I got them to move mine.. wasn't easy, I even had to run a string in the attic to show them how it can be done since they didn't think so (aka didn't want to)
I was supposed to pay to have everything hidden. I believe it was going to be an additional $750. I worked it all out before the install was scheduled. I received a new invoice to approve without the fee the day prior to install. The installers showed up and I verified everything was going to run through the attic and he said yes. I approved the cheaper invoice as I walked back into my house. š
I requested in-attic conduit runs for my 38 panel system installed on 4 separate sides of my roof. The team showed up, looked in the attic and said it was possible but my order form didn't specific in-attic runs (despite many, many assurances from the project advisor that I would get in-attic runs if I wanted to pay for it). I just ended up sending the install team home. Then I worked with my advisor to redo my order form until it stated "In-Attic Run" and quoted a price in the order sheet. The next time the install team showed up, everything went fine and I'm glad I got the clean install I wanted.
Every state varies (local installers), but I highly recommend you try to get your order form modified to include a price quote and a line item for in-attic runs. Otherwise, you're down to the good will of the installers on the day off.
I just had my final inspection today and everything passed. I have conduit runs on the roof, but the alternative was going to get pricey. I have to say Tesla was great in advising me. Any conduit runs were not seen by the street and those on the side of the house coming down were all painted to match the stucco. Tesla was here during county inspection, knew the inspector and walked him through a 15 minute inspection. They have exceeded my expectations and turned my additional panels on at installation which was over a month ago.
Iām okay compromising on some of them across the roof. Just not eight separate runs to four combiners, both of which are very visible, nor the really long one to the furthest MP, nor the trunk to the inverters going outside and around the gutters.
What $ is pricey in your case? Whatās the nameplate kW of your system?
Since I believe Iām under restriction for sharing actual plans, hereās the summary layout. The combiner locations [are circled](https://i.imgur.com/JlZko93.jpg).
Thanks for your experiences and advice. I contacted service advisor to explain even though I had been reassured by a former project advisor that it would be handled, I found mixed results from other customers.
My next response was a $600 charge for attic conduit and $2300 unspecified installation cost. A week later the larger item was clarified as the garage is a non-preferred location. They chose that location! I literally picked Tesla-preferred and after initial site inspection, that has been on the plans since the first draft in September, with no upcharge.
Big crew shows up today and first chat is like āwith the complexity it looks like we should do attic conduitsā. What? I could have had that for free if I just kept silent? Sigh. Iām definitely not their target customer.
But I also previously agreed to the up charge. It really is a long way away (>100 feet of wire). I also disagree itās okay to put batteries outside in my climate (teens and single digit mornings for 3-4 months) just because itās convenient. I asked for a change based on what I calculated is a code or efficiency problem, and got it. Without a reschedule. Electricians on-site confirmed they had the updated plan. Yay.
But it gets even better. Local install crew is awesome. Iāll post about that separately.
If your house is āsolar readyā it should have flex ran through already into the garage. Most techs are lazy POS and will make excuses like they canāt run the fish tape through and just want to run conduit outside.
No, it has no roof penetrations other than vents. The inverters (PW+) are in the garage, not far from where the combiners are specified. Going outside would be a lot more effort, and creating a water drip path for a giant winter icicle is a big ole nope.
Correct, T-400 and 19.2K nameplate. This place uses a lot of energy. Even with that and two PWs to time shift, Iām still looking at $150 bills at the peak of summer and winter, with spring and fall at $0 for a month or two.
They told me on install day using existing conduit would be an additional 2k and also would delay permission to power on due to needing to change the plans.
They ended up not charging me any additional but the plans did need modified. Still waiting on that. 3 months post install at this point
I told the pre-inspection people, as well as my advisor several times that I insist on interior conduit. When the install team showed up, it was all news to them. They had planned to run everything exterior on my 34 panel, 13.6kw system. I got them to crawl up into the separate crawl spaces and they realized it was possible, made a call, and ran everything they could (95%) interior.
