Bogieblog

April 2023 Solar Production Report

Despite 6 days of very little production (2.9 - 10.1 kwh produced), I still logged in a respectable 774 kwh produced in April.

I use anywhere from 6.5 to 10 kwh per day; most of the difference is use of the clothes drier. The west side produced more per panel than either of the other sides (except for 1 panel on the south side).

I do enjoy that with the 3 sides of panels, I start producing some energy about 7 am and it goes thru about 7 pm (as of yesterday). I've seen some houses with panels only on the south side, or east side and wonder how much of the day they get production. Of course the circumstances of the house orientation and roof style impact the configuration.

With the trees starting to leaf out, although at this point they are barely leaflets, it will be interesting to see what the effect is on the east and south sides in the coming months. I don't expect them to reduce production (because the sun angle will be higher). But will production increase on those side? And if so by how much, percentage wise, as compared to the west side increase?

And, as an aside, I added a "Solar" Category for posts. I believe I have updated all previous entries starting from my investigations into solar thru the install and activation, including the tree work and chimney work I had done, and of course my reports on solar production. Hopefully I caught them all because apparently searching for the word "solar" doesn't actually bring up every post that mentions solar, or even has solar in the title.

Shortening - Not the Kitchen Type Though

The chimney for the boiler and water heater has been a PITA lately.

1. I've been watching it because it seemed like the top couple of layers of block were showing signs of damage.
2. It didn't have a covering so any rain/snow came right into the building envelop. The moisture did not seep out of the cleanout in the basement - but it was going somewhere, and I wouldn't doubt that it contributed to the moisture that seeps up thru the basement floor.
3. Since I put in the solar array, it has been very evident that on sunny days one panel is really affected by the shadow it cast, and another is somewhat affected.

I contacted a local mason (the town FB page is very handy for finding the local people that don't really advertise and go by word-of-mouth), he came and looked at it last Sunday.

Now, in my dreams, I would have had the chimney removed. It is in the middle of the house and takes up valuable kitchen space, and then more space in the basement (not so valuable, but  still). Plus I would have been able to close up the roof and block off any air infiltration from the attic into the house. BUT, that would have taken major work, in a fairly inaccessible location (the attic access is thru a closet in the office). Additionally, with the standing seam roof, and the solar array, even more complications are introduced (shingles would have been a straightforward project even with the array). I wasn't sure I was willing to go thru such a major project to gain a couple of square feet in the kitchen. The mason also pointed out that leaving the chimney there just in case it was ever needed again would not be a bad thing. So, we agreed upon it being shortened and capped.

Tuesday he came out and did the work

Is it pretty? No, but it is functional (or non-functional - LOL) and really, you have to stand on my back property line to get a good view of it - and I don't care what the people in the apartments back there see :)

Pictures from 11/05/2022

Last Saturday was nice and I did some outside work. One of those jobs was to touch up caulk on the back side of the house. I bought the brown caulk several months ago, and just got around to doing the job. I didn't necessarily think the brown would be the "right" brown to match the siding, but I was not expecting this.

So now there is a bunch of plum colored stripes in various places back there [shaking head]

I went out to water the pot of mums in the roadside garden and noticed a couple of things: 1st, that the Japanese maple had dumped all its leaves overnight (literally). Second, the Coppertina Ninebark, although mostly leafless, had a bit of color hanging on.

 

The colder mornings have the squirrels building winter nests. The first is in the northeast corner and the second is on the east side. I'm surprised there aren't more as there are 4, sometimes 5, squirrels that are regularly in my yard.

Spot and Rainey (L to R) were exhausted from watching birds, squirrels and bugs

And, if you look really close, you can see a faint reflection of Rita sitting in the window - an ear is to either side of the post of the cat tree and her back is behind the dangly ball.

The Town Did Their Thing

A week ago Thursday, 10/27/22, the town inspector came out and signed off the paperwork. The next day the installer submitted it to the power company. Technically tey have until the day after Thanksgiving to install the meter.

Better picture of that south side (obviously before the work was quite finished). Picture was part of the submission the installer sent to the utility

Solar Install Complete - Now More Waiting

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.

Starting the Solar Project

UPDATE: New picture of west side rail system is at the bottom of the post.

