Residential Solar

I have an automatic 6% replacement value increase each year (part of the insurance package). The house was of low value when I bought it and I knew I'd be doing lots of work on the house. So instead of having to inform them of every piece of sheet rock I put up (or new windows, roof etc), I chose the "plus" plan to make sure I never got caught short. I don't skimp on insurance for my properties (car or house). I don't want to be underinsured as a lot of people find out the hard way (I've known some of those people).

I can live with paying a couple more $ in premiums each year if that means when something catastrophic happens, I don't have to sweat the small stuff (or take out a mortgage to rebuild to the way it is in this case).

 

AND, they are back to a 10/18 install date (they called me Monday, which I had forgotten to mention when I was discussing insurance). Last weeks' thunderstorms got them behind on installs (that is their story anyway). Interesting timing - the day before Unitil announced a 77% electricity rate increase. My conspiracy theorist side tells me that that a larger customer knew it was coming and gave them an incentive to get their project done faster. While my rational side can understand that it's really not safe to be on a roof during storms.

 

Wednesday the solar company called and said that they thought a big commercial job may be completed early so they might be able to come over Friday to do the install - would that work for me? It happened to coincide with my Friday off, so I said sure. The rep said she would call me late Thursday afternoon if they would be able to make it the next day. And as my luck usually runs, the weather guessers started predicting high winds and heavy rains starting Thursday night and until noon or so on Friday. The rep did not call my Thursday evening, which is what I fully expected because of the weather.

Well, the winds never materialized for my area, although we did get a fair amount of rain. I was pleasantly surprised on Friday morning when the rep called and said they would be over in a while if it still worked for me. Cool! When I mentioned the high winds that never materialized, she expressed how if the weather turned they would either hunker down for a while, or quit and come back on Tuesday (scheduled day of install).

The crew arrived and started the work. The electrician also arrived and started his part at the panel. Note to electrician, when a circuit breaker is off, you don't just randomly turn it on, being "helpful" without checking with the homeowner. Fortunately it didn't cause any problems, but I had the circuit breaker to the old air handler off for a reason. At least he did check with me later (after he had flipped it on)

I happened to go out and check the progress about 11, and noticed that the east side rail work was not as I had requested. The work order was supposed to tell them to place all the panels as high as possible in order to maximize the sun exposure since that is the shady side of the house. Instead, they had set the rails to make it look "pretty", in a triangular pattern, so most of the panels would have been on the lower part of the roof. I don't care about pretty, I care about efficiency. Fortunately I caught them and it was fairly easy for them to move. The great thing about standing seam roofs, in this application, is that they solar installers don't have to drill holes in the roof, instead they use clamps.

The bad thing about standing seam roofs is they are slick when wet (which is why they dump show so readily). The crew decided that they didn't want to risk dropping the panels because of the slickness of the roof, so quit about lunch time. They had not quite finished reinstalling all the rails on the east side, but they made good progress.





East side - still awaiting more rails after they had to take the original configuration down. Not complete yet and more panels will go in front of the chimney. This side will be 7 panels.


South side - this side will be pretty much maxed out at 6 panels and obviously they still have a minor amount of work to finish up the rails


West side (not great pic - I'll get a better one later). This side was made "pretty" and will hold 7 panels.


So a partial crew should be here Tuesday to finish up. Of course, the forecast has changed from possibility of rain, to definitely getting rain, so we'll see.

 

I couldn’t bring myself to put so many holes in a beautiful metal roof. Do they let you know what percentage of maximum output you will get based on the elevation and bearing of the panels? Will the chimney shade the array during certain times of the year? Looking forward to see the progress..thanks..

 

I think and bogieb please correct me if I’m wrong, certain standing seam roof they don’t need the screw they clamp onto the ridge of the seam.

putting holes in a roof is a huge NO here

 

Clamps on standing seam.

 

Not sure what part of, "The great thing about standing seam roofs, in this application, is that they solar installers don't have to drill holes in the roof, instead they use clamps." was confusing. There are no holes.

I have shade during the morning on the east and dappled shade in the afternoon on south side, so my site is challenging. The chimney will cast some shade at certain parts of the day. The 8.0 kw system is estimated to make 6,656 per year. We'll see. Of course they can't predict cloudy weather. I'll be happy if it just offsets the ~5,000 kwh I use per year. If it makes more than that and I get paid for it, that is gravy.

Exactly right

Ah, cool - thanks for the pic!

 

I promised a better pic of the west side railing system and here it is. This side is totally shade free so I wasn't worried about panel placement as I was with the east side. It looks like they are going to go with a 1-2-4 pyramid (top to bottom - 7 panels).

 

Yesterday they came out to finish the install: East side, south side (can't get good pics since there is no higher ground over there), then the west side







Now it is more waiting - potentially more than a month before it is active. The town has to inspect with the electrician, so that has to be set up (the company does that). Then, the electric company has 20 business days (4 weeks) to come in and change out the meter. Even though the installer says that part is usually less than 2 weeks, the way my luck is (for everything, not just this project) is that not only will it take the full 4 weeks, but they will lose my paperwork so it will take even longer.

 

That is a scam, You can install solar much cheaper. My system was 11k after rebates. Check out unboundsolar.com

 

I think he had a LOT of batteries and a rack(s) instead of a roof mount.
No pics so it could have been all fantasy as well.

 

Those are just the prices I was quoted. Company has been in business for 11 years so no scam. Just plain old cost prohibitive!

 

Just used their calculator and they are spot on with the quotes I have received for the same sized system. Payback is 33-41 years.

 

You have another 42 years left in you Dave. You’ll see a little bit of a return.

 

I'd be into three digit age....way into 3 digit age!

 

Their calculator is not accurate. I used their calculator and my system is producing double the electricity. What is your kwh usage for the year?

 

He is also a Yooper; the sun is less intense and less available then say Texas.

 

100% correct. He's in the same zone as me though.