Solar Panel Installation » Installation Projects

This Solar Panel Does Not Seem To Make Sense

Dave — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 10:20:23 +0000

Sometimes I see solar panels put up just for the idea of giving the facility a little PR. This is one of those panels.

It appears that this panel just powers one light pointing at the apartment’s front sign.

I gotta think that is cost several thousand dollars to purchase and install all this equipment for one light.

What really got my attention on this panel was the angle in which it is mounted. It is mounted vertically on top of the apartment sign. Also why on top of the sign, that just looks bad, I am sorry but it does. I think they want people to see it, perhaps they want people to know that they are ‘Green’.

I will make you a bet that this panel will never recover it’s installation cost. Why because in a about 4 or 5 years when this apartment complex changes hands, the new owner’s will say that just looks bad and will remove it.

Post from: Dave Dugdale SolarDave.com I will be offering Solar Panel Diagrams soon. This Solar Panel Does Not Seem To Make Sense

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Make-shift DIY Solar Panel System

Dave — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 16:37:18 +0000

I ran across this solar panel system this weekend in Laramie Wyoming. Looks like it has been glued together over the years as the person acquired more solar panels.

My bet is that it doesn’t meet the local electrical code requirements.

Post from: Dave Dugdale SolarDave.com I will be offering Solar Panel Diagrams soon. Make-shift DIY Solar Panel System

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Solar PV Panels Awnings

Dave — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 21:06:13 +0000

I understand this installation was done by Bella Energy.

Post from: Dave Dugdale SolarDave.com I will be offering Solar Panel Diagrams soon. Solar PV Panels Awnings

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Colorado Rockies Solar Panels

Dave — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 18:28:15 +0000

Post from: Dave Dugdale SolarDave.com I will be offering Solar Panel Diagrams soon. Colorado Rockies Solar Panels

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Telluride Solar PV and Thermal Panels on One Roof

Dave — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 21:51:46 +0000

I was on vacation over the 4th in Telluride and I saw this house when I was leaving town. Petty cool looking roof.

Post from: Dave Dugdale SolarDave.com I will be offering Solar Panel Diagrams soon. Telluride Solar PV and Thermal Panels on One Roof

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Completed Residential Solar Panel Project from a SolarDave Reader

Dave — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 12:45:22 +0000

I got the following email from one of my readers. I thought it was well written and could help out others when installing their solar systems. I asked Ted if it was OK to share it and he was nice enough to say yes.

Email From Ted

Dave, I started watching your site in late 2008 and became
interested in the possibility of going solar. My project installation
was completed and went live last late last month. I thought you may
have some interest in what I, as someone who had no prior knowledge of
the subject, experienced.

After some months of research and discussions with people selling the
product I concluded that solar energy was not some arcane mystery
(which I believe is the impression that many have — and solar vendors
tend to perpetuate). I also concluded the expertise for installation
of a solar panel system does not require the skills of a brain
surgeon. In practice, in my opinion, the expertise required consists
of competent electricians’ and roofers’ knowledge. Again, not areas
of brain surgery.

I should point out that in my case high electricity bills were not a
driving consideration since my annual electrical bill is slightly less
than $1,000 (in large part due to having windows and patio sliding
glass doors replaced with gas filled, double-paned windows and doors).
While I am “green” oriented I needed some additional incentive to
pursue a solar project I happen to have an IRA account with a balance
of about $16,000 in a brokerage account that pays no interest.
Withdrawing those funds are subject to taxes that could be offset by
the Federal income tax credit, a meaningful option for me.

During my research I contacted some seven or eight contractors. The
first one seemed to know less about solar than I did. When offered an
opportunity to finance some of his customers contracts, I dropped him
like a hot potato. I ruled out a major provider of leased systems
since it did not fit with my financial objectives.

