My new victim

Discussions about Renewable Energy, including photovoltaics, wind, and small scale hydro.
Creating power for your home, off grid.
Emphasis on nuts-n-bolts, hands-on projects.

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Dennis The Bus Dweller
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My new victim

Post by Dennis The Bus Dweller »

This is a house I was suppose to do last fall before the bottom dropped out of the economy but finely there going ahead. I’m using 26 Sharp 224 watt panels and 2 Sunny Boy 4000 watt inverters. 13 panels on a 12 pitch roof and 13 panels on the flat roof. I except the equipment on Wednesday and start the install on the next clear day. I’ll post some pic’s as I go.

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Last edited by Dennis The Bus Dweller on Sun Jul 26, 2009 9:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by AccordGuy »

Glad to hear business is picking up a bit.

It's a bit of a weird shaped house... And looks half finished - Is that some kind of protective wrapper on the left-hand wall?

For the ones on the flat roof, what do you use for fixing them on the roof at an angle?
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Dennis The Bus Dweller
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Post by Dennis The Bus Dweller »

Hi AccordGuy

That rap is pretty much standard here as far as NY goes. It’s called http://www2.dupont.com/Tyvek/en_US/index.html for the outside and for the inside we use a product called http://www.nontoxic.com/moisturecontrol/tutuff.html You would be surprised how much the interior vapor barrier keeping the place warm and cool. This pic was a month ago when I last went out there and it should be finished now. The 13 panels the im putting on the flat roof only be pitched about 10 or 12 inches about 10 feet because the people don't want to see them from the ground. But they will see the other 13 on the 12 12 pitch roof. Remember, The homeowner is always right, right?
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Post by Dennis The Bus Dweller »

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I was out at the job today it was really hot up there so Ileft a bout 2:00 The blocks that fix the panels to the standing roof are great, they really make the job a walk in the park. I’ll take some pic’s on Tuesday when I go out for another try at. We’re getting till then.
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Post by AccordGuy »

How do you lift them up?

It was really hard to get my Sharp 170Wp pair up on the garage roof. You couldn't climb a ladder with one as it was too big and heavy to grip both sides or top and bottom (like the installation guide said) and if you tried to pick it up by the middle of just a top edge there was a risk you might buckle the frame or unseat the seals to the glass.

That's why I only bought 35V 160Wp panels and 17.5V Sharp 80Wp panels after that as they are small and light enough for me to lift and wall mount by myself.
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Post by Dennis The Bus Dweller »

I brought them up through the house to the second story deck then it’s 1 at a time up a 10 foot ladder to the roof. I think they only weigh 35 lb’s each but there 39 ¼â€
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Post by Dennis The Bus Dweller »

Ok, Here's a few pics of the standing seam mounting blocks. I think there great "if" the roof it installed right.
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Here is a pic of the track for the flat roof.
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Post by Griff »

Dennis The Bus Dweller wrote:Ok, Here's a few pics of the standing seam mounting blocks. I think there great "if" the roof it installed right.
Image...
Thanks for posting the pics, Dennis, please keep 'em coming!

I am particularly interested in whether or not all the "slope" roof panels are the same size...I'd like to see how the transition is going to go where the roof "steps-down" to shorter than the height of the shown panel at the left end :? ...color me curious, heh, heh!
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Dennis The Bus Dweller
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Post by Dennis The Bus Dweller »

Hi Griff

All the panels are the same size. There are only 3 horizontal panels on the top row. 6 horizontal panels on the bottom row then on the far end of the roof where you can’t see from the ground I have to turn 2 panels vertically and then the last 2 will be horizontal again. Rather then go with 1 string of 13 and 1 string of 9 I had to do the funky thing to be able to fit 2 strings of 13. If they could be seen from the ground I would have stuck with 1 string at 9 panels but I thought the extra 896 watts was useful so I did the funky thing :lol:
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Post by AccordGuy »

Nice pics Dennis.

The block mount system looks interesting just using clamps to hold the panels. I suppose the panels are specially designed to fit the pitch of the roofing ridges?

Out of interest, why didn't the owners want the panels visible from the ground? Most people here want to show them off... unless they're worried about people stealing them.

That's how I came by my last two Sharp 80W panels. The guy had mounted five of them on custom stainless steel frames on his sailing boat but too many people in the marina were taking an unhealthy interest in them so he feared they might get stolen (and his boat damaged or broken into as well).
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Dennis The Bus Dweller
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Post by Dennis The Bus Dweller »

Hi Accordguy

The #1 reason people don’t do solar here is the expense and (Yes Folks) Believe it or not the #2 reason is that they say there "UGLY" :shock: I tellem, How ugly is a bill from the power Co. “Uglyâ€
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Post by Dennis The Bus Dweller »

Ok kids

Tomorrow I run wire to the ground and hooker up. So far I have 25 really hot hours in to the system. It’s been so hot up there that I don’t do more then 5 or 6 hours when I did go out there but now im on the ground so it will be much cooler. If all goes well I should be done in 2 more trips out there. Here is a few more pic’s.

These are the new nifty ground clips. All yah do is slip them under the panel before you bolt them down and it grounds the panel to the track then yah just run a #6 stranded ground cable from track to track and down the pipe to the equipment. They save yah a bunch of money in #6 cable.
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Combiner box
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26 panels in all, 2 strings of 13 each with there own 4000 watt Sunny boy inverter.
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Dennis The Bus Dweller
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Post by Dennis The Bus Dweller »

2 SMA Sunny Boy 4000 watt inverters
Image
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Post by Dennis The Bus Dweller »

Well kids, I have the system up and running and the meter is running in the right direction ( Backward )
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Now if all goes well, Im doing a 10318 watt system next door within the month. I need the money for winter.
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Post by AccordGuy »

Nice one. With those grounding clips... Don't you have to sand down the points at which they touch the frames? The Sharp panels I have have a clear coat on the aluminium which means you have to sand down the patch around the ground holes they provided or else the ground connection will be insulated!

Is the grounding just for human safety (exposed metalwork has to be connected to the house earth) or is it for lightning protection? I would have thought that grounding the frames might make them more of a target for lightning.
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