Greg Sellers, founder of solar maintenance and monitoring company Stable Solar, sat down to tell us all about removal and replacement of a solar system. Apparently when a roof experiences issues, often unrelated to the system, the panels need to be removed so the roof can be repaired or replaced. Key is that the ones removing the panels are solar experts and that the roofers and solar company coordinate their efforts.

Transcription of the video:

Sellers: The more topical one this time of year being January is rooftop issues so we’re familiar with what we call removal and replacement, R&R work where you take the entire system off to replace the roof.

Solar Academy: When does that happen, by the way, like what situation?

Sellers: Usually it’s a warranty issue on the roof. Roofs last 20-25 years but quite often the roof has already got 10-15 years on it before they put solar on so at some point you need to remove the panels to do the roof. What we find this time of year is that there’s a lot of systems where there’s something wrong, there’s a hole in the roof, something having to do with the roof usually not solar related. It’s oftentimes just what people think but because of the way flashings or the way the systems are designed it’s usually not directly solar related. If there’s an issue that’s near the solar installation you have to remove panels in order to get at that part of the roof. We’re starting to see a few more of those in the winter time obviously.

The critical thing for homeowners to to understand when that kind of thing happens is that the skill set is completely different and most roofers understand this. They won’t get near the solar so you do need to have a solar expert come up and remove them. It’s important to store these panels in an appropriate location, particularly in the winter. You don’t want them sitting outside. It’s critical that you put it back exactly like it was so that the system is operational.

Some homeowners have thought about it as a time to consider upgrades or other improvements to the system so sometimes we get requests for that as well. So that’s something for homeowners to keep in mind in January when it’s rainy and snowy and they have issues underneath their system. Make sure you call the solar expert as well as your roofer.

Solar Academy: Obviously your company Stable Solar provides that service by connecting them with a local technician in the northern and the southern California regions and beyond.

Sellers: That’s our focus right now but we have customers all over the country. We understand those issues as they come up so we we work closely with roofers in those regions. We also have our own technicians who can go out and do the solar part of the repairs and make sure those are done right.

Solar Academy: Great thank you, thank you very much for this information.

Sellers: Sure.