Five other contractors submitted bids based on their evaluation of my
requirements, quoting various panel manufacturer’s products that they
recommended. One of them quoted a system including a panel cleaning
system with an annual $600 contract to service it (more than I could
save in electric costs!). The price for that system was about
$36,000 (plus the aforementioned service fee). That was about twice
the final cost estimates I considered, ruling that contractor out.

A second company would only bid on a particular manufacture’s product
rated at 195kW. I learned that they had only become active in the
solar field a year or so ago, apparently having speculated by
acquiring a large quantity of those panels which is the only product
they would quote. Their price substantially exceeded the final quotes
I obtained that were based on 230kW panels. That contractor did not
get out of the starting gate. Coincidentally, I note in today’s
newspaper their add stating that they now offer Sun Power panels.

After researching the panels offered by three remaining contractors I
decided on using the SolarWorld SW 230 mono-crystalline panel, in a 14
panel configuration with a rated 3.22 DC kWh output producing a 2.747
AC kWh result. My specification included the SMA America SB-4000 240v
inverter and a Sunny Beam blue tooth metering device. The latter
based on my being dubious about going out to the inverter to copy
production stats from time to time. The blue tooth meter sits in my
den and provides all the info from the inverter, and is down-loadable
via the supplied USB cable to my computer.

One of the three final contractors would only bid on the Sun Power
SP230 in lieu of the SolarWorld. Incidentally I also specified that
the mounting hardware was to be Professional Systems’ Tile Trak since
I have a tile roof.

Based on my research I also concluded that installation in series vs.
parallel provided certain advantages relating to panels’
“water-falling” power losses, of which you are undoubtedly aware.

The total of the bids returned were: $22,218, $18,370 and $24,472 (the
latter the Sun Power quote). The bottom line after CA state rebates
and the Federal tax credit were: $12,301, $9,502 and $14,256.

I chose the lowest cost bidder not only based on price; I also found
the company owner a straight talker, more so than others I dealt with.

The sweetener in my deal arises from the fact that the net cost is
coming from the tax free liquidation of my IRA account. I estimate
that the net cost for the system ($9,502) will produce (without
speculating on future electricity rate increases) a return of about
3.98%, better than any CD is offering today.

The work performed was done in a very professional and timely manner.
All wiring from the panels into the roof went into my garage and no
wiring is visible on the outside of the house (it’s contained in a
neat-looking metal gutter box beneath the inverter). A picture of the
inverter as installed is attached, providing a good indication the
quality installation.

Ted
California

Post from: Dave Dugdale SolarDave.com I will be offering Solar Panel Diagrams soon. Completed Residential Solar Panel Project from a SolarDave Reader

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Solar Panel Car Port [Picture]

Dave — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 19:28:10 +0000

I was out for a hike today and found this cool looking car port with solar panels on it.

Post from: Dave Dugdale SolarDave.com I will be offering Solar Panel Diagrams soon. Solar Panel Car Port [Picture]

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Solar Panel Pictures In Maui Hawaii

Dave — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:40:01 +0000

I just got back from a very nice vacation in Maui Hawaii. It was very relaxing and a nice break from work. Lots of drinking by the pool and at the beach. We also went on lots of boat rides and got to see the whales up close which is always a highlight of the trip.

On the last day I took a bunch of pictures of solar panels that I saw. Since the price of electricity is so expensive you see them almost everywhere. In fact any new construction out there requires them.

Most of the houses have two solar thermal panels on the roof for hot water. However there are still plenty of PV panels too.

I bet this small panel on the boat is used to charge the battery on the boat.

Some pictures of wind turbines as well since Maui gets 10% of its energy from the turbines on the side of the mountain. I hear they plan on adding more to the mountain.

These turbines at the Aquarium made a bit of noise.

Here I am after getting totally wet after sailing on the America’s Cup sail boat.

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Reading A Net Metering Meter

Dave — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 16:19:30 +0000

I took these pictures of the net metering meter at the Superior Colorado North Pool on October 2 2009. I took them because I want to come back next year in Oct. 2010 to read it again to see what the result is of 1 year of solar panel use.

