago on a different house for installing a new roof only - no solar. This was before solar was a thing. He was competitively priced and did a great job, so we went with him again with our current house. We are very happy with our new roof and solar. 

We moved into our place over the summer and had to replace the roof and the electrical. We decided to add solar while we were at it. TBH it was very manageable (or as manageable as those projects can be). The solar company really wanted us to go with their roofer so they could coordinate but we went with someone else and it worked out fine.

As for timing, I’d recommend ASAP if you can. The Cal PUC is considering a new solar rule (“NEM 3.0”) that makes solar a lot less attractive from a cost-benefit standpoint. As of now, I believe people with existing systems before the effective date (likely May) will have a 10-year grace period before being forced to switch to the new prices. We’ll see what happens; Newsom suggested the proposal needs revisions and Schwarzenegger wrote a scathing op-ed but the PUC is an independent agency and the utilities hold a lot of sway. 

We added solar panels to our backyard cottage and then had to replace the roof and solar panels when a neighbor's tree fell into the yard.  The roof-and-solar replacement took a fair amount of coordination between the solar people and the roofers -- luckily, we were able to use a roofer recommended by the solar folks, and they worked it all out.  Given that solar installers and roofers (and electricians) seem to be pretty booked these days, you might want to consider the logistical challenges if you try to do it all at once.  If I recall, the solar installation alone took maybe two days to put up the panels, and then some time for inspection and PG&E paperwork before it actually went live.  Thanks to the coordination, we were able to get the roof-and-solar replacement done in about a week (with a small roof).  I don't know that you'd save that much money by doing the roof and solar at the same time.

We just went through this decision process ourselves and after some research and talking to a lot of neighbors who already went solar, getting different solar PV and roofing only quotes, we decided to go with a Tesla Solar Roof (solar shingles are integrated with glass roof shingles so there are no standalone "panels"). We needed to replace our 20+ year old leaky and moldy roof entirely, and also wanted to go solar as you mentioned, but had a hard time finding PV contractors that would simultaneously remove old/install a new roof with the solar PV panels. So after witnessing two recent installs in our neighborhood and talking to those neighbors, we decided to take the plunge and just finished the install last week with a beautiful shiny (but expensive) new solar roof.

Most of the process can be done online, with some follow-up calls for scheduling, and the install process took about 1 full week with a team of 6-7 installers. My understanding is that it'll take a couple more months for the inspection to be done and before PG&E allows us to power it on. The install was quite construction-intensive (lots of vehicles, a dumpster, equipment loading), noisy and disruptive with electricians needing to come inside to access our attic and garage - but Tesla will coordinate all the estimating, permitting, electrical work, install and inspection so that part is easy. A few economics-related things to keep in mind: how much electricity you're using now and in the near future (e.g., if you want to get a electric car later), your billing schedule since all PG&E customers will be shifted to time-of-use rates (if you haven't already) this year, and CA Public Utilities Commission is about to decide IF solar residential consumers will need to start paying a monthly fee in 2023 for accessing the grid and reducing the rate you get for selling your excess electricity back to the grid. Happy to share some resources and chat more offline about our experience so far.

We replaced our roof when we installed solar last year. It was bit more work to schedule but it was totally worth it. There was a 26% federal tax credit for not only the solar but roof replacement too. If you need to have any big trees on the property trimmed to get more sun exposure for the panels, that also qualifies for the tax credit. I used Got Watts Solar and Electric for the solar install and panel up grade. 

We used Albion Solar https://solarforyourhouse.com/california/san-francisco/albion-power-com… as our general contractors to replace our roof (with Berkeley Roofing) and install the panels at the same time. They have an electrical engineer on staff; they upgraded our panel, oversaw the roofing job, and integrated the solar panels and infrastructure into the overall job. They did a fantastic job! 

Installing solar panels comes with a tax credit which applies to the work needed to install the panels. You can talk to them more about it.

We replaced our roof and upgraded our electrical panel during the first month of our first child's life. The roof replacement was loud but easy / not terribly disruptive. It was maybe a week of work. Replacing the electrical panel was less ideal because we did not have power the while work was happening. I would avoid doing that if you're home all day.

There's no need to do solar at the same time as the roof. We did our panels about 3-4 years after we replaced the roof. It was no big deal to do it at that point. If you don't have the money or energy for that now, just wait until you do.

