Solar panels in Sunland-Tujunga

The City's annexation map dates Sunland's entry into Los Angeles to August 4, 1926. Tujunga, which had incorporated as its own city in 1925, consolidated with Los Angeles in March 1932. So the city-owned LADWP serves the neighborhood: the California Energy Commission's utility map puts 99% of the Sunland-Tujunga Neighborhood Council's roughly 10,400 houses in LADWP territory.

Mailing addresses mislead at the edges. Homes with Tujunga addresses on Stonyvale Road and Big Tujunga Canyon Road sit on unincorporated county land, where the state map shows Edison and LA County Public Works issues permits. Around Lowell and Honolulu avenues at the southeast tip, parcel records split blocks between Los Angeles and Glendale, even on Lowell itself. Glendale's side is Glendale Water and Power territory, and the state's utility map does not trace the city line exactly. Near either line, go by the utility printed on your bill.

LADWP credits exported power under its own net metering program, not the NEM 3.0 billing state regulators set for Edison customers, and if you would rather lease than buy, the lease has to meet LADWP's terms. Our LADWP solar net metering guide covers both.

Inside the city, contractors can get an LADBS permit online for a rooftop system of 10 kW or less on a house or duplex with a main panel rated 225 amps or less; bigger or more complex jobs go to plan check, and a battery also needs a Fire Department plan check. The nearest LADBS counter, open by appointment, is the Braude Building in Van Nuys. For a solar installation we design, the permit package and utility application are part of the job.

Tujunga's Bolton Hall, built of local stone for the Little Landers colony and dedicated in 1913, is Historic-Cultural Monument No. 2, one of 12 City monuments inside the neighborhood council, several of them houses. For solar on a designated building, LADBS requires a signed historic-building advisory notice but no City Planning clearance. On the county assessor's roll, the median house here dates from 1954, about one in six predates 1940, and nearly nine in ten predate 1980.

On houses that age, check the roof and electrical panel first. LADBS waives the separate building permit for a flush-mounted array on a house or duplex only if the roof has one roofing layer, shows no sagging or signs of alteration, and keeps panels to half its area or less; otherwise the structure goes to plan check. An original main panel may have no room for a solar breaker; then an electrical panel upgrade can join the same project.

The San Gabriels rise north of the valley, away from the winter sun; the Verdugos rise to the south, on the sun's side. We ran USGS elevation data against the sun's path for each house on that roll, ignoring trees and buildings. On December 21, the ridges took about half an hour of direct sun from the typical house, nearly all of it low light near sunrise or sunset that makes little power. South of Foothill Boulevard, though, about one house in eight loses two hours or more that day, against about one in a hundred north of it. There, ask for a shade report that models terrain, not just trees.

Shadow Hills borders the neighborhood to the southwest, Lake View Terrace to the west and the City of Glendale to the east. See solar in Shadow Hills, solar in Lake View Terrace and solar in Glendale, or every area on our service areas page. Our solar repair service also works on systems other companies installed.