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The installation crew have completed the panel installation. All the interconnect wiring has been completed and all the wiring runs were concentrated and threaded down to the Inverters panels where the DC voltage from the solar panels is converted to AC. The output AC is then routed to the concentrator box. From the AC concentrator box the AC is routed over to the Main Solar Breaker box. From the Breaker box the power will be input to the house power panel. So now the next step will be for the electrician to upgrade the service from 100 amps to 200 amps so that the line can handle the power we will be putting on the grid. He will replace the existing PG&E meter and power panel. At that point the inspections begin from both the city and PG&E. After that the system will be turned on and we will go live as a Home Solar Generating Power station.
11 Comments
sweet! recommended dood
Sorry I forgot to link to the photos!!
Yay nahant!
Digg this right now!
Very informative–thank you for the updates!
i remember not too long ago when you were sharing research links about it..wow nahant, the big day is almost here!!! great!!
Thank you for sharing your process. Looking forwarded to your going live day.
Six years ago, the klynns scrimped for a number of years and saved up to by land and secure a building loan to build our dream house, totally off grid, 90% renewalable, reused and recycled products for the entire home. It was our dream home. We were first time home builders, home buyers. We would have qualified for a grant from our local electric provider and the house was a boatload of Energy Star rebates as well. We had salvaged a garage full of materials and shopped auctions. Our designer-green builder was not in a position to finance the construction himself. Every bank said no on the financing. Even those banks which carried EEMs (Energy Efficient Mortgages). We talked with the most progressive and respected green builders in the country to figure out a plan. We had saved up 22% of the cost to build and buy the land. This was an exciting design and had received the highest possible efficiency rating and green rating possible from an audit we had done by a certified engineer. We had a high credit rating too. Nothing worked.
We were late comers to the home ownership process to begin with, due to our health insurance company going into bankruptcy on the day our, then first baby, needed surgery. We got the hospital bill. We lost ten years of savings over night. Dropped out of grad school, etc… But we kept our heads above water.
My point in sharing this story is not to sob but to encourage you, once you go live, to add a final post to recap how you did the financing, any road blocks you hit and how you got around them.
Going green is a gift and hard work too. There are interesting economics involved.
Our story, we hope, continues. We were advised to by a home. Green the traditional build home as much as possible and use it to finance the dream home, green home, self-powered home. However, the economy has been quite the bump in the dream process. But we strive to do right by the environment and our kids’ future.
Thanks for all your posts.
Klynn the program we got into require no money down and they do all the work of getting approvals, permits and the installation! We won’t start paying until the system is up and running. We are leasing the system and the lease comes with all maintenance and repairs, they also guarantee that the output stated in the lease is what we will get and they will pay back any difference! You can check out their website at http://www.solarcity.com There you will find a handy calculator to see if Solar will work for you. They have not gone nation wide yet but are working on it!!
That should be “buy”.
about the time THE METER was disconnected, I’d be popping a bottle of champagne!
WTG nahant! Great pics.
Would that we could ALL do it.
*sigh*
Here are the links to the rest of the diaries:
Solar Power for the Home: My experiences with having a Solar Electric System installed
Solar Installation update!!!
Solar Installation Day One
Solar Installation Day Two
Solar Installation Day Three
Solar Installation Update.