Solar in Birmingham has to sit on steep, shaded, hail-prone roofs folded into ridges and dormers. A bungalow in the oaks may have no clean southern plane. A ridge house may have sky and wind in equal measure. The deck under the shingles decides whether rails belong there at all. Start with the roof you have, not a picture of a clear field.
Forest Park, Avondale, and Glen Iris roofs are cut up by dormers, chimneys, and cross gables. Street oaks throw shade across the best hours. Huffman and open valley streets offer longer fields and more hail exposure when a core drops out of a storm line. The slope that faces Red Mountain is not the slope that faces the old industrial valley. Say which way the big plane faces and what shades it after noon.
Skip sheathing and a tired shingle field are common on older houses. Mounting on a roof that already stains a ceiling borrows a leak. Steep pitches change how water runs off a flashing. Porch roofs that are nearly flat are a poor cousin to the main roof and a bad place to force equipment. An inverter tucked into a low, hot attic will live in the same bake that punishes the air handler.
Hail that bruises shingles will pit the glass and the neighboring field in the same pass. Wind on the exposed ridge lifts at edges and at any boot you add. Electrical panels in prewar houses are often full before a new circuit is discussed. If the attic shows daylight or punky decking, that is the news. The equipment does not improve a deck that is already soft.
Call with the neighborhood, the roof shape, and the shade. Dormers, a simple hip, a steep gable toward the valley, or a ranch plane with one chimney. Say whether hail has already marked the shingles and whether the attic wood is sound. Mention the panel only if you know it is crowded. This is a roof and weather conversation for a Birmingham house. Keep it there. Call the number on this page.