Solar panels in Arleta

SurveyLA, the City's historic resources survey, notes that most streets in the Arleta-Pacoima plan area run 45 degrees off the compass directions, continuing the grid of the neighboring City of San Fernando, which followed the Southern Pacific line built in the 1870s. The City's street map bears that out: more than 90 percent of the street length inside Arleta's neighborhood council boundary runs within 10 degrees of a diagonal. Osborne, Terra Bella and Branford streets run northeast to southwest; Arleta, Canterbury and Beachy avenues cross them from northwest to southeast.

The houses line up with the streets. In the City's building outlines, about 92 percent of Arleta's house-sized buildings sit within 12 degrees of that diagonal grid, so their roof planes face some mix of southeast, southwest, northeast and northwest.

To see what that costs, we ran PVWatts, the solar production calculator from a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory, for one 4-kilowatt array at Arleta's coordinates on a 4-in-12 roof pitch. Facing southeast or southwest, the array produced about 95 to 97 percent of its due-south output over a year. Facing northeast or northwest, it produced about three-quarters as much, and in December only about 40 percent.

So the layout starts with your street and your ridge. On one of the northeast-running streets, a house's front and back walls face southeast and northwest; on an avenue, they face southwest and northeast. If the ridge runs along the street, the two big roof planes face the same ways, and most panels belong on the southeast or southwest one. A hip roof has a plane on every side, putting both of those good faces within reach.

Because LADWP belongs to the City and writes its own solar rules, the CPUC's NEM 3.0 tariff, which governs Edison and the other investor-owned utilities, does not set what your exported power earns. Our LADWP net metering guide explains how LADWP credits those exports and which lease terms it accepts.

Arleta has been its own community since 1968. SurveyLA records that residents of Pacoima's western part petitioned in the 1960s to break away, as the new 5 Freeway cut through, and took the name Arleta. It stayed part of the City of Los Angeles.

Being part of the City means two approvals: the LADBS permit, and a separate LADWP application to connect the system, since LADBS does not refer permit applicants to LADWP. A battery adds a third stop on the online route: the Los Angeles Fire Department reviews it under its own fire plan check and permit. We design the system and take care of both the LADBS permit and the LADWP application; our solar installation page lays out each stage.

Weighing a battery? Our Los Angeles solar battery guide works through the LADWP case. Buying outright? Price it without the federal residential solar tax credit, which ended on December 31, 2025; the 2026 solar tax credit guide covers what still applies.

If an older array on your roof has stopped producing, our solar repair service can take it on, even if another company installed it. Arleta's neighbors have their own pages: solar in Pacoima, across the 5 Freeway; solar in Panorama City, southwest across Woodman Avenue; solar in Mission Hills, to the northwest; and solar in Sun Valley, along Arleta's southeastern edge. Every neighborhood and city we cover is listed on our Southern California service areas page.