Solar Install
I have been wanting to install solar since I moved into my house 5 years ago. When I bought my place I also purchased the empty lot next door with plans to put something over there with solar on it. I finally decided to build a solar setup once I saw how cheap used commercial solar panels were. When I came across santansolar.com and saw their used 260 Watt Grade A panels for $70.00 each (at the time of writing this) I thought no way, plus why would they have so many used solar panels, who would put them up only to take them down? After calling the company and speaking with their sales guy, he said "we get that a lot" he also said they purchase used solar panels from commercial solar farm operators. Maybe they have limited land space, and a newer higher wattage solar panel comes out, well its easier to replace them all then buy more land and add to their existing array, and that is where they get so many used panels.
With a 25 year manufactures warranty and santansolar.com's 1 year warranty I decided to buy 4 panels to check them out.
My first 4 "test" solar panels.
I was originally going to cement the 6 posts in the ground but later changed to just burying them directly in the ground. A lot of those old pole barns have been up for YEARS and just have the posts in the ground without cement. I also purchased CCA .60 Pressure Treated 6x6's, which are a commercial product. Tests show 60+ years in the ground with CCA .60, I would be happy with 20 years, I'll probably build it bigger in 10 or so years anyway.
Ok, lets get started! I'm not really a wood worker, I have worked with steel a lot, but this is my first wood project. I'll figure it out as I go I guess. I marked where my posts should go with wood stakes, and went off to the hardware store to rent a one man auger to dig the holes so I can set the poles. Augured down 4 feet then used the post hole digger to go down a bit more, I had to dig below the frost line in my area which is 50". Some crushed rock in the hole. I then drug the posts over to the build site, put one end over the hole and lifted the other and walked the posts into the holes. Held them level and backfilled/compacted the sand around them.
Marine Duplex cable |
You can see the panel and microinverter grounds running to the ground bus. |
6ga solid grounds ran to 2/0 ground bus. |
2/0 Ground bus connectors, there are two 10' ground rods this is the second one tying into the main ground bus. Connectors are tin plated aluminum suitable for copper or al wire. |
Went to the local rental place, and rented this trencher capable of doing a 24" deep trench. First time using one of these puppies, should be fun. |
Wow! that was easy! Started trenching from the array to the driveway. My property is mostly sand anyway. |
Trenched across my yard, trying to avoid big tree roots. I got pretty lucky, only ran into one, and the trencher ate right through it! |
Crap, I didn't finish in time, our first snow.. Humm.... that's going to be an issue at my low 13 degree angle. |
Laid the cable, and back filled the trench. |
Back filled the trench. |
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My NET metering is not enabled yet. But I fired up the array for testing on Oct 14th. The utility noticed I back-fed for like 4 hours, they came out to say hi. lol They actually wanted to see what was going on, they were aware what I was doing, I had already applied for net metering prior. They said I could keep generating, it's free power for them lol. Anyway, with no net metering yet, can you tell when I turned on the array in the graph above? Net metering should get me down to almost a $0.00 bill I hope, and this is not even summer. My power cost is $0.095/kWh 24-7 my net meter payback is the same $0.095/kWh 24-7 A view of my solar dashboard just starting out in the morning! PART 2 03/01/2020 Additional 5.2kW (10.4kW Total) Well I was pretty happy with my first 5.2kW, Though I have not had it for a summer yet, during the winter it has cut my bill in half. I ran across some more solar panels at a great price, again through santansolar.com. I saw these 96 cell 327 watt each SunPower E20-327 panels for under $100 bucks each and they were selling fast, so I ordered 16. Pretty much free since I just received my tax credit from the first solar install I completed in 2019! I just impulse bought $1k dollars worth of stuff... and I'm not done, I have to install these things now! What did I do lol.... Anyway, so I started drawing up things, figuring out where I would add them, calculating the costs of building the racking, buying more APSystems QS1 micro inverters. I started downloading all of the spec. sheets on everything. Then it hit me... Oh crap! These are 96 cell solar panels, they run at a much higher voltage, huh I hope the QS1 micro inverters can take it.. Looked into the spec sheet of the micro inverters, and...... NO the 96 cell panels Voc is 64.9vdc. Oh no the QS1 can only take a MAX Voc of 60vdc. I thought well that's not far off, but after some research that removes all of my MPPT's ability to adjust, and its not good for the micro-inverters. Crap! I already ordered these panels and they are already on a train to my state... So, I hit google looking for a solution, and not a lot of people make 96 cell micro-inverters, APSystems