Day 7 of Solar Install - It's ALIVE!!

This is it. The big day to flip the switch and turn it on is here.

The contractors are not here today. They left me with power-on instructions and 'if thing go wrong' instructions. Here is the video:

Yes, the power on was a success! It would have been a much more exciting video with a short-out and an exploding inverter, but I like this result much better.

This was an early November morning in Oregon with West facing panels and it was still generating power. The power output fluctuated between 700W and 1600W depending on the light clouds throughout the day. This is enough to power run a typical refrigerator or several computers.

About an hour later. 1.3kW hours were generated. Total generated for the day one of solar production was 5 kWh.

Next on the list is to install the "WebBox". This is a small computer that attaches to the inverter and collects data from it and then uploads it to the Internet. It connects to the inverter via an RS-485 serial connection and then to my home network via Ethernet. I am installing the WebBox in the garage. Luckily the Ethernet cabling for the house runs through the garage. So I followed the FiOS wiring, pushed a new CAT6 cable up through an existing hole, dragged it through the attic over to the Den, where the little 6 port patch panel (with one spot left open) is. The contractor has to install the RS-485 since it goes into the inverter.

When it is connected, I'll post the link and you'll be able to see real-time numbers and charts. Cool!

Before the project is completely done it needs to be inspected by my local municipality (Washington County), then inspected by the Energy Trust of Oregon. And, lastly, my local electric company needs to install a new digital meter.