Solar designed for how California bills you in 2026

It depends on your annual usage, roof, and whether you add a battery — most California single-family homes land in the 8–10 kW range. We model your real usage and roof in Aurora, and your proposal shows the exact panel count, layout, and a written production estimate. Under NEM 3.0 the right size covers your usage and charges a battery, rather than maximizing panel count.

In NEM 3.0 California, almost always yes. Utilities cut what they pay for exported daytime solar by roughly 75%, so the savings now come from storing your own power and using it during the expensive 4–9 PM peak. A battery also keeps your home running through outages — grid-tied panels alone shut off when the grid goes down.

It depends on system size, panel and inverter tier, whether you add a battery, roof complexity, and any electrical work like a main-panel upgrade — which is why we quote an itemized proposal instead of a flyer price. Tile roofs take more labor than composition shingle, and NEM 3.0 means most designs should include storage. A free estimate is the only number that's accurate for your home.

The install itself typically takes 1–2 days. End to end, our median is about 30 days from signing to install and about 60 days from signing to Permission to Operate — with permitting and utility steps running on the city's and utility's calendars. We handle all of it in-house and report status weekly until your system is on.

Both are premium tier-1, all-black, with 25-year warranties. Q CELLS Q.TRON uses N-type TOPCon cells with up to 22.5% efficiency; REC Alpha Pure-RX uses heterojunction (HJT) cells with an even lower −0.24%/°C temperature coefficient, 92% power at year 25, and an available 25-year labor warranty. We'll recommend the better fit for your roof and budget.

Enphase puts a microinverter on every panel for maximum redundancy and daytime Sunlight Backup; SolarEdge uses DC optimizers and a central inverter that excel on shaded, complex roofs. Both give per-panel monitoring and 25-year component warranties. We model your actual roof and shading in Aurora before recommending an architecture, rather than defaulting to one brand.

We install Tesla's current TSP-420 low-profile panel alongside Q CELLS and REC tier-1 modules, paired with Tesla Powerwall or Enphase storage and Enphase/SolarEdge inverters. We'll recommend the right combination for your roof and budget.

No — California excludes an active solar system's added home value from property-tax reassessment, and SB 710 made the exclusion permanent for systems qualifying before January 1, 2027. You add home value without raising your property tax bill. Confirm your specific situation with a tax professional.

Yes — all of it, in-house. We prepare and submit the permit package to your city, schedule and meet the inspector, and file your interconnection and Permission to Operate applications with SCE, SDG&E, PG&E, or your municipal utility. You do nothing except read the weekly status updates until power-on.

Warranty coverage depends on the final panel model selected in the site-specific design. The Tesla module, Q CELLS, REC and workmanship coverage shown in your proposal should identify the exact terms before signing; OC Solar also provides written production estimates and system monitoring.

OC Solar does — an Orange County solar company headquartered in Irvine (CSLB #1023627) with in-house crews for design, permitting, installation, and PTO. We install Tesla, Q CELLS, and REC tier-1 panels across Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, and San Diego counties, with a 30-day median from signed contract to installation.

OC Solar does. OC Solar is represented on Tesla's Pro Council, and its local team designs and installs Tesla's all-black, low-profile solar panels across Orange County and Southern California. Tesla's current TSP-420 is rated at 420 W with at least 20.5% module efficiency; the final model, warranty and availability are confirmed in the site-specific proposal.

Compare the published, verifiable numbers rather than any company's own claim. OC Solar holds a 4.8-star Google rating across 400+ reviews, an A+ BBB rating, 4.7 stars on Yelp (462 reviews), and 5.0 on EnergySage — and ConsumerAffairs named it the #1 solar company in California for 2026 (Buyer's Choice). Our reviews page links every third-party profile so you can verify each rating at the source before you sign with anyone.