ONCC Solar Installation

The community electricity costs were rising dramatically, over four fold since first studying the issue, and it was felt that solar would reduce the monthly costs to substantially zero.

The project began about the same time CCA became active. A combination of not electing out of CCA and the ten month delay in completing the project created a situation of unexpected higher electricity costs.

Reminder-The solar generated electricity is used for the operation of the community center, the auditorium, pool, outdoor lighting, etc. It does not provide electricity to ONCC homes or condos.

The original plans called for 15 ft height. After visiting other installations, a lower height was discussed. In conjunction with SolarFuze, the contractor, over 20 solar installations were visited by the original committee and photos taken. With additional input from SolarFuze, 10 ft was decided upon and SolarFuze revised the plans at no additional cost.

Good observation. Once the plans were substantially done, the original committee worked with SolarFuze on this very point and the plans were tweaked to arrive at the existing look and feel of the structure. SolarFuze felt strongly about this, pride of construction on their end and price of ownership by ONCC.

The ChargePoint EV charging stations are active and available only to ONCC members. Visit the ONCC office to obtain access.

You will need a ChargePoint account. ONCC will be added to your existing ChargePoint account.

Yes, the fee is nominal, estimated to be only enough to cover the costs to operate and maintain the charging stations.

They are Level II chargers at 6.5 Wh with J1772 connectors. Tesla drivers will need their own adapter.

It's too early to tell. One of ONCC's members has extensive experience in property management with parking lots with light poles, various overhangs including canopies and has fought pigeons extensively. He had two comments. 1. once the pigeons arrive, unless aggressive action is taken immediately, their friends show up to their new home. Once established it's a nightmare to get rid of them. 2. Once EV drivers see the droppings on the parking space they will will be hesitant to use that charger. This will be the same as having those charging stations out of action for maintenance or repair, cutting the revenue accordingly. This has been substantiated from stories from other facilities with similar canopies and charging stations.

Recently, pigeon droppings were noticed on the sidewalk near the pickleball courts. Are they expanding their new home?

No. As noted above, the charging stations are private for ONCC members only. It's too early to know but ONCC members who have experience with private stations say that it's quite humorous to watch non member drivers try to use the private stations.

This website contains information from the ONCC website, board meeting updates and "heard on the street". The ONCC website had good solar info, some of it copied to this site, however, all of a sudden it went dark, final installation stopped, the electricity bills stayed extraordinarily high and the board meeting updates stopped or were vague.

Something went wrong as evidenced by the very electricity expense and the large annual dues increase, presumably to cover these and other run away costs. (pqrst)

The parking lot gets full from time-to-time and it has been noticed that cars are parked in the spaces without charging connectors.

A. If a car uses the charging station the connector remains connected to the car until the driver returns. So we know that car is okay in the space. There was a grace period for "parking" but it's not clear if that's still in place.

If someone parks in a charging space without charging, it's clear they are just parking without charging. Specific procedures for this were in place but it seems that this has been dropped and an increase in violations are being noticed.

The board was made aware of this type of behavior and how it gets out of control fast. However, it does not seem the newer board member or manager has read that report or the solar business plan. (pqrst)

Of interest, the original solar committee negotiated this with SolarFuze and it was included at no extra charge. The board committee accepted this change. Over the long permitting delay, ONCC was approached by lighting companies and the board was ready to sign a contract for lighting installation. This was consistent with their approach to dealing what's in front of them rather than falling back on the contract (read the file and business plan.) Out of pure luck, in communication with SolarFuze, this came to the surface and the bidding process on the duplicate lighting was stopped.

This is a total mystery. The solar panels and microinverters are covered by 25-30 warranties. Any part that fails will be replaced by the manufacturer and the related labor would be performed by SolarFuze at no charge. The board or the general manager alluded that the SolarFuze contract was cancelled. A couple of members who are active in this business are guessing strongly that there is a pending lawsuit with SolarFuze. They base this on the ONCC financials and long delay for activation, and talking to others in the industry on top of the board's total lack of transparency.

One statement in the special board meeting was that Palomar would be continuing to monitor the system. Guess what? Enphase does that and notifies the owner if there are anomalies. ONCC has the same info and represented they would be monitoring. SolarFuze also monitors. This adds to the speculation that something is off and is hidden from the membership.