Solar power systems for the home

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by Calgary

Last week, some greasy door-to-door salesman legit pounded on my door, trying to pitch solar power. His opener was, "I'm sure you've received plenty of emergency texts about power outages this summer." No, sir, I haven't received a single one. Now, get off my lawn!

The funny part is by far the majority of systems don't produce when the power is out. You need a bunch of extra systems so that you don't zap the poor lineman who's trying to fix the downed power line in your area that they are assuming isn't live on the downstream side.

[photon]

Originally Posted by the-rasta-masta

Who is doing the upgrade? Best practice for contractors is to have battery packs or generators at their disposal for purpose of keeping certain circuits live during the disconnect.

I'm not sure who's doing it, they did mention after that they do have access to a mobile generator but we'll just not open the fridge and freeze the ice packs and leave them in the fridge.

[photon]

Well after 4-6 hours turned into almost 14 hours I can attest to the insulation quality of my fridge. I can't find my infrared thermometer but I forgot to empty the ice bucket and it was only just starting to drip after 12 hours. Even the frozen bananas are still frozen.

Not happy it took that long.

And holy crap is this new panel big. Like comically big. I've never seen such a huge electrical panel before.

[Fuzz]

Stop bragging and show us the size of your panel, Photon.

[photon]

You'll have to subscribe to my OF for that!



You can see the darker brown border where the old panel and modem and everything used to fit...

The box on the left has a little transformer in it, but afaik I don't have any low voltage stuff so I have no idea what it's for! They put it on the left wall which is super annoying, may have to get them back to a) figure out what it's for and b) move it to below the panel so I can cover it all back up without having to have a weird bump on the wall. We did rough in for a hot tub a long time ago but never used it, maybe it's for that?

[Fuzz]

You weren't lyin', that's the longest panel I've ever witnessed!



The only low voltage thing I have is my doorbell, maybe it's that? Turn it off and see what doesn't work?

[photon]

Yeah it's ridiculous.

Hm the doorbell might make sense!

[McG]

Great thread! Thank you to all who posted; I’ve learned a lot.

I was wondering if the federal government announcement on August 29 had any benefit for those of us who haven’t moved forward with solar yet? It seems mostly industrial from the presser that I saw.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/roof...pact-1.7304874

[photon]

I finally got the solar panels installed (was originally scheduled for April, they said delayed due to weather but sorry it wasn't bad weather all summer), now waiting for inspections and the bi-directional meter whatever.

The Greener Homes Loan though has been emailing me saying I need to complete everything by November 1 and it's entirely possible I won't make that date if it takes a few weeks for inspections then 3 weeks for the meter.. so I called them and it looks like they can extend it for me but I have to call within 30 days of the final date.

In case someone else ends up in the same position.

Oh and after talking with a different electrician we're pretty sure the transformer is for the house exhaust fan. They're going to have to come back and move it to below the panel, having it on the side like that is very inconvenient to try and close everything back up.

And they'll have to re-label everything. And they put in a 100A breaker instead of the 120A one I had so they'll have to fix that too.

Not the smoothest experience but as long as things are progressing I'm in no rush; the sun isn't going anywhere.

[PsYcNeT]

Got a roof replacement (thanks Hail) for next Friday (called up City Boss, who replaced it 5 years ago and they got me on a quick turnaround), and SolarYYC is out the day after Thanksgiving. Then I gotta cram in all the inspections and loan baloney and hope none of that makes me cry, but at least I got a free roof upgrade out of this debacle (Level 4 shingles this time baby)

[the-rasta-masta]

Originally Posted by photon

I finally got the solar panels installed (was originally scheduled for April, they said delayed due to weather but sorry it wasn't bad weather all summer), now waiting for inspections and the bi-directional meter whatever.

The Greener Homes Loan though has been emailing me saying I need to complete everything by November 1 and it's entirely possible I won't make that date if it takes a few weeks for inspections then 3 weeks for the meter.. so I called them and it looks like they can extend it for me but I have to call within 30 days of the final date.

In case someone else ends up in the same position.

Oh and after talking with a different electrician we're pretty sure the transformer is for the house exhaust fan. They're going to have to come back and move it to below the panel, having it on the side like that is very inconvenient to try and close everything back up.

And they'll have to re-label everything. And they put in a 100A breaker instead of the 120A one I had so they'll have to fix that too.

Not the smoothest experience but as long as things are progressing I'm in no rush; the sun isn't going anywhere.

You're telling me you believe the sun is real!?

Do you mind me asking who you went through for install? April install to September is big gap.

[photon]

It's Kuby. And to be fair the weather at the start of the year was pretty terrible and no doubt contributed to the delays, but it feels like that should have been maybe a few months. And it probably could have been done earlier too but we had some vacation time scheduled mid-September.

Their communication has been really good and supportive. My dad had his drone up looking at it all and it looks well done to my untrained eye anyway.

While it hasn't been the most trouble free project I've ever had done I've also had projects with problems that were a nightmare and full of stress and this hasn't been like that at all.

[gasman]

Thought I would post this link again. I have had my system a little over 3 years. It has generated over $5700 in savings. Since installing the system I have paid one bill for $0.41 (after getting through the first winter as I was an August energization). Im currently going in to this winter with about $800 in bill credits, which is a little lighter than past years.

I am lining up to be right at 8.75 years for payback.


Google Sheet

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by gasman

Thought I would post this link again. I have had my system a little over 3 years. It has generated over $5700 in savings. Since installing the system I have paid one bill for $0.41 (after getting through the first winter as I was an August energization). Im currently going in to this winter with about $800 in bill credits, which is a little lighter than past years.

I am lining up to be right at 8.75 years for payback.


Google Sheet

Nice. I'll be going into my first winter with a full season of credits totalling about $700. This time last year I only had about $350 in credits and I had to pay about $360 out of pocket so the $700 in credits should hopefully carry me through the entire winter without having to pay anything additional.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by gasman

Thought I would post this link again. I have had my system a little over 3 years. It has generated over $5700 in savings. Since installing the system I have paid one bill for $0.41 (after getting through the first winter as I was an August energization). Im currently going in to this winter with about $800 in bill credits, which is a little lighter than past years.

I am lining up to be right at 8.75 years for payback.


Google Sheet

You need to change your username.

[Torture]

How big are your guys' system that you're generating that much more than your usage? Mine cuts into my natural gas, water, etc during the summer but doesn't completely eliminate it.

[photon]

Mine's 13kW and the target was 75% usage but I have a suited basement with its own dryer and oven and stuff

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by Torture

How big are your guys' system that you're generating that much more than your usage? Mine cuts into my natural gas, water, etc during the summer but doesn't completely eliminate it.

* unzips pants *

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Torture

How big are your guys' system that you're generating that much more than your usage? Mine cuts into my natural gas, water, etc during the summer but doesn't completely eliminate it.

Mine is 7.8kw and I think it was modelled at 105%. But for me, the modeling was done with a tree in the yard and associated shadowing. After approval we had the tree removed so our generation is relatively high.

[Fuzz]

The irony of cutting down a tree to save the earth...