Most solar equipment suppliers stop at the loading dock. That is a reasonable place to stop, and for most of our customers it is exactly where we stop too — we ship to installers, EPCs and contractors across the United States and for export, and they build the system. But inside our own service area in California we do the other half as well: we supply the equipment and our own crew installs it.
This page covers what that means in practice. It is written for the building owner, facility manager or developer who wants one party responsible for the equipment and the work, rather than two parties each holding a piece of the problem. If you are an installer or EPC buying equipment for a site outside California, nothing here changes how we work with you.
1. What we install
Our crew handles the four categories that cover almost every project we are asked about:
- Residential rooftop solar — pitched and flat roofs, shingle, tile and standing-seam, with hybrid inverters and home battery backup where the household wants it.
- Commercial and industrial — warehouse and office rooftops, commercial and industrial solar arrays, solar carports over existing parking, and the storage that goes with them for demand-charge management.
- Ground-mounted and larger arrays — ground-mount racking on open land, ballasted or driven-pile depending on the geotechnical result, plus the transformer and switchgear scope that connects an array to a service point.
- Off-grid and backup power — off-grid and remote power systems, generator hybrids, and battery-backed standby for sites that cannot rely on the grid.
Every one of those is an equipment decision before it is an installation decision. The same crew that fits the array is working from the same schedule as the equipment leaving our Arcadia warehouse, which is the practical reason the two halves belong together.
2. Where we work
Our installation service is built around our warehouse at 12101 Clark Street, Unit E, Arcadia, CA 91006. We work across the San Gabriel Valley and greater Los Angeles — Arcadia, Pasadena, Monrovia, Sierra Madre, San Marino, South Pasadena, Temple City, El Monte, Alhambra, San Gabriel, Rosemead, Covina, West Covina, Glendora, Claremont, Azusa, Whittier, Glendale, Burbank and downtown Los Angeles.
Being close to the site is not a marketing point, it is a scheduling one. Crews, spare parts and replacement units all leave from the same building, so a damaged module or a missing clamp does not turn into a week of waiting on freight. If your site is further out, send us the address — we will tell you directly whether it is inside the area we can service properly rather than quoting a job we would have to travel across the state to finish.
3. How the work runs
The sequence below is the one we actually follow. Each step exists because skipping it has cost someone money before.
- Site information — address, roof or ground area, twelve months of utility bills, and what the site is trying to achieve (bill reduction, backup, peak shaving).
- Site survey — roof condition and covering, structural reserve, shading, service panel capacity, conduit routes, and how the fire service expects to access the roof.
- Design and equipment selection — module format, string layout, inverter siting, storage sizing and mounting method, issued as a layout with a load and ballast calculation rather than a sketch.
- Permit package — the drawings and documentation the local building department and the utility ask for. See the next section.
- Installation — mounting, modules, DC and AC wiring, inverter and storage commissioning, labelling and rapid shutdown equipment.
- Inspection and interconnection — the authority having jurisdiction signs off, then the utility issues permission to operate.
- Commissioning and handover — test results, as-built documentation, warranty registrations and the monitoring handover. The checks we work through are the same ones listed in our commissioning checklist.
4. Permits, inspection and interconnection
A solar installation in California is permitted by the local building department and interconnected by the serving utility. Both are outside our control in terms of timing, and both are predictable in terms of what they ask for. We prepare the package and submit it; the review clock belongs to the jurisdiction.
Two items come up on nearly every review and are worth deciding before the design is frozen rather than after: rapid shutdown, which is required on any array mounted on a building, and, where storage is included, the fire-code position of the battery system. Neither is difficult, but both are considerably more expensive to resolve once equipment is already on the roof or set on a pad. Storage installations are specified against the listing documentation and test report for the exact model, as described in our note on battery storage fire code compliance.
On structural questions — ballast, pile depth, wind uplift — the numbers are calculated per roof zone or per array, not per building. That work is set out in our mounting load calculation guide, and the calculation travels with the layout so the reviewer has something to check rather than something to request.
5. Why supply and installation in one scope
When equipment and labour are bought separately, three things tend to go wrong, and all three cost the same person money:
- Interface gaps — the mounting system arrives without the clamps for the seam profile that turned out to be on the roof.
- Documentation gaps — the inspector asks for a listing document and nobody is sure whether it belongs to the supplier or the installer.
- Warranty gaps — a failed component sits between a product claim and a workmanship claim, and both parties have a reasonable argument that it is the other’s.
One scope does not eliminate those risks by magic; it removes the argument about whose they are. If a module is damaged in handling, that is ours. If a clamp is over-torqued and cracks a frame, that is ours too. The same principle drives the replacement-first approach described on our service and quality page.
6. Equipment we install
The table below is the range our crew works with. All of it ships from US stock, and the certification documents for the model supplied travel with the order.
| Category | Typical configuration | Where it is used |
|---|---|---|
| Solar modules | 450 W to 600 W formats | Residential roofs, commercial arrays, ground-mount |
| Inverters & controllers | Hybrid residential, 100 kW to 250 kW string | Self-consumption, commercial conversion, microgrids |
| Energy storage | 100 kWh cabinet to 1 MWh container | Home backup, peak management, off-grid autonomy |
| Mounting systems | Roof, ground, carport, single-axis tracker | Every fixed structure on the site |
| Transformers | 1000 kVA to 2500 kVA, pad-mount | Commercial and utility interconnection |
| Switchgear & distribution | LV boards, PV combiner boxes, withdrawable panels | DC collection and AC distribution |
7. What is outside the scope
Being specific about the edges saves more time than describing the middle:
- Outside California — we supply equipment and documentation; your licensed contractor performs the site work. This includes every export order.
- Roof replacement and structural remediation — if the survey finds the covering is at end of life, that is a roofing contractor’s scope. We will tell you before you commit to the array, not after.
- Ongoing operations and maintenance — we hand over monitoring and documentation, but we do not sell an O&M service. What a maintenance contract should cover, and what to watch, is set out in our O&M contract guide.
- Utility-side work — service upgrades beyond the point of connection, and anything on the utility’s side of the meter, belong to the utility or its own contractor.
8. Frequently asked questions
Are you licensed to install in California?
Yes. Our installation work in California is carried out by our own licensed crew, and we provide licence and insurance details with the quotation rather than on request after it.
Can I buy the equipment only?
Yes, and most of our orders are exactly that. Equipment-only supply for installers, EPCs, contractors and distributors is unaffected by this service — see all product categories.
How long does an installation take?
The installation itself is usually the shortest part of the project; permitting and utility interconnection set the schedule. We give you the expected sequence for your jurisdiction at quotation stage rather than a single number that will not survive first contact with the building department.
Do you install battery storage as well?
Yes, including retrofits to an existing array. Storage is specified against usable capacity, backup duration and the fire-code position of the equipment — the sequence is covered in our residential battery guide and the commercial sizing guide.
What happens if equipment arrives damaged?
It is replaced from US stock. Replacement-first claims handling is a standing commitment on our service and quality page, and it applies whether we installed the system or you did.
9. What to send us
To turn an enquiry into a real scope rather than a range, four things help:
- Site address and, if it is a roof, the approximate usable area and covering type.
- Twelve months of utility bills, or interval data if you have it.
- What the system is for — bill reduction, backup duration, peak shaving, or off-grid autonomy.
- Your target schedule, including any deadline that comes from an incentive, a lease or a utility rate change.
Send those to our team and we will come back with a specified equipment list, the installation scope, and the availability that goes with both. If you are still at the stage of working out what you need, the wider context is on our project support page, and the purchasing questions most buyers ask first are answered in the procurement FAQ.