Solar panels in Chatsworth

Chatsworth is part of the City of Los Angeles, and the city's own utility, LADWP, supplies its homes. LADWP is city-owned and runs its own net metering program, so the state's NEM 3.0 rules, written for Edison and the other investor-owned utilities, do not apply to it. Our guide to LADWP solar net metering explains how LADWP credits the power you send back.

The hills are different. Small communities sit on unincorporated land just outside the city, among them Twin Lakes, Fern Ann Falls and Deer Lake Highlands, north of the 118, and Chatsworth Lake Manor, beside the Chatsworth Nature Preserve near the Ventura County line. The California Energy Commission's utility map puts each of them in Edison territory. In October 2019, all four were on Edison's list of areas facing possible fire-weather power shutoffs. Live near the city line? Check a recent bill. The name on it, LADWP or Southern California Edison, sets the rules your system is designed around.

Those rules differ a lot. On Edison, a home that applied to connect solar on or after April 15, 2023 is on the state's net billing tariff. Exported power earns a credit based on its value to the grid, which is usually less than the retail price you pay. So on Edison, a kilowatt-hour you use at home is usually worth more than one you send out. That is why a battery gets a serious look there: it saves midday power for the evening. Our article on whether a solar battery is worth it in Los Angeles compares the two utilities.

The permit office changes at the same line. Inside the city, the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety (LADBS) issues solar permits. Its online express permit skips plan check only when a job stays inside a list of limits. Among them: a rooftop array of 10 kW or less on a one- or two-family home, and a service panel rated 225 amps or less. Past the city line, the county issues the permit. On the Los Angeles County side, Public Works' Building and Safety division can issue an express permit through its EPIC-LA portal for a home roof-mount system up to 38.4 kW AC, with or without a battery, when no plan check is needed. Parcels across the Ventura County line answer to Ventura County instead. Either way, we handle the permit and utility paperwork as part of the solar installation process.

CAL FIRE issued new fire hazard severity zone maps for the City of Los Angeles on March 24, 2025. State law has the city adopt them, and the city cannot lower any zone. On that map, Chatsworth's Very High zone follows the rocks. It covers Stoney Point, Chatsworth Park South, Iverson Road, Santa Susana Pass Road and most of the slopes along Valley Circle Boulevard. CAL FIRE also rates the hamlets past the city line Very High. The flat blocks around the train station and Chatsworth High School are outside the Very High zone. CAL FIRE's record of the Topanga Fire, which broke out on September 28, 2005, places it in the Chatsworth area on the Los Angeles–Ventura county border. It burned 24,175 acres.

Inside the Very High zone, LADBS requires a Class A roof covering when you re-roof. When more than half of a home's roof is replaced, LADBS also calls for a cool-roof product certified by the Cool Roof Rating Council. So the order of work matters. Replace a worn roof first, to Class A, then mount the panels. Do it the other way around and you pay later to take the array off and put it back. That job is our panel removal and reinstall service.

The fire department's brush clearance rules for the zone reach the roof too. Roofs must stay free of piled-up leaves, needles and twigs. Overhanging branches need 5 feet of clearance above the roof. Panels make this harder, because leaves and nests collect in the gap underneath. A mesh screen around the edge of the array helps keep leaves and birds out. A look under the panels belongs on any hillside home's solar maintenance schedule.

Outages are the other half of fire season. A grid-connected array stops making power the moment utility power drops, so panels alone will not keep the refrigerator cold. LADWP's 2025 wildfire mitigation plan says it has no procedure for cutting power ahead of fire weather and has never done it. It cuts power to a line one incident at a time: during a fire, for a specific hazard, or when the fire department asks. Edison does run planned Public Safety Power Shutoffs in high fire weather. A battery carries the circuits you choose through either kind of outage. Under LADBS's express rules, a home battery also needs its own Fire Department plan check, which adds a step to the permit timeline.

Chatsworth is the northwest corner of the Valley we cover from Northridge. Next door, read about solar in Porter Ranch to the east, and solar in West Hills and solar in Canoga Park to the south. Or browse every Southern California community we serve. Already have panels that are not producing? Our solar repair service works on systems from any installer.