As much as we enjoy poking fun at the "solar butchers" from Utah and California, this house has quickly become one of my favorite ugly solar installations!

So, I'm driving down the highway and see this house out of the corner of my eye... as I start to get closer, I can't contain my excitement... this bugger is U-G-L-Y! I was so tempted to knock on the door to ask who did the work but I chickened out...

Look, up on the roof...

Is it a bird?

Is it a plane?

No, it's a super crazy solar installation.

ENJOY!

WOW, That is some design

There can only be one explanation - DRUGS!

I guess all it takes is one little hit of acid... and the creative juices start flowing.

The moral of the story is don't do drugs while you are designing a solar project.

Kids, don't do drugs or you'll grow up thinking that this looks good!

To make a long story short, a NJ building inspector found our solar hall of shame while he was searching the internet for examples of bad installations to share with his team.

He actually called me up and told me to drive by this address because he saw one that was worthy of our wall. YIKES! If you think the front is bad you should see the back of the house. I just couldn't get a good picture from the street... YIKES! Some company Eco-something did the installation. Beware of CRAZY designs!

Careful design, premium equipment, and trained installation personnel are required for an attractive and long-lasting solar installation. It appears that all of these were missing from this solar installation.

As you can see, there is a tarp on the roof to keep the water from pouring into the homeowner's house. Installing so close to a roof valley and not using proper flashing materials is a great way to guarantee a leak. While aesthetics are important (which is also missing from this installation - nice silver frames), engineering, materials and skilled labor are critical.

Amateur hour continuesin Holmdel New Jersey with this unsightly solar installation on a $2 million home (yes, we looked them up on Zillow)!

In addition to the bargain basement solar panels, take a look at the GAP for the missing solar panel (it's too small to fit a solar panel). Is this amateur hour... or did the installer just forget his tape measure?

Beware of orange lawn signs.Perhaps these guys should go back to selling alarm systems.

How about moving a vent pipe or two? Or hiring a guy who knows how to use a tape measure. Its not that hard to get the two arrays to line up? Wake up Mr. and Mrs. homeowner. You should fight back if someone does this to your house!

Oh, by-the-way, you could have saved 2x more a year if you purchased your system for $0 down instead of leasing it.

Let's start from the top and work our way down. First, the top panels extend past the ridge line.... but it doesn't stop there...

Notice that the panels start to change color right at the midpoint of the roof --- that's because they are totally different solar panels! Yikes!

Now how about that work of art along the wall... love all of those centralized inverters --- the technology hasn't changed much since the 1970's and they are still ugly.

But wait, there's more ---- This is a preschool with kid's toys lined up right next to the inverters. that's smart!

Almost ran off the road again!

This is great example of how NOT to install solar. We really have to wonder why a homeowner would allow this to happen...

Did they just want the cheapest system possible???

Did the solar installer just take advantage of the client?

WAKE UP New Jeresy... don't let this happen to you!

Silver Bells... makes for nice holiday song. Silver frames on solar panels... makes for one UGLY solar installation in Freehold NJ.

For a few extra dollars more (like $5.00 a solar panel) get black frams!

Especially if it's the front of your house.

wRECk-It Ralph has nothing on these guys!

Without naming them directly, they really know how to 'REC' a 'Solar' installation.

Why would the homeowner let you install solar panels like that???

And, why did you need to run conduit all over their roof???

This might be okay for installations back home in San Luis Obispo, CA but NOT in New Jersey!

You get what you pay for!

Sometimes a picture is worth 1000 words!

Once again... You get what you pay for!

Property value prior to this "FREE SOLAR" installation: Over $1 Million. Property value after this devastatingly ugly solar installation, You decide!

Hello Solar INSTALLERS and Leasing Companies: Please, Please, PLEASE invest some time in design! Spend a little extra money to install the conduit INSIDE of the house!!! As a Home Owner, you have the right to review and approve the design of your system before it gets installed. Don't let folks get away with this!

Our site survey lead climbed up the roof of a new client when he saw this in the back yard. Good thing for his safety harness, because he almost fell over!

Who was did the construction approval when this was installed???

