my DIY solar - soon to be grid tied.

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dacflyer
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my DIY solar - soon to be grid tied.

Post by dacflyer »

hey all. just to let you all know i am soon to be grid tied. after fighting with my power co. for so long and complaining to council members etc here. the power co. is finally going to let me grid tie.
if it wasn't for NC Greenpower, the effort would almost not be worth it..
the power co. here will only pay 2 cents a KW..but NC Greenpower will give me 15 cents a KW
so i'll be getting 17 cents a KW. X 2.4KWh
i estimated, that i will be making almost 700.00 a year give or take depending on weather.
i am using the sunnyboy 3000us inverter ( made in germany ) they make a US model which i have here.. that darn thing is really heavy too..
the panels i have are used, fotowatt 1000 ( 100 watt panels,.but max rated for 105 watt )
i have all 24 of them on the roof,, it was not easy to plan it all out,, so i went to furniature store, and got a lot of big cardboard, and made, cardboard cut outs of the panels.
worked out great,.
will show fotos to all later on..
i will be the 1st one in my town with solar set up :D wooohooo !
stay tuned.....
Robert Reed
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Re: my DIY solar - soon to be grid tied.

Post by Robert Reed »

Sounds great, but how can they afford to pay 17 cents/KW when the average resale price is about 6 cents per generated KW ( does not include transmission fees & all the other BS)? Or is power unusually high priced in your area? Our generation prices in NE Ohio vary over the year. Anywhere from 2 cents to 9 cents/KW.
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jwax
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Re: my DIY solar - soon to be grid tied.

Post by jwax »

Nice dacflyer! Perhaps this country should wake up and start paying everybody for putting up PV panels, like Germany and other countries do.
I pay $.135/KWH here in upstate NY.
dacflyer- How much would you get paid per KWH if you had those panels in Germany?
We're looking forward to your photos! :grin:
WA2RBA
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kheston
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Re: my DIY solar - soon to be grid tied.

Post by kheston »

NC has a feed-in tariff? No kidding! Out here in the gimme state we're supposed to be the greenest of them all, but the power company lobbies have managed to disallow anything but net metering. Hats off to NC!

Congrats on winning your battle with the bureaucrats! Looking forward to pics.
Kurt - SF Bay
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MrAl
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Re: my DIY solar - soon to be grid tied.

Post by MrAl »

Hi dac,


Wow, that's really great. I would like to get a little more involved too, but not sure if i would want to
install on the roof. Maybe on a smaller scale.

Please keep us informed and yes the pic's would be really great to see.

Just wondering, how much did the solar panels cost you, if you dont mind telling us of course?
LEDs vs Bulbs, LEDs are winning.
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dacflyer
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Re: my DIY solar - soon to be grid tied.

Post by dacflyer »

robert reed >> NC green power has some program to where they can do such a thing, i do not fully understand it yet, but i am not complaining..
but the 2 cents that the power company is paying is what they call avoided cost generation.
the greenpower i think is from what other costomers pay in . ? green power points ??

jwax >> my hometown in germany is called the solar city :D there is nowhere that you can look that there is not some form of solar there. its everywhere, on landfill hills , roof, schools , garage covers over parking lots in big shopping centers etc.. some people are called solar farmers now.

MrAl >> i got my panels 2nd hand, multicrystaline i paid a little over 350.00 each X 24 +s/h from california.
i later learned that a company can sell me new ones 220 watt panels for about 275.00 + s/h
they are BP panels too.. if you like i can post the info here later on..


anyone interested in a home made suntracker i built ?
it supports about 4 100 watt panels or so. its a modified c-band satalite dish...minus the dish.i can post fotos of it also later on.
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kheston
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Re: my DIY solar - soon to be grid tied.

Post by kheston »

Dac,

Any chance you can tell me your CA panel source? I'm going to make a solar purchase in the next few months...sooner if it's cheap enough.
Kurt - SF Bay
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dacflyer
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Re: my DIY solar - soon to be grid tied.

Post by dacflyer »

the panels are 2nd hand ( used ) but still great condition 24 volt size 100 watt typ.
call and talk with Angel or Brian , i think they have about 24-28 of them left.
they are contractors..the number is 1-562-869-1680 ( i got permission to post his # )
the more you buy at one time the better the price.
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dacflyer
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Re: my DIY solar - soon to be grid tied.

Post by dacflyer »

well i been grid tied now since late december, things are working ok, but the panels are not putting out at peak level, but then again it is winter,and thepanels are not at a optimum angle for winter, plus the panels have some age on them as well. 15 yrs old perhaps ?
anyway i installed 2.4Kw worth ( 24 - 100 watt panels.) and yesterday it peaked
out at 1,430 watts, it seems to be gaining each week. so maybe i hope to at least hit 1.8 - 2kw
in the summer.. if not, then i will slowly change out the old for comperable or better new ones.
so far i have generated 97.8Kw better than nothing :D
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jwax
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Re: my DIY solar - soon to be grid tied.

Post by jwax »

Congratulations dacflyer! Kudos to you for taking the plunge.
I know what you mean about sun angle- houses are rarely placed optimally for solar!
I'm guessing there was no way you could have ground-mounted the panels for best angle?
Panels are rated STC, standard test conditions, at a perfect 90 degrees to the incident sun during the test. You'll get that output once in a while, but mostly something less.
However, at this point, all the KW's it does produce are free! :grin:
WA2RBA
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dacflyer
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Re: my DIY solar - soon to be grid tied.

Post by dacflyer »

hi, i been keeping an eye on things, last week i saw it peak at 1.7Kw. for a few min. so i guess it will get better as the sun gets higher..
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haklesup
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Re: my DIY solar - soon to be grid tied.

Post by haklesup »

well i been grid tied now since late december,
Kind of anticlimactic having it grid tied on the winter solstace. Nowhere to go but up from there. Interested to see what you get in late June.
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dacflyer
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Re: my DIY solar - soon to be grid tied.

Post by dacflyer »

i'll keep ya posted.
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