Wednesday the solar company called and said that they thought a big commercial job may be completed early so they might be able to come over Friday to do the install - would that work for me? It happened to coincide with my Friday off, so I said sure. The rep said she would call me late Thursday afternoon if they would be able to make it the next day. And as my luck usually runs, the weather guessers started predicting high winds and heavy rains starting Thursday night and until noon or so on Friday. The rep did not call my Thursday evening, which is what I fully expected because of the weather.

Well, the winds never materialized for my area, although we did get a fair amount of rain. I was pleasantly surprised on Friday morning when the rep called and said they would be over in a while if it still worked for me. Cool! When I mentioned the high winds that never materialized, she expressed how if the weather turned they would either hunker down for a while, or quit and come back on Tuesday (scheduled day of install).

The crew arrived and started the work. The electrician also arrived and started his part at the panel. Note to electrician, when a circuit breaker is off, you don't just randomly turn it on, being "helpful" without checking with the homeowner. Fortunately it didn't cause any problems, but I had the circuit breaker to the old air handler off for a reason. At least he did check with me later (after he had flipped it on)

I happened to go out and check the progress about 11, and noticed that the east side rail work was not as I had requested. The work order was supposed to tell them to place all the panels as high as possible in order to maximize the sun exposure since that is the shady side of the house. Instead, they had set the rails to make it look "pretty", in a triangular pattern, so most of the panels would have been on the lower part of the roof. I don't care about pretty, I care about efficiency. Fortunately I caught them and it was fairly easy for them to move. The great thing about standing seam roofs, in this application, is that they solar installers don't have to drill holes in the roof, instead they use clamps.

The bad thing about standing seam roofs is they are slick when wet (which is why they dump snow so readily). The crew decided that they didn't want to risk dropping the panels because of the footing, so quit about lunch time. They had not quite finished reinstalling all the rails on the east side, but  they made good progress.

South side - this side will be pretty much maxed out at 6 panels and obviously they still have a minor amount of work to finish up the rails.

East side - still awaiting more rails after they had to take the original configuration down. Not complete yet and will hold 7 panels, some of which will go in front of the chimney

West side (not great pic - I'll get a better one later). This side was made "pretty" and will hold 7 panels.

So a partial crew should be here Tuesday to finish up. Of course, the forecast has changed from possibility of rain, to definitely getting rain, so we'll see.

ADDED 10/16/22: Here is a somewhat better picture of the west side railing system. Looks like they are going to do a 1-2-4 pattern (top to bottom with 7 panels)

Solar Update Part II September 2022

In my last update earlier this month, I had indicated that the solar array install would be on the 7th of October (they had pulled in the date - after it had been pushed to 10/18). Well, this past Monday they called and pushed it back out to 10/18/22. Apparently the storms of the previous week had put them behind schedule.

So now, instead of realistically expecting energy production to start by the middle of November, I'm thinking I would be lucky if it will start by Thanksgiving.

As my boss replied when I let her know of the change (again) to my PTO day: BOOOOO!

Sometimes You Just Have to Fudge It

After the handyman did what he wanted (painting the house) he ghosted me on blocking in the two large foundation windows (no, he didn't get rest of money). Here is why I wanted the windows removed and blocked up. The first is the window into the basement (the heater room). Although the frame is good, the window obviously has problems (it has been that way since I bought the house).

The garage window frame is rotting out (this is new and from water running off the ramp). One of the window panes is also cracked (not in picture)

Foundation repair places, at least the one's that would come to my town, said they didn't do things like block in basement windows. Really? Isn't that pretty much like replacing foundation blocks that have deteriorated?

The window replacement company (again, the one that would come to my area) said sure, they would replace frames and windows. Took my money then 2 months later said they couldn't do it (returned said money).

So now, this late in the season, I said screw it and got a couple pieces of concrete backer board and temporarily boarded them up.

For the garage window, I first covered the window frame holes with composite pieces I have used for window trim inside the house. Since they aren't wood, they won't rot.

Then the concrete backer board - well, you will just have to imagine that since Typepad is giving me fits trying to add pictures to this post and absolutely refuses to upload the last pic (even after I created several new pictures). Update - once I posted live, as opposed to saving as a draft, I went back and tried and the pic finally uploaded. Not that you can see much thru the railings . . .

Maybe next year I can find a mason in this area who will do the work

General Updates

Solar Update - We are still waiting for electric company, Eversource, to approve the interconnection application. There is no moving forward until that happens and like many companies, they are understaffed at this point, so we wait for the approval. The solar company is well experienced at these4 types of delays, so the contract has the guarantee install by date as no later than September 30. I was hoping things would go smoothly enough that it would be closer to the 10 week window than the 20 week window, but there is nothing that can be done.

