Solar panels in Sylmar

Foothill Boulevard is the line to know. By our count, laying 2020 Census housing counts over the fire maps puts more than half of the homes north of the boulevard in a High or Very High zone on CAL FIRE's 2025 map, and over four in ten inside the City's own Very High zone. South of it, fewer than one home in twenty is in either. The Fire Department points residents to the state's map to check a property, so look up yours before comparing quotes.

The Sayre Fire, 11,262 acres in CAL FIRE's incident record, reached the Oakridge Mobile Home Park, a gated Sylmar community north of Foothill, in November 2008 and destroyed 480 of its 600 homes, FEMA reports.

LADBS's fire-zone checklist applies California's wildland-urban interface code to homes in a High or Very High zone on either the local or the state map. There, any roofing laid in a repair or alteration must be Class A, and wood shakes and shingles are out, fire-retardant treated or not. Where Class A roofing is required, LADBS wants the panels and racking rated Class A too, tested as one assembly. Replace a roof with only a few years left before the array goes up; if panels already sit on a tired roof, our panel removal and reinstall service handles the lift-off and reset.

Every Sylmar home in Tier 3, the top tier of the state utility commission's fire-threat map, sits north of Foothill, where Tier 3 covers a little over one home in ten. LADWP's 2025 wildfire plan says it has no protocol for cutting power ahead of fire weather and has never done so. It cuts lines incident by incident, for an immediate hazard or at LAFD's direction, and in fire-threat districts crews patrol the whole circuit before restoring it. The plan also records LADWP customers losing power in an Edison safety shutoff where the two grids meet. Panels alone shut off in an outage; a battery with a backup panel keeps chosen circuits on and needs its own Fire Department plan check and permit. Our guide to solar batteries in Los Angeles weighs the cost.

The Los Angeles Aqueduct reached its terminus at what is now Sylmar's northwest corner in 1913, and City annexation maps show most of today's Sylmar joining Los Angeles in the 1915 San Fernando annexation, with smaller pieces added through 1987. Being inside the City is what puts these 12 square miles on LADWP.

Your roof's credit is another matter. LADWP credits exports under its own net metering rider, not the CPUC tariff that governs Edison, and it nets what your panels export against what you use each billing period. Our LADWP net metering guide explains the credit and the lease terms LADWP accepts if you would rather not buy.

Edison's own service-territory map stops at the City of San Fernando line, though the state Energy Commission's utility map shades a band of Sylmar beside it as Edison. Near the border, the utility named on your bill settles it; an Edison home falls under net billing, covered on our San Fernando solar page.

Census Bureau estimates put about 22,700 homes in Sylmar's 18 census tracts. More went up in the 1980s than in any other decade, about one in five, and more than a quarter predate 1960. Check the main electrical panel first: LADBS issues online permits only for rooftop systems of 10 kW or less on a panel rated 225 amps or less, and if an older panel can't carry solar plus new loads, an electrical panel upgrade joins the project.

On a solar installation, we design the system and prepare the LADBS permit and the LADWP application, and our solar repair service takes on systems other companies put in. Buyers should leave the federal home solar credit out of the math; it expired on December 31, 2025, as our 2026 tax credit guide explains. Nearby, see solar in Pacoima, solar in San Fernando, solar in Mission Hills and solar in Granada Hills, or browse every area we serve.