I was driving to get my flu shot when I saw this installation and I nearly ran off the road.

To my very pleasant surprise this work of art is on the headquarters building of a large NJ Solar Installer....

Well, at least they have solar... but I wouldn't advise them to bring any of their potential clients over to see it... YIKES!

I know I'm bad ---- but I just can't help myself... You really need to see a close up of this installation...

... Okay, I'll stop --- I know it's not professional

We saw this beauty while leaving a client's house in Brick NJ. This masterpiece backs up against a private lagoon in Brick, NJ...

How would you feel about waking up one morning to admire the view outside of your bedroom window only to see this?

I wonder if this beauty has affected the real estate value in the neighborhood?

We were driving down route 36 when we saw this installation at a traffic light. The panels seems to be installed evenly and level, but there are conduit runs all over the roof and down the side of the house.

There really is no need for all of that conduit. Saving a few dollars on the installation isn’t worth it!

We discovered this house on the way to a client installation. We just can not imagine how the poor homeowner let the installer get away with this.

The vent pipes on this house should have been relocated and the solar panels should not be hanging over the edge of the house. If you look very closely, you will also see that the conduit runs along the roof. It's not that hard to keep all of the wiring in the attic!

We were able to look up this installation in the NJCEP database, and it was completed by one of the largest solar installers in the State. Bigger may not always be better.

This Utah-based alarm company turned solar leasing company used the same Zep Solar equipment that we use... But that's about where the similarities end!

What is going on with the electrical combiner boxes on the roof? And look at all of that conduit running across the roof. Worse than the look of the conduit, can you see what it is mounted to? This leasing company actually used pieces of 2x4 to mount the conduit to the roof.

I guess this is the price that you pay for FREE solar (gone very wrong).

Another Utah-based alarm company's solar installation gone wrong... same good solar panels and racking system... but they are using standard centralized inverters - cheap old technology.

Come on guys, move the client's vent pipes --- and the installation will look and perform so much better because you will have less shade from the vent pipes casting a shadow on your solar panels.

Perhaps the conversation went something like this... I know we said that we could fit all of these solar panels on your house... But we didn't actually have a design before we showed up.

Then again, we hired some day workers from the train station down the street --- but they didn't really know how to read a tape measure... so we are off a little bit on the top row. I bet that was the problem!

I hope that you don't mind having a solar panel dangling 2 feet over the side of your house.

There is absolutely nothing positive to say about this installation which is located about 200 yards away from one of our client.

We can not imagine how this mid-tier installer got away with what they did to this poor family. If you look closely, you will see that they actually overlapped the solar panels.

Hello BUILDING INSPECTOR? Did you look at this installation when you went out to inspect it? The rails and footings cannot be structurally sound.

The solar panels on the lower roof are a mess too. Even though they look straight --- they are too close to the wall of the main structure. That whole row of panels isn't getting any Sun. It's just a waste of money!

Sometimes you just have to say NO... NO... NO --- I will not put solar on your house!

Why did this solar installer take this job? There are absolutely no redeeming qualities about this installation.

There a so many other ways to install solar. Perhaps a solar canopy or solar awning?

How many solar panels can they stick onto the front of a house?

Was this one of those "free solar" deals? Did anyone approve the design before the installer started?

Regardless of who you select for your solar installation and ongoing management, please be sure to review and approve the solar design before they start work!

Is that a ZIPPER on the roof?

We saw this on the drive over to a client --- there were about a dozen really bad installations in a fairly new development in East Brunswick.

Once again, we are amazed that a client would approve this design --- especially for on the front of their house.

How hard did you try to space out the solar panels like that???

This was in the same development as the Zipper Installation in East Brunswick.

With just a little time and not much effort the installer really could have made this solar installation look nice

Question: Did you even have a design in mind before you sent the crew out there to do the installation?

It's bad enough that the inverter technology being deployed is from the 1970's, but this client needs to have their inverters moved indoors because they were installed in direct sunlight.

This is once of this installations that totally amazed our team. All of the wiring was run across the roof and down the side of the house in some sort of flex-tube.