Basement Window update - My handyman has ghosted me. Apparently all he wanted to do was the painting. Wish he had told me of that sooner as I could have started making other plans. Oh well, nothing I'm not used to and I hadn't payed him for that part yet, so it's just more time. I was trying to get the two large (and BTW, useless) windows in the basement & garage blocked in. But even companies that do foundation repair are only interested in replacing the windows - and most don't service this area anyway (I live in the triangle of doom I tell ya). So, I have a contract out to replace those two plus the small hopper window that also caries the exhaust from the dryer. They will be dual-paned, argon filled with composite frames (at least they won't rot out as the present windows are doing). Well, I have a tentative contract as the install specialist still has to come out out tell me if it is feasible (the ramp is in the way plus other challenges). Earliest the install would happen is September.

Tree Removal Update - No update. Still waiting for the tree company to schedule. They did say 2-4 weeks out, so we are still within the time frame. I've used this company before, and I used to work with his wife, so I'm pretty sure I will be taken care of. And even if they take a bit longer than the month, that is fine. I did add the extra 3 trees, so it will be  a full day instead of being able to sneak it in as a half day filler job.

To make those west and south jealous - I started up the heat yesterday afternoon to keep the house at 68*. The high yesterday was 61 with heavy overcast and stiff winds. Today may get up to 64, but otherwise will be the same. So, the house gets no solar gain to keep it warm enough. OTOH, it is great weather for mowing. I did my place yesterday and will get the neighbor's done today.

And for the funny of the day, I stopped at the local grocery store last Monday and saw this.

No, the picture is not funny, but my reaction was. I couldn't help but think I wouldn't be advertising my wealth like that and leaving it in a parking lot. With wood and gas prices sky high (gas is pennies under $5/gallon) obviously someone either won the lotto or got a huge inheritance :D

Preparing for Solar

While I was on vacation, on 5/18 to be exact, I received word that the structural engineer reported that no modifications are needed for the roof to bear the additional weight of racking, panels, etc. They sent the report to my town for permitting purposes.

On 6/1/22, I received word that the permit has been approved. I am impressed that the town moved so fast! Currently the solar company is working on the rest of the install logistics.

Now that I know that the install is happening, I will have some tree work done. The tree work needed done regardless, the forthcoming install has just motivated me to have it taken care of it sooner as to later. There are several objectives for removing some trees and trimming back others:

• Remove potential runways for squirrels and other varmint from accessing the roof (which would be bad with the inverters and cables that will be up there - they could potential take to chewing them).
• Removed diseased / dying trees
• Open up the canopy in the back yard a bit for increased solar production. Actually this is just the bonus as if everything were healthy back there, I wouldn't have anything done besides a bit of a trim.
• Reduce possibility of tree limbs breaking and landing on the roof
• Reduce "lean" of trees towards the house

My tree guy (the one that took care of the willow and a couple of other trees in 2017), came by yesterday to take a look and supply an estimate.

• He says the crabapple just needs a good trimming and not removal. Currently it is the tree that is closest to becoming a squirrel runway (but not there yet). It is an old tree so I was afraid it would have to come down, and was happy to hear that trimming/shaping is all that is needed.
• As expected, and much to my disappointment, a black cherry needs to come down. (I was happy to learn that I had identified it correctly though)
• Several of the junk maples need to come down. I was sure that was the case, some of them are dying, one is diseased (although still fairly healthy) and some of them just have too much of a lean trying to catch the western sun.
• In addition, here are 3 trees, 2 junk maples and 1 black cherry, that should come down. The cherry is dying and has ants that the woodpeckers go after, and the maples are diseased (and dying back in the crowns). Unfortunately, those are right on the property line, so I have not accepted him taking those 3 down. I need to get a hold of the owner of those apartments and see if he has an issue. If he gives the okay, then I will have those taken out also.

At this time, I have accepted removal of 5 trees, cutting the crab apple back, and cutting back some other tree limbs. That total could go up to removal of 8 trees. All of the trees being removed are 80-100' tall.

I need to take out portions of the chainlink fence in the backyard to give him better/easier access. Fortunately that fence is made from panels, so removal will not be that big of a chore. I'll do that this weekend or next.