The comment from Drew (installer) mentioned in the post I did on the Pool system was this:

Without any energy efficiency measures being taken, this system will offset approximately 15-20% of annual energy costs.

I have a feeling that it will do much better than that, I will guess 50%. So that is why I took these pictures. However I have no idea how to read this meter since as you can see it has 4 different reading.

Anyone know how to read this multimeasurement net meter?

Post from: Dave Dugdale SolarDave.com I will be offering Solar Panel Diagrams soon. Reading A Net Metering Meter

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DIY Solar Install Photos and Writeup

Dave — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 03:00:43 +0000

Above is Joe’s online system (not all panels shown) from his micro-inverters.

I got an email from a SolarDave visitor telling me about his DIY solar install. I wrote him back and asked him if he wanted to share photos and any stories about things that worked and things that went wrong and he was kind of enough to share below (Thanks Joe!):

Hi Dave,

I only had one or two snafus along the way. The best advice is to plan ahead and research every step, including checking out your vendors. I had one vendor in Southern California who never shipped the items I ordered, and I had to send my credit card company after him. I didn’t lose money, but did waste almost eight weeks while he sent me nothing but excuses and lies. I can provide the name of the company that tried to rip me off, but I have already reported him to the BBB so he has at least one mark against him that people can research.

In California, the power company administers the rebate program and approves you for interconnection. In my opinion, this is a case of the wolf guarding the henhouse. True to form, PG&E dragged its feet on the interconnection application and the underlying message from them was: we will find any way possible to prevent you from turning your system on. Ultimately, they gave in and let me interconnect, but I am still waiting for the rebate check to show up, which the public utilities commission allows them 60 days to process. We’re coming up on 30 days without any communication following the acknowledgement of receipt of the rebate request form.

There’s no substitute for good planning. I had sourced most of the parts and priced them long before I placed orders. I had even gone in and mapped the rafter system in my house – which is irregular due to the house being built in stages and added on over its lifetime. I planned where each stanchion would be placed so as to distribute the weight better across all the rafters, and I followed my plans. In designing the system, I planned for expansion and “built in” some of the things I would need for expansion, like including extra lengths of ground wire that will eventually be connected to the panels and inverters in the next phase of the project, and leaving enough racking extending past the existing panels to extend it without disrupting the existing panels.

PG&E made a huge fuss about access to my system in case they might need to shut it off. Since their meter readers and repair personnel have had no problem accessing my home (there is a security gate at the main road that they have a code to open) in the decade I have lived here, I figured they already had sufficient access, but they tried to claim that they needed extraordinary access and couldn’t rely on “normal” means to get in. One manager even told me they would need to shut my system off 24×7 – even suggesting to me that at 3:00am, it might somehow be producing power and therefore would potentially be a danger to the repair personnel trying to restore power to the lines during an outage. I didn’t bother to point out that the inverters I use are approved by the power company itself and include anti-islanding technology, not to mention the whole point that at 3:00am, solar generators don’t tend to produce any electricity. Clearly, they were just trying to flex their muscles.

I did all the work myself, including muscling the panels up onto the roof one by one. I had a scaffold that I built for painting the house which helped a lot, but am told that it’s okay to edge-carry panels for a short period of time, such as when ascending a ladder. Since I had nobody else present to rush me to the hospital in case I should fall, I played it safe. There wasn’t anything truly difficult about the installation, and once I had worked all the details out in my head, it really went very smoothly.

The first power bill that arrived after I was interconnected was quickly replaced by a new bill, in which PG&E managed to find a way to charge me more for the same power I had used – but it also included a refund mandated by the State to cover a situation in which PG&E had overcharged the customers and was forced to refund the overcharge. I’ve been interconnected less than a month, but already, the savings are adding up!

~Joe

Post from: Dave Dugdale SolarDave.com I will be offering Solar Panel Diagrams soon. DIY Solar Install Photos and Writeup