Why solar takes 2 to 4 months when the install itself takes a day

Most residential rooftop systems are physically installed in a single day. If someone has told you the whole project takes a day, they have described one step of about six.

Start to finish, most projects run two to four months, and the large majority of that is waiting on other organisations -- your municipal building department and your utility. Timelines vary meaningfully by jurisdiction, and we cannot guarantee a specific date for exactly that reason.

First, consultation and design: we look at your bill, your usage and your roof, then design a system around what we find and produce a proposal with an estimated production figure and real pricing.

Then permitting. Plans go to your local building department for review. Turnaround is entirely theirs, and it varies from a jurisdiction that reviews in days to one that takes many weeks. The spread between neighbouring cities can be large -- which is why the crew that handles your project is a certified local team that has already filed in your jurisdiction.

Then installation -- the day on the roof. Then inspection, where a municipal inspector signs off on the work. Then interconnection and permission to operate, where the utility approves the system to export to the grid and swaps the meter if needed. That last step is often the longest single wait, and it is entirely the utility's timeline.

Only after permission to operate can the system legally start producing. We handle the paperwork at every one of those stages, which is the part most people are relieved to hand over, but handling it is not the same as controlling how long it takes.

Complete, accurate plans submitted the first time. A large share of permitting delay is resubmission after a correction notice, and that is avoidable with careful design work up front.

Getting your recent utility bills to us early also helps more than people expect -- accurate usage data means the system is sized correctly the first time, which means fewer revisions downstream.

What does not speed it up is pressure. We will give you an honest estimate of the range for your jurisdiction rather than an optimistic date we cannot hold, because a date we miss is worse for you than a range we meet.