Yesterday the installers showed up to finish the project. Yes, they were hoping for early in the week (Monday or Tuesday), but despite the forecast, it started misting early Monday morning and continued thru Tuesday night. Precipitation for over 36 hours and I received about 1/16" - but the roof was always wet and dripping.
South side - can't get a better pic since all the land on that side is lower than the house
East side - stood on a stump of one of the trees cut back there
West side
It could be a month or more before it is generating power. 1st step is for the town inspector to come out and look it over. Oh, and the electrician has to be here too, so their schedules have to match.
Once the inspector signs off, they send in paperwork to the electric company for them to come out and change out the meter. The power company has 20 working days (4 weeks) to do that. The install company said usually it is within 2 weeks. But, with my luck, it will be longer than the 4 weeks because they will lose my paperwork or something.
So yeah, could very well be Thanksgiving before the switch get turned on.
Looks like you are well on your way to producing your own electricity. Good for you! I guess I'm a little surprised that panels are on all four sides of your roof. I hadn't thought about that. When I was considering installing on our house, I was thinking only of the southeast and southwest sides. Perhaps that was for cosmetic reasons - not being so visible to traffic on our street. (I don't recall checking whether our covenant allows such installations because HH was against the project, so it made no difference. As many times as I've read our covenant, I don't recall any mention of such equipment - only antennae.)
Posted by: Cop Car | October 22, 2022 at 02:43 PM
For your situation, the southeast and southwest sides would have been perfect.
The panels are only of 3 sides of my roof - East, South and West. Most people only place panels on 1 or 2 sides (depending on the orientation of their roof and any shade).
The westerly side is a few degrees towards the north, so not optimal. and some of the bidders only showed placing panels on the east and south sides.
But, the east side gets a fair amount of shade during the summer until late morning. The guy that came out to measure light on my roof in May (for the installer I chose) said he normally wouldn't suggest panels for the westerly side because of that, but thought in my situation, it would be worth it.
The west side really won't produce during the winter, because of sun angle and slight northerly orientation. But during the summer, it should make up for it since there is no shade over there. Since the electric comapany "banks" any overage the panels produce during spring/summer/fall, it is a compromise I was willing to make (and the way I had originally envisioned anyway).
Posted by: bogie | October 23, 2022 at 04:42 AM
Ah, thanks for the clarification. Obviously, I didn't fully get the picture - lol.
Posted by: Cop Car | October 23, 2022 at 08:16 AM