Arcadia, CA · February 2026

First time. Three inspections.

Solar + Tesla Powerwall + a new tile roof in Arcadia, CA — one in-house contractor, no subcontractors.

At a glance

DC System

11.7 kW

Modules

29 × 405 W

Battery

Tesla Powerwall 3

Backup

Whole-home

Roof

Tile preserved

Inspections

3 of 3, first pass

Utility / AHJ

SCE / Arcadia

Energized

Feb 10, 2026

The story

When David first reached out in the summer of 2025, you could feel the anxiety in his messages. His home was a condo in Arcadia — tile roof, shared service panel, the kind of place that comes with dozens of complications most installers won't touch. A friend of his had just been through a roof replacement that the city refused to sign off on. David didn't want to repeat somebody else's nightmare. His first question was short and direct:

"Can you guarantee we'll pass inspection?"

We put it in the contract. And we delivered — all three inspections passed first time. No corrections. No reschedules.

It was a big project. New roof. 11.7 kW solar array. Tesla Powerwall 3 with whole-home backup. The kind of job that usually turns into contractor hell — one company does the roof, another mounts the panels, a third sends an electrician, a fourth pulls permits, a fifth handles the rebate paperwork. Everyone points at the next guy. Nobody owns the outcome. The homeowner ends up running their own job site, whether they signed up for it or not.

We do it differently. Cali Energy is licensed as a General B contractor, C-10 electrical, and C-39 roofing — all in-house. No subcontractors. Our own crews. Our own engineers. Our own permit team. Our own coordination with the city and Southern California Edison. Our own rebate paperwork. One contract, one project manager, one phone number. When David had a question, he didn't have to figure out which company was responsible. The person who signed his contract picked up the phone.

We saved the tile. The old pieces didn't go to the dump. We pulled them by hand, one at a time, replaced the underlayment with Westlake Royal TileSeal HT, and laid them back down. It's slower and more painstaking than just ordering new material. But the roof stays the one his family picked out. The house keeps its character.

End to end:

• Roof tear-down by hand: original tile preserved, broken pieces replaced one-for-one.
• New underlayment — Westlake Royal TileSeal HT — before the tile went back down.
• 29 × REC 405AA bifacial modules, 11.7 kW DC, designed around the shared service panel.
• Tesla Powerwall 3 with Tesla Backup Switch — whole-home backup, not selected circuits.
• Permits, SCE interconnection, three city inspections — all coordinated in-house.

Halfway through the build, David texted us: "Neighbors saw the work from the street and they're asking for pictures — I want to send them some." That's when we knew. He'd gone from worried to proud.

On February 10, 2026, Southern California Edison issued Permission to Operate. Since that day, David's home has been making its own electricity and storing what it doesn't use. The next time Arcadia loses power, his lights stay on.

System specifications

Frequently asked questions

Can solar be installed on a condo with a shared service panel?

Yes, with the right engineering. Shared electrical panels in condominium buildings require careful design — interconnection method, backup configuration, and equipment compatibility all need to match the existing setup. We design around the constraints of the building rather than forcing a standard residential template.

Will my tile roof survive a solar installation?

It can — if the crew preserves it deliberately. The tiles are pulled by hand, the underlayment underneath is replaced, and the original tile is laid back down. The roof keeps its character. New material only goes in for tiles that were already broken before we arrived.

Can you replace just the roof without installing solar?

Yes. Cali Energy is a licensed C-39 roofing contractor and we take on standalone roofing projects — full re-roofs, tile preservation, structural repairs — without solar attached. Most of our work pairs roofing with solar because it makes sense to combine the trades on one job, but the roofing crew and license stand on their own.

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