Canoga Park, CA · September 2021 – August 2022 · LADWP / LADBS

Forty-two squares first. Then the array and the panel.

The roof came off and went back on before a single rail was set. Three express permits, five weeks from the roofing permit to the solar final — and ten months later the monitoring flagged one microinverter and we came back for it.

If a roof is near the end of its life, it gets replaced before the array goes on. Taking modules off and putting them back later costs more than doing the roof first, and on this house the roofing permit, the solar permit and the service panel permit all closed inside five weeks.

At a glance

Roof

42 squares, composition shingle

Modules

REC Alpha Pure REC400AA, 400 W

Inverters

Enphase microinverters, one per module

Service panel

200 A main breaker

Permits

Three, all express

Roofing permit to solar final

Five weeks

Warranty service

Microinverter replaced ten months later

Utility / AHJ

LADWP / LADBS

The story

Forty-two squares is a big roof. Single storey, wide, wrapping around a pool and a patio cover, with a brick chimney in the middle of the best south-facing plane. It was also old, and there is no sensible way to put twenty-five years of solar on top of a roof with five years left in it.

So the roof went first. The permit was issued on the twenty-fourth of September 2021 for forty-two squares of composition shingle over the existing sheathing. The sheathing inspection was signed on the first of October, and the roofing permit was finaled on the sixth.

Two days after the roof closed out, two more permits were paid for on the same day: one for the roof-mounted photovoltaic system and one for the main service panel. Both went through as express permits, which means they were issued over the counter without plan check. That is a route open to straightforward residential work, and it is the difference between waiting for a reviewer and starting on Monday.

The panel was the quieter half of the job and the one that decides whether the rest is possible. The existing service came out and a new panel went in with a 200 amp main breaker, which is what gives the array somewhere to land without crowding the busbar.

The modules are REC Alpha Pure 400-watt panels, each on its own Enphase microinverter feeding an Enphase combiner on the wall beside the panel. On a roof with this many planes, a chimney and a patio cover, per-module electronics are not a luxury — one shaded module stops being everyone else's problem.

Inspections were requested on the eighteenth of October. The service panel permit was finaled on the twenty-third and the solar permit on the twenty-fifth. From the roofing permit to the last signature was five weeks.

Ten months later the system asked for something back. In late June 2022 the monitoring showed one microinverter no longer producing. It had already been looked at remotely and the problem had not cleared, which is usually the point at which somebody has to get on the roof.

We went out, confirmed it on site, and opened a warranty claim with the manufacturer. The claim was approved, the replacement unit shipped to our office, and a technician fitted it on the sixth of August. The monitoring picked the unit back up and it produced again.

That is the part of a solar job nobody sells you on and everybody eventually needs. Per-module electronics carry long manufacturer warranties, but a warranty only turns into a working roof if there is still a contractor willing to come back, file the claim, take delivery of the part and climb up there.

How it ran

Three permits — roofing, solar and service panel — closed within five weeks of each other. The service visit sits ten months further on.

What we did

• Replaced forty-two squares of roof before any solar work started.
• Took the roofing permit through sheathing inspection to final in under two weeks.
• Pulled the solar and service panel permits as express permits on the same day.
• Replaced the service panel with a 200 amp main breaker so the array had a compliant point of connection.
• Installed REC Alpha Pure modules on per-module Enphase microinverters, flashed into the new shingle.
• Closed all three permits within five weeks of the roofing permit being issued.
• Came back ten months later, opened and carried the manufacturer warranty claim, and fitted the replacement microinverter.

System specifications

Is your project like this one?

• Your roof is near the end of its life and you are being sold solar anyway.
• You want to know whether the roof or the array should come first.
• You have been told your service panel has to be replaced before solar can go on.
• Something on your array stopped producing and the company that installed it is gone.
• Your Canoga Park property is served by LADWP, while permits are handled by LADBS.

Cali Energy in Canoga Park

Frequently asked questions

Should the roof be replaced before solar goes on?

If the roof has less life left in it than the array does, yes. Removing and reinstalling modules later is a separate job with its own cost, and it means opening a finished system. On this house the roof was replaced first — forty-two squares of composition shingle, finaled on the sixth of October — and the solar permits were taken out two days after that.

What is an express permit?

It is a LADBS route for straightforward work that is issued over the counter without plan check. Three permits on this project went that way: the roofing, the roof-mounted solar and the service panel. It removes the plan review wait; it does not remove the inspections, which still have to be requested and signed.

Why did the service panel have to be replaced?

A solar array has to connect to the service without exceeding what the panel's busbar is rated to carry. On older houses the existing panel often cannot take that connection, and the panel is replaced as part of the job. Here a new panel went in with a 200 amp main breaker.

What happens when one microinverter fails?

Only that module stops producing — the rest of the array carries on, which is the point of per-module electronics. The monitoring shows which unit it is. If it cannot be cleared remotely, someone has to confirm it on site and open a warranty claim with the manufacturer. On this roof the claim was approved, the replacement shipped, and a technician fitted it on the sixth of August 2022.

Do you service systems after the install is finished?

Yes. This one was ten months past its final inspection when the monitoring flagged a microinverter, and the visit, the warranty claim and the replacement were all handled by us. A manufacturer warranty is only worth what the contractor behind it is willing to do.

Does Cali Energy do roofing, panels and solar in Canoga Park?

Yes — all three were on this job. Cali Energy holds B, C-10 and C-39 classifications under CSLB #1032379. Canoga Park is inside City of Los Angeles boundaries, so permits run through LADBS and interconnection through LADWP.

What this would look like on your roof

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• Three years later, the inverter stopped reporting Chatsworth, CA · 8.19 kW DC · warranty replacement Solar

This timeline reflects this property and this permitting path. Updated September 2026.