Pre Site Assessment Inspection

Some buildings you are asked to perform a solar site analysis on are not going to qualify for a solar energy system. The reasons behind this can range from insufficient energy needs to weak support structures and wrong roof directions. To save yourself some time and money of going out to a site and performing a site analysis you can perform a little inspection ahead of time. The following is a list of things you can do before you make the trip out to a potential solar electric system installation site to perform a solar site assessment.

First we will cover some should ask questions. These are some quick questions that can be answered over the phone and will help determine the customer’s needs and if the location will require an in person visit for a detailed solar site analysis.

• What are your energy needs?
• What is your energy usage?
• What is your energy bill?
• What type of structure is the installation happening on?
• What are the available roof surfaces and what direction do they face?
• Are there any obstructions on the roof?
• Are there any structures that will cast shadows on the roof where the installation will happen?
• What is the address of the building the installation will happen on?

Now that you have these it is ideal if you have a computer in front of you with the internet because you can perform a quick review of the location using various satellite services. These various services such as Google Earth will allow you to look at the location from a satellite view. The only issue with this is that often times these images are old and outdated. That is the reason for having the potential customer on the phone. While you are looking at the image describe anything that looks problematic such as trees that might cast shadows or obstructions visible on the roof and have the customer confirm they are still there because they could of been removed. Also make sure to ask if anything has been added. You will  basically do a verbal inspection using the satellite image with the potential customer.

If you determine after this phone interview that the site warrants a in person visit then you can set that up with the customer before getting off the phone. The benefit of having all this information ahead of time is that when you show up to the potential customers home you can already have a rough system design laid out to present the customer to give him an idea of what he is looking at.