they aren't? Ummm...why because you have 300 days of shunshine a year? That's all well and good, but what about nighttime? You're not going to have a brownout at night?
I think its time to
A) find a new contractor
B) start learning about solar yourself and DIY it.
Personally, having talked to a few people who have investigated alternative energy solutions in my neck of the woods, finding a good contractor seems to be a tough row to hoe. Most seem like fly by night shiester's and give the same bull you've experienced. They can't come in, slap something on your house in 8 hours and charge you 25,000 for it...because you're not the typical use case. They would actually have to apply some thought and work on some design...and they don't have a cost model for that.
I think a bunch of it has to do with the old rules for net metering and what they "paid" you for excess power back into the grid. All of our utilities are moving to time of use and dramatically lowering the credit per kwh. Currently we pay around .30 per kwh and they will soon start to credit .04 per kwh.
The biggest issue with battery is expense and ROI. It would add roughly 15 grand to our install and I'm at the ragged edge of what I will spend right now and don't want to add 25% to that.
Ya'll city dwellers have it easier. I'm 100% electric. I have no option for propane or natural gas.
I do not have a contractor.
I am looking for one that makes sense.
I do not have time to DIY or the patience to figure it out.
I was discussing how the install will go and my particulars. Oh, if you are worried about roof penetrations, (I am) then we can do a ballasted system. Ballasted, what the fuck is that? Oh, basically just sandbags or weights on the racks. Oh hell no. You walk on that flat roof and feel it bounce if you don't walk lightly? No, well pay attention to that next time you're up there skippy because you ain't sandbagging my already skimpy roof trusses.
I do suspect that this relationship was not long for this world when I asked how they planned on bring the power run from inside the parapet wall down to the main panel. Oh that's easy, they will set a box at the bottom, run conduit up, over the parapet, down the roof and punch through right above the main panel.
So you mean they will run it surface mounted on the roof and punch through the patio cover? Yes.
How about fuck no? Get a roofer out here, punch through the parapet inner vertical wall with a flashing, then you're inside the attic and can drop down right to the panel through the soffit which is 3/8" ply. Total conduit run will be 1/6 if you run it full distance and I not sure you have to have conduit in the attic, do you?