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that's like $14-15 bucks of electric bill you won't be paying to the electric company - I'm guessing your payback is going to be 7-8 years? =)
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If I'm lucky. (We also reroofed, so it's kind of hard to say; I have yet to add up the final costs.)Comment
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More fun: I noticed the reverse tilt mounted bifacials were only supported near the ends, and were drooping (!).
I handed the installer a copy of https://www.civicsolar.com/sites/def...ual-167189.pdf,
pointed out the required location of the rubber clamps, and asked him to fix it.Comment
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The solar guys sent an installer to remount the reverse tilt.
He worked hard to get things right, and seemed to do a tidy job replacing the shingles.
Like the engineer, he didn't even realize the panels were bifacial; it was his first job ever installing glass-glass panels, too.
He said it was an interesting challenge; he had to grind down a protrusion (screws?) on the SolarEdge modules to avoid hitting the panels.
New pictures:
https://goo.gl/photos/W7rmTxVsiwzztouQA (front view, showing better location of side clamps, should droop less)
https://goo.gl/photos/SAy3NECk9xdaaMx37 (side view, showing sturdier legs)
It was still improvised -- he saw some plans at the office, but didn't bother to bring them, as they weren't very detailed.
When I said "there should be at least a 90 degree angle with the panel", he thought I meant "the leg should be vertical"
And it seems a little odd that the top rail is so low on the panel.
It doesn't look like it'll fall down now, but it'll be interesting to see what the P.E. says.
(Note to anyone contemplating reverse tilt mounts: don't. Not unless you have a really good reason, and the installer has done it before, and even then, get real engineering drawings into the contract, and have somebody who's been through it before check them before you sign on the dotted line. It's out of the ordinary, and there's lots to get wrong.)Comment
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Engineer reminded them he wanted a crossbrace, so they put one in:
and now he says it's sound.
The solaredge modules seem to fully obscure one cell:
so I expect zero back boost until I move them, sigh. (Not one person involved realized or cared that these were bifacial panels.). But it's worth measuring that before I fix it.
Now I wait for the final inspection and to be granted access to panel-level monitoring data.Comment
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That bracing looks pretty good. Hopefully it won't block a lot of the generation from the back side.
Those panels also look pretty thin. What is their wind speed tolerance?Comment
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latest status: https://goo.gl/photos/Cgb57Vbbw3uUQWpm6
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That is a bummer. Did they really contact you about when they would be inspecting the system or is that note bogus?Comment
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It's real. The inspection's been rescheduled twice now. I stay home all day each time even though the solar company says I don't have to. This time I stepped out for lunch and came back to that. Snafu, I guess.Last edited by DanKegel; 02-26-2016, 10:34 AM.Comment
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Passed city inspection today. Installer says getting LADWP permission to operate may take another five weeks, oy.Comment
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Congrats Dan, must say I have never understood why it takes so long to get stuff done over there, 5 weeks after they know the system complies with regs is madComment
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A nice electrician came and installed the net meter today after only 12 days.
My first net kilowatt: https://goo.gl/photos/4fPZfxXNq8puRwcU8
I still need to get access to the monitoring - particularly, the panel-level data - and arrange for them to come back and move the optimizers in a month or so to not shade one cell.
Fun fact: the meter measures net of three different time periods: https://goo.gl/photos/ABLkgbmw97A9j4ST8
It'd be cool if I could access that info via green button or Rainforest Eagle. I'm not holding my breath, but I will ask.
The sheet the electrician handed me, https://goo.gl/photos/GcVLRRUGKcHp11369, says time-of-use bands are:
- base period, weekends and 8pm to 10am
- low peak, 10am to 1pm and 5pm to 8pm
- high peak, 1pm to 5pm
They've always had tiered (R1A) and time-of-use (R1B) rates... but the sheet implies they default to R1B now. Guess I'll see when I get the bill.
https://www.ladwp.com/ladwp/faces/wc...elecrate-schel gives the rates. Spreadsheet time!
Last edited by DanKegel; 03-21-2016, 06:43 PM.Comment
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