Well I finally finished my new 9.2 KW solar system. Things started slowly. I was very optimistic back in March, expecting to be on line in a month or so. Well permits, approvals by the local utility and getting all of the required drawings, etc took nearly 3 months. Biggest delay was the utility and trying to get permission to encroach 25' into the transmission line right-of-way (on my land). The area was not cleared or maintained by the utility, but after a long wait it was off limits for any permanent structure, no iffs, ands or buts.
So I cleared some trees and had the neighbor (he has an excavating business) clear about 120' x 100'. After clearing, I waited for the final drawings of the ground mount, showing the footer locations. Once that arrived, the Kubota was put into action to dig the footers. A few heavy storms later, I dug them again, and then Hurricane Irene let me dig them a third time. Finally I got to put some yards on concrete in. I also dug 120' of trench for the conduit from the house to the solar array location.
In parallel, I got all of the inside work done at night. This included mounting and wiring the inverter, watt-hour meter and external AC disconnect. The DC wiring from the array requires metal conduit in the house, and the main breaker on my service panel had to be changed to meet code requirements for max. allowable currents.
Got the outside DC wire pulled and terminated in j-boxes at the array. The panels arrived within a few days of needing them (scheduled that way). It was a long day, but I got them all mounted in one long Saturday. The last of the wiring was completed, and I got the electrical inspector out for the final inspection. Once that was done, I submitted the signed paperwork to the local utility. Finally switched on , setup the inverter and started seeing the meter spin.
Now sin switching on, we have had only one partly sunny day. That day resulted in 39 KWH of generation. But in the northeast, we have had weeks of rain. This delayed every step of the process, and has limited me at the low end to 10 KWH to upwards of 30 KWH generation. I have been impressed with the surprising amount of power on damp, totally overcast days. Outputs range from 2.5 KW to 400 watts when it is completely overcast.
It will be interesting to see how things develop whenever the sun appears again.
paul
So I cleared some trees and had the neighbor (he has an excavating business) clear about 120' x 100'. After clearing, I waited for the final drawings of the ground mount, showing the footer locations. Once that arrived, the Kubota was put into action to dig the footers. A few heavy storms later, I dug them again, and then Hurricane Irene let me dig them a third time. Finally I got to put some yards on concrete in. I also dug 120' of trench for the conduit from the house to the solar array location.
In parallel, I got all of the inside work done at night. This included mounting and wiring the inverter, watt-hour meter and external AC disconnect. The DC wiring from the array requires metal conduit in the house, and the main breaker on my service panel had to be changed to meet code requirements for max. allowable currents.
Got the outside DC wire pulled and terminated in j-boxes at the array. The panels arrived within a few days of needing them (scheduled that way). It was a long day, but I got them all mounted in one long Saturday. The last of the wiring was completed, and I got the electrical inspector out for the final inspection. Once that was done, I submitted the signed paperwork to the local utility. Finally switched on , setup the inverter and started seeing the meter spin.
Now sin switching on, we have had only one partly sunny day. That day resulted in 39 KWH of generation. But in the northeast, we have had weeks of rain. This delayed every step of the process, and has limited me at the low end to 10 KWH to upwards of 30 KWH generation. I have been impressed with the surprising amount of power on damp, totally overcast days. Outputs range from 2.5 KW to 400 watts when it is completely overcast.
It will be interesting to see how things develop whenever the sun appears again.
paul