I’m not sure it would change the price at all to do roof and solar at the same time vs. roof first and then solar later. What you definitely want to avoid is doing the solar and then having to take off the panels to re-roof because that is pricey! It’s also worth considering the warranty of the roof vs. warranty of panels. The panels loose some effectiveness after about 20 years. Due to a significantly leaky roof (picture pots and pans and buckets all over our apartment!) after about 10 years we needed to pull them off and re-roof. Someone who had more money may have chosen to buy a new array at that time but we couldn’t afford it so just put the old panels back on. In other words if you decide to wait on the solar don’t wait too long! We used Sun First Solar and Berkeley Roof Services. We also got a metal roof which had a slightly higher up front cost but will last much longer (guaranteed for 50 years).

I would add solar at the same time as the roof. Keep in mind that the state is about to come up with new refund rules. So you'd want your system to "future proof" against that. What does that mean? they are proposing a 15 year grandfathering from the time its connected to the grid - you have precious little time to sneak in before that. Failing that, make sure you get enough battery storage so you're not exposed to the proposals outrageous charges to feed back to the grid.

Personally, I would try to do that asap, before the economics change too much, but with roofers currently busy (its their high season, as you can tell, many people found problems with their roof with the recent rains) and the times to get electrical and solar permits, its going to take a while.

We added solar panels to our roof in November.  We had a different but related problem: should we replace the roof first?  I had a couple of people (a local roofer, a roof inspection company, and the solar installer) look at the roof and they all agreed they couldn't tell how old the roof was but probably had at least 10 years of life left.  We opted not to replace the roof.  That means we'll probably need to replace the roof within the panels' lifetime, which probably means paying the solar installer $1000-$2000 to remove and replace the panels when we do that.  In the end, the solar install took about a day's worth of time over two days (16 solar panels, no replacement electrical panel or batteries).  The process took longer (maybe 2 months) as they have to do design and get permits and agreements signed, but none of that impacted us at home.

Everyone I spoke to agreed that if we do the roof and solar at the same time, it's easy to coordinate the roofer and solar installer.  If I remember right, the solar folks just come by at a particular point during the roof work to install some brackets or something and it doesn't take very long.  But I share your skepticism -- coordinating one contractor is often hard enough!  Some solar installers have a roofer that can re-roof as part of the job.  Our installer was also an electrician and had a roofer on staff.  If we'd needed a new electrical panel, he would have done that too.

Is it better to do the solar at the same time?  The roofer seemed to think so because they can put the brackets right where they want them.  But he also said it's totally fine to add solar later.  I gather a lot of people add solar panels to existing roofs.  You just might have to pay to have the panels temporarily removed when you replace the roof next time.

There's one unrelated reason you might consider solar now: it's expected that California will change the way net metering works in a few months and this will make it much less financially worthwhile to get solar.  The current plan will grandfather in anybody who activates their new solar system before the change.  There's a lot of fear-mongering from solar companies about this, and I can't say what's right or wrong, but I think it's a real factor if you're considering solar in the near future.  This seems to be a reasonably balanced article about it.

Good luck!

So we had exact same issue.  Just purchased in 2021 and lived in the house for 1 year and had no issues with leaks in the 20 plus year old roof till this rainy season hit.  First leak was in our renovated bathroom and then even after trying to patch it up we had another leak in the same area.  After that decided that we would change the roof and add made sense to add solar panels.  Check out the city of Berkeley website as they have links to the sunshares program that vets 3 companies per year and where many Bay Area counties have negotiated prices at reduced rates.  

The caveat is that it may only run in the fall from august to November but the 3 companies are listed at the website:

https://www.bayareasunshares.org/pre-vetted-installers

the company that we went infinity energy as they were the cheapest and also changed our roof (they just finished yesterday) they received the permits and will hopefully be installing next month the 16 REC solar panels generating 8738 kWh/ per year plus upgraded main panel. Enough to power all computers appliances in the house plus 240 volt outlets needed to fast charge an electric car and power electric washing machine and dryer.  The car is something we plan to upgrade in the next year or so.  The cost was approximately 22k for solar panels, main panel and 240 volt plugs (also 2021, 2022 have 26 percent tax refund so it will end up costing 16.5k and a little less than 11k for the roof replacement.   Not a big house so covering only about 1100-1200 square feet.  They get all the permits from the city for all the work which was included in the costs.  
 

what I liked was dealing with one company that would be responsible for the roof and solar (25 year warranties for most of items.)