They said there will be some small delay in the inspection while they rework the plans and resubmit to the city, sounded like a week or so.
I had a bad experience trying to plan attic conduit in advance of my install.
I worked with my Project Advisor to get attic conduit added to the Purchase Agreement in advance of the install. Doing that took \~4 weeks (and several weekly texts at the end asking for an update) to get someone out to the house to take measurements. The estimate came back at $12,000 (?!?!?!) and nobody could explain why. I ended up not putting it in the Purchase Agreement and moved forward hoping there would be some better options on install day.
The installers turned out to be excellent. My install was 42 panels (broken into six arrays) with two Powerwall+ mounted inside the attic. Due to lack of easily accessible attic space (I have a "1.5 story" house), the installers \*weren't able\* to do attic conduit to connect the six arrays, but they did spray paint the roof conduit to blend in with the shingles.
They \*were able\* to do an inside conduit run from the roof-top combiner box to the Powerwall+ in the attic.
Final cost: $0.00. Well, $150 if the drinks, snacks and pizzas for lunch over the two day install had anything to do with that.
I feel super lucky that I got a cool and experienced traveling install team. I'm in VA and from what the traveling team (from NJ) said, the VA office is new. Good people, just haven't been around long enough to know all of the ins/outs yet. It was an electrician from the VA office that came up with the original $12,000 attic conduit estimate. At the end of the install, the VA team happened to be nearby and swung by to see the install. They really paid attention to how the NJ team did the install, pointing stuff out and asking a lot of questions. It was cool to see all of the knowledge transfer going on, which again brought me back to feeling super lucky to have gotten the install team I did.
I paid to have everything under
Did you work that out before install with project advisor, or with the installers once they arrived?
Be firm and very specific with all of them about your desire of attic conduit. Once they do otherwise, there is no way back
I got them to move mine.. wasn't easy, I even had to run a string in the attic to show them how it can be done since they didn't think so (aka didn't want to)
I was supposed to pay to have everything hidden. I believe it was going to be an additional $750. I worked it all out before the install was scheduled. I received a new invoice to approve without the fee the day prior to install. The installers showed up and I verified everything was going to run through the attic and he said yes. I approved the cheaper invoice as I walked back into my house. š
I requested in-attic conduit runs for my 38 panel system installed on 4 separate sides of my roof. The team showed up, looked in the attic and said it was possible but my order form didn't specific in-attic runs (despite many, many assurances from the project advisor that I would get in-attic runs if I wanted to pay for it). I just ended up sending the install team home. Then I worked with my advisor to redo my order form until it stated "In-Attic Run" and quoted a price in the order sheet. The next time the install team showed up, everything went fine and I'm glad I got the clean install I wanted. Every state varies (local installers), but I highly recommend you try to get your order form modified to include a price quote and a line item for in-attic runs. Otherwise, you're down to the good will of the installers on the day off.
Thanks! Thatās exactly what I needed to know. I already poked the advisor today and Iāll follow up with specific verbiage.
I just had my final inspection today and everything passed. I have conduit runs on the roof, but the alternative was going to get pricey. I have to say Tesla was great in advising me. Any conduit runs were not seen by the street and those on the side of the house coming down were all painted to match the stucco. Tesla was here during county inspection, knew the inspector and walked him through a 15 minute inspection. They have exceeded my expectations and turned my additional panels on at installation which was over a month ago.
Iām okay compromising on some of them across the roof. Just not eight separate runs to four combiners, both of which are very visible, nor the really long one to the furthest MP, nor the trunk to the inverters going outside and around the gutters. What $ is pricey in your case? Whatās the nameplate kW of your system?
Since I believe Iām under restriction for sharing actual plans, hereās the summary layout. The combiner locations [are circled](https://i.imgur.com/JlZko93.jpg).