doesn't make one at all. Looks like I'll have to go with a string inverter. But I wanted to use micro-inverters due to their higher output and better efficiency, especially if one panel has issues or is shaded. Searching and searching for hours, I became a solar pro, lol. From my searching a string inverter will be much cheaper, easier to hook up, but the shading issue still worries me. I had already decided to go with SMA's SunnyBoy 5kW inverter, its pretty popular, and they have a cool "SunnyIsland" inverter that lets you add storage batteries later for a full off-grid setup if I loose utility power. Reading every bit of technical document on the SMA website, I ran across the Tigo Energy TS4-O optimizers for about $35 bucks each. These optimizers go on the back of each solar panel, and lucky for me the SunPower panels have the bases built in! These TS4-O's make a string system act like a micro-inverter system, so if one panel is failing or shaded it doesn't affect the whole string. Great! The SMA SunnyBoy inverter also has 3 MPPT string inputs, with 16 panels, I'll probably use two inputs for two different strings 8 on each.Ok, cool, so hardware taken care of: 16 x SunPower E20-327 Panels 16 x Tigo Energy TS4-O covers 1 x SMA SunnyBoy 5.0-US Racking System I originally designed the first "Pavilion" to be able to extend it lengthwise, but its already 32' long, this would make it more than 60 feet long, not sure how that will look, and how I will use that pavilion space. Well for far less cash I could add 5 beams to my existing header, and angle these further down for good winter coverage. I put it to paper and came up with this quick drawing 4x4 its a little over 20' x 14' and angles off the back side of my pavilion. Gives us a little more shade for our hanging swings, future fireplace, and outdoor dining table. For this install instead of mounting the panels directly to the wood beams like I did for the pavilion roof, I decided to use aluminum uni-strut on top of the beams, and stainless steel solar panel clamps made for the task. Everything went up in one weekend by myself, so I don't have many pictures. I can tell you I didn't sweat once during this install compared to the last one! Here is what the final setup looks like, I still need to trim some of the long uni-strut, I'll try to add some more pictures of the electrical and string inverter once I tidy everything up. One thing to note in the thermal image of the whole solar array, you can see the difference between the top panels and the ones at an angle.. The Angled panels have an anti-reflective glass and shows as a very cold surface, where as the top panels do not and you can see the infra-red reflecting, nearby hot objects, off of the panels like a mirror. Both of these solar panel brands were supposed to have anti-reflective glass but obviously the Q.Cells do not.
You can see in this thermal image that my "Solar Array" breaker is the hardest working breaker in my distribution panel, when its sunny out. This may "look" bad but its not, the hottest spot is 100F which is only a little warmer than room temp, you can see the 4 main breakers at the top of the thermal image are warm as well. I am pushing this breaker to 80% of its rated value, which within specs for a 100% duty cycle load.
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Comments
Without the line out connected can you power a 240v or 110v appliance like a drill directly from the panel inverter output ?
Nice job . I have 22 panels sitting here idle and might use your design.Looks like it will stand up to the environment
Quick question. What did you select for your "Grid Profile" in the apsystems app? I'm guessing the US UL1741/240 ? I'm in Canada and I don't see Canada listed but I expect it to be the same and the US power.
Also did you have the worry about the "Phase" of the electrical system when connecting the inverter? I'm thinking the inverters automatically do this.
https://www.apsystemsema.com/ema/intoDemoUser.action?id=0b28481b6e43a84f016e805b8cb43ebc
I've noticed a problem with the EMA website for more than a week now, where the APSystems user portal won't allow me in.
https://www.apsystemsema.com/ema/index.action
I can enter my account and password, but then it gives me this error.
"We are so sorry, EMA has encountered an error, click [OK] to email us and we will deal with it within 48 hours. Please re-login your system."
I've clicked OK more than a dozen times over the past 10 days and no success. I'm not sure what they mean by "re-login your system". If they just mean "try to login again", I'm at a loss.
Are you seeing the same thing? Any suggestions?
bob-n
Sorry that I can't be more helpful other then saying that my EMA login is still working for me. I have to enter my username and password everyday but it works after that.
Try clearing your internet cache or a different browser.
Good Luck
Jon
I've tried clearing cache and history, three different browsers and two different computers. All give the same error.
I tried to use their "forgot password" page, but that asks for email and username, and I don't have a username. Odd. That leaves me to think that my account is corrupt and I'm going to need APsystems help.
If you have any other suggestions, I'd love to hear them.
Thank you.
bob-n
Thank you.
bob-n