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Great pictures. So what is the wind rating on their attachment to your roof? One would think they may offer some protection from the wind to your shingles. How large a ball of hail can hit them without damaging them?
Does the power cable attach to each panel or are they hooked in series and then a single cable protrudes through your roof from each bank of panels?
Great pictures. So what is the wind rating on their attachment to your roof? One would think they may offer some protection from the wind to your shingles. How large a ball of hail can hit them without damaging them?
Does the power cable attach to each panel or are they hooked in series and then a single cable protrudes through your roof from each bank of panels?
I'm not certain what size hail ball they can withstand. I believe the wind rating is 150mph but I will check.
The panels are strung together in a daisy-chain configuration and then each array has it's own massive power cable thru the roof that connects to the inverter.
Great pictures. So what is the wind rating on their attachment to your roof? One would think they may offer some protection from the wind to your shingles. How large a ball of hail can hit them without damaging them?
Does the power cable attach to each panel or are they hooked in series and then a single cable protrudes through your roof from each bank of panels?
Answers from Southern Energy:
Quote:
Wind rating is dependent on the attachments to the roof. Per code requirement, your system is rated to withstand 100 mph wind. If we get above that in Raleigh, the solar panel attachments are irrelevant as the wind will have ripped the whole roof off...
I believe that the Bosch panels are rated up to 1" hail at 50 mph. Let me know if you would like additional documentation on that and I will get it for you (we have never had a panel broken by hail).
[1] What exactly is "Revenue from SREC Sale"?
[2] "Net Revenue from Utility" for year 1 is $519. How do you get positive revenue from this if the Solar PV provides 25% to 65% of the energy needs? I guess I am failing to understand how this number is generating positive revenue. Please educate my dumb brain. :-)
Not dumb questions at all. Lots of the terminology and language can be challenging. Heck, I signed the paperwork for the system and still had to double check when you asked. If it were easy, I'd have replied back immediately. Who's the dumb one now? (Answer: me!)
[1]: I get a bill credit of $4.50 per kilowatt of AC power that my system makes based on overall system size. Since my system will be around 5.3kW AC, this means roughly $23.83 per month in bill credits, or $286 per year. The contract is only for 5 years, so that's why it goes to zero at the end of year 5. I can sign up again or sign up with a new company to sell my SREC credits at that time. I don't know if they'll have any value at that time, but I sure hope they do. To be conservative, the model shows $0 from year 6-25 just to be safe.
[2]: This is my estimated annual savings based on the lower utility rates I will pay on the new TOU-D rate versus what I would have paid on the higher, flat rate system.
[1]: I get a bill credit of $4.50 per kilowatt of AC power that my system makes based on overall system size. Since my system will be around 5.3kW AC, this means roughly $23.83 per month in bill credits
per kw or kwh? It sounds like you report to P-E what size system you have and this would be a flat monthly credit, regardless of actual generation?
Did P-E replace the meter? I didn't think the Itron meters supported TOU. Please let us know if the bill shows net metering - where they record how much is in each bucket (energy received vs energy generated).
per kw or kwh? It sounds like you report to P-E what size system you have and this would be a flat monthly credit, regardless of actual generation?
Did P-E replace the meter? I didn't think the Itron meters supported TOU. Please let us know if the bill shows net metering - where they record how much is in each bucket (energy received vs energy generated).
Per kW of my array size. My array is a total of 5.3 kW AC, so my bill credit is what was stated above. Flat monthly credit - correct.
PE has not yet replaced the meter, but will soon. I'll show a bill once I get my first one.
I was very interested in your installation data and ran the numbers by my dad who is a scientist with a double major in math and physics. He was impressed! He sent me this:
I did a month by month analysis based on flat plate PV panels tilted at latitude + 15 degrees for Bosch c-Si panels having an efficiency of 15.17% (mfg spec) with the panels facing due South. For this configuration, I get that, for Raleigh, the average "coverage" for this guy would be 60%! Very good! His numbers show a yearly average coverage of just 42%. But, his panels may not be facing due South, clearly some of them will not since they are on different parts of his roof. So, his analysis, provided by his solar supplier, looks to be reasonable. If he could direct all of them south, he would really enhance his payback time!
I have the spreadsheet he created if you want to take a look. Formatting is off to post here but I can email it to you.
RDUBiker, I saw that Progress Energy had a program to cut you a check for this. Do you know if the other companies in the area (Duke, Wake Electric, etc) have similar programs? I am with Wake Electric and cannot find anything related on their website so figured I would ask.
Thanks for posting the project and going into details on the planning and execution. you are providing a community service!
question is what do you do when you need new shingles in 20 yrs? a metal roof would have been a good choice but most hoa's wont approve due to ignorance.
Thanks
Stephen
Thanks for posting the project and going into details on the planning and execution. you are providing a community service!
question is what do you do when you need new shingles in 20 yrs? a metal roof would have been a good choice but most hoa's wont approve due to ignorance.
Thanks
Stephen
Would the shingles under the PV system presumably last longer due to limited exposure to the elements?
Also, is the life of PV still around 20 years? So you scrap the PV then and move on to the much-higher-efficiency panels we'll have by then?
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Very detailed info!
