New Project coming together

[deanathpc]

Awesome video!  I'll watch it again when I had pen and paper so I can take notes!!

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[Steve Gase]

very cool, and I like the way you handled the different factors (like battery).
thanks for sharing!

[jess_her]

 Nice job RJ
 
Been reading up on M215 microinverter, big bang for he buck. It must look at the utility to sync phases, do you know if it is a true sign wave?
Jess

[arw01]

Thank you very much RJ, just doing some quick back of the napkins figures, putting a couple of these up would run about $1000 to $1200 locally.  At the 9.2cents per kWH I find myself paying quite often at the top tier, it's a payback in the 7-8 year range providing 10 hours a day of feedback to the grid at 210 watts per panel.  During the winter it would be less, during the summer it would be more, so I figure that is pretty close.

Off to do some research on back feeding locally and to see what they pay vs what they charge.

So literally in the house panel, you just have both 240 volt sources tied to the bus bars?  I never paid much attention that they had a spot for the second cable to mount, but you said a 60 amp breaker on the panel, so you just adapt your 2-0 wire to 10 gauge or 8 gauge copper and connect directly to that split 60 amp breaker?

Again thank you!

[RJ]

The power comes in to the panel on 6awg and then connects to a two pole 60 amp circuit breaker. This ties it to both phases for you safely.

They are true sine wave but it does matter since they will not run with out the grid, the grid would always make it pure sine.  They do sync, when they power up they go into a monitor mode where they want to see reliable power for a full minute before they will make power. During this they track and sync.

Check out pvwatts

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It will let you tell it where you are, the closet weather reporting location, how big a system. From this it tells you what you will get taking in the weather averages ove the last ten years.

Does a good job but is normally a little conservative or the microinverter systems. If you change the debate ratio from the default .77 to .835 you get closer to real numbers on these systems.

RJ

[IndianaChristmas]

I, like everyone else, love this idea.  I wouldn't consider myself much of an expert on this at all.  So I ask...

I did go to the PVWatts calculator above.  If I put the data in correctly using RJ's setup of 12kW I entered 12kW into the DC size for the array.  And the fudge factor of .835 with everything else being default.  I used my area (Albany, NY) it calculates something like 15,000kW/year or energy value of about 2,000$/yr.
 
My electric bill is only 70$/month (a bit higher around Christmas for some reason!).  This translates into about $840/year for electric.
IF the calculations are correct, I could "sell" back ~1100$/year of electricity?  This seems a bit unbelievable.

[taybrynn]

I believe they pay you a lot less for "your" energy ... than they charge you, but still very cool.

[RJ]

Correct, you do not want to make large amounts of extras for this reasons. We will make close to 18000 KWH which we use about 17000.

RJ

[chrisatpsu]

Correct, you do not want to make large amounts of extras for this reasons. We will make close to 18000 KWH which we use about 17000.

RJ

Does this figure include your light show that you don't put up?
(not so subtle hint to do a light show this year.)

[tbone321]

Yea, he can turn that giant solar grid into an active matrix display.   

[ghethco]

Hey RJ, nice job on the ground mounted array.  I went solar myself (rooftop 3.8 kW) in 2009.  I was so taken with it that I decided to work in the solar industry here in California.  I worked for about two years as a system designer.  I designed quite a few ground mounted systems and I have to say I'm very impressed with what you've done considering you're not in the business.  Since then I've been working for Sunrun, a solar services company.  We make solar more affordable by lowering the upfront cost (PPA if you know what that is).

I have to say, though, that doing what RJ has done properly is beyond the average do-it-yourself project.  RJ clearly has a lot of knowledge and experience that most of us don't.  Even a small system can generate plenty of power to start a fire, so please be careful if you decide to attempt a project.  At least have a licensed electrician do the wiring and tie-in for you.  That's where most of the risk is.  Also keep in mind that you will have to comply with local and national building, electrical and fire codes unless you don't plan to permit it (which I wouldn't advise).  These regulations vary *a lot* depending on where you live.

Gary

[sjb]

Great job RJ.

Just amazed at what you come up with all the time.

Steve

[RJ]

Thanks,

It really is not that difficult now a days with the microinverters. you plug the units into premade cabling. There is no high voltage DC of the string inverters or the math to design the strings etc. Its basically adding a branch circuit. The manual takes you through everything you need to know. 

While I did all the electrical myself I would agree if you are not solid on doing this you should just trench, run the wire and then pay a electrician to make the connection as already pointed out. 

The racking is also easy, you go to ironridge and run their program, put in your panels and the number of them, wind load speeds required and it does the work and you print the stamped engineering data to provide your building department for your permit. It's just a big erector set. You follow the instructions in the assembly manual.

I am not saying it is not alot of work but the design work is all done for you. But like most DIY if you don't mind doing it yourself the rewards can be great. To have the system installed was quoted at $63,000 We did it for $25,000. After the 30% tax refund from it we ended coming in with the $17,500 As I said.  A great place to deal with is wholesalesolar, This is where we got our stuff and they were very helpful. They sell kits for it of about any size you want.

RJ

[RJ]

Ok finally got the new meter from the power company and turned on my system today.

For anyone interested here is my public site

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There is only today's data since I just turned it. But it is a live site and you can watch it as the days and months go by.

RJ

[duane.mosley]

we are in the process of designing our new house. I think I just found our power supply. thanks RJ.