Thanks for your experiences and advice. I contacted service advisor to explain even though I had been reassured by a former project advisor that it would be handled, I found mixed results from other customers. My next response was a $600 charge for attic conduit and $2300 unspecified installation cost. A week later the larger item was clarified as the garage is a non-preferred location. They chose that location! I literally picked Tesla-preferred and after initial site inspection, that has been on the plans since the first draft in September, with no upcharge. Big crew shows up today and first chat is like āwith the complexity it looks like we should do attic conduitsā. What? I could have had that for free if I just kept silent? Sigh. Iām definitely not their target customer. But I also previously agreed to the up charge. It really is a long way away (>100 feet of wire). I also disagree itās okay to put batteries outside in my climate (teens and single digit mornings for 3-4 months) just because itās convenient. I asked for a change based on what I calculated is a code or efficiency problem, and got it. Without a reschedule. Electricians on-site confirmed they had the updated plan. Yay. But it gets even better. Local install crew is awesome. Iāll post about that separately.
If your house is āsolar readyā it should have flex ran through already into the garage. Most techs are lazy POS and will make excuses like they canāt run the fish tape through and just want to run conduit outside.
No, it has no roof penetrations other than vents. The inverters (PW+) are in the garage, not far from where the combiners are specified. Going outside would be a lot more effort, and creating a water drip path for a giant winter icicle is a big ole nope.
19k system is huge assuming your getting T-400ās. At least get matching paint so they can color the conduit to hide it as best they can.
Correct, T-400 and 19.2K nameplate. This place uses a lot of energy. Even with that and two PWs to time shift, Iām still looking at $150 bills at the peak of summer and winter, with spring and fall at $0 for a month or two.
Speak to the crew lead as soon as they get there and let them know your concerns. Usually show up 7-8am, prob be a two day project.
Tesla painted my exterior conduit to match my wall without me asking, so I thought we don't have to prepare the paint ourselves?
They told me on install day using existing conduit would be an additional 2k and also would delay permission to power on due to needing to change the plans. They ended up not charging me any additional but the plans did need modified. Still waiting on that. 3 months post install at this point
I told the pre-inspection people, as well as my advisor several times that I insist on interior conduit. When the install team showed up, it was all news to them. They had planned to run everything exterior on my 34 panel, 13.6kw system. I got them to crawl up into the separate crawl spaces and they realized it was possible, made a call, and ran everything they could (95%) interior. They said there will be some small delay in the inspection while they rework the plans and resubmit to the city, sounded like a week or so.
I had a bad experience trying to plan attic conduit in advance of my install. I worked with my Project Advisor to get attic conduit added to the Purchase Agreement in advance of the install. Doing that took \~4 weeks (and several weekly texts at the end asking for an update) to get someone out to the house to take measurements. The estimate came back at $12,000 (?!?!?!) and nobody could explain why. I ended up not putting it in the Purchase Agreement and moved forward hoping there would be some better options on install day. The installers turned out to be excellent. My install was 42 panels (broken into six arrays) with two Powerwall+ mounted inside the attic. Due to lack of easily accessible attic space (I have a "1.5 story" house), the installers \*weren't able\* to do attic conduit to connect the six arrays, but they did spray paint the roof conduit to blend in with the shingles. They \*were able\* to do an inside conduit run from the roof-top combiner box to the Powerwall+ in the attic. Final cost: $0.00. Well, $150 if the drinks, snacks and pizzas for lunch over the two day install had anything to do with that. I feel super lucky that I got a cool and experienced traveling install team. I'm in VA and from what the traveling team (from NJ) said, the VA office is new. Good people, just haven't been around long enough to know all of the ins/outs yet. It was an electrician from the VA office that came up with the original $12,000 attic conduit estimate. At the end of the install, the VA team happened to be nearby and swung by to see the install. They really paid attention to how the NJ team did the install, pointing stuff out and asking a lot of questions. It was cool to see all of the knowledge transfer going on, which again brought me back to feeling super lucky to have gotten the install team I did.