Smith Electric Company

Schedule News

My installer finally returned my e-mail today. He's picking up the sealed electrical and building plans from his engineer today. He'll be submitting the permit application next week. The permit application should take 3-4 weeks.

That puts installation in mid-April, instead of mid-March as he originally stated.

After installation, we contact PSE&G to come out and test and certify the equipment. It's at that point that PSE&G will replace the meter. Once they certify the system we can fire it up for real. There might be one more visit after that - the state Board of Public Utilities will come and check the paperwork and PSE&G approval sticker before paying out the rebate.

Still no word

I appreciate the small number of readers that I have. I'm sorry that there isn't any more exciting news yet, but we're stuck in the waiting stage.

I sent an e-mail to my installer late Monday afternoon asking about status. I haven't heard back yet. This week is the early side of the timeframe that the installer thought the permits might be completed, so there's nothing to worry about yet.

I promise that we'll have all kinds of news, stories, and pictures of the installation soon!

Still Waiting

As you can see from the lack of news, I'm still waiting for permits and other info from my installer. It's tough - I'd like to see things moving along or at least have something that I can do to move it along.

I do have one question for you, especially if you've installed a similar system somewhere:

How do you track your savings? Comparing utility bills? Keep a log of energy produced by the inverters?

Citizen Smash on Environmentalism

Citizen Smash (aka Lt. Smash, or The Indepundit) runs a blog on many issues. For a while, he posted his experiences while called up as a reservist in Iraq.

Today, he has an entry on his blog about environmentalism and questions for the presidential candidates.

I'm sending you there because I find that his opinions and ideas on the issue match mine very closely. I'm a "practical conservationist" - if you give me an alternative to "dirty" methods for doing something (driving, washing, watering the lawn, producing electricity), I'll use it even if it costs a little more. However, if you give me an impratical alternative (like using a hybrid compact car instead of my SUV - I can't carry nearly the same amount of stuff), I won't. It's that simple. Make it easy for me to conserve and I will.

Solar energy doesn't really pass the "costs a little more" test right now - the payback is very long. But then, I had other reasons to go solar.

New Jersey - the Green Power State

Word comes to us today from SolarAccess.com that the NJ state government is pushing hard to build a green power infrastructure in the state: Solar Energy Message Amplified in New Jersey

The truth is that NJ really is working hard on becoming green. The incentives right now are incredible - 70% on most small projects (under 10kW). With this effort, the state is trying to create a bank of installers for solar system for homes and businesses. Right now, there aren't many installers (maybe a dozen in NJ that I found in my search), but this will dramatically grow that number. Of course, the downside to this effort with installers is that they'll be taught the cookie-cutter method of installing solar. The current installers are likely to be much better at customizing each installation to the owner's needs.

This effort also will be creating radio ads explaining the benefits of solar energy on their building. THIS part will be the greatest positive step for this effort - once we have many more solar installations, prices will come down along with pollution. (The price decrease won't help me any, but at the very least I should be able to serve as an example.)

Dodged that Bullet

In our original solar investigations, we were considering a battery-backup grid-connected system. Our installer spec'ed it both ways for us, with a Sharp-based grid-connected system and an AstroPower-based battery-backup grid-connected system. The AstroPower system was $10,000 more expensive (out of our pocket), and produced less power.

Now, here comes word (Solar Access Story) that AstroPower is going out of business (or at least bankrupt).

Whew! We decided correctly!

A little progress

Well, our check was paid by the bank yesterday (according to the bank's website). I assume that we're rolling right along now. Next we should hear that the permits were issued. PSE&G should be getting an initial contact from our installer as well.

More Solar Bloggers

Found another few online solar bloggers today:

Debris.com solar panel installation - this takes you direct to his solar site, from there you can hit his home page.

Facts of Israel - a blogger who went solar for political reasons

As of today, our check hasn't been cashed (or at least the bank hasn't noticed), but hopefully progress is being made anyway.

Before Pictures

Here are a few before pictures of the house and electrical equipment:

This is the front of the house. The panels will be going on the main roof, mostly covering it. (My wife would like to point out that in warmer weather the landscaping looks much better!)

This is the existing meter box and other stuff in the area on the outside of the house. We'll be adding a disconnect switch and probably changing out the meter to one that can handle net metering.

This is the existing electrical panel. I expect the new breakers to go in this panel at the bottom of one column or the other (or both). We'll also be getting a new sub-panel for the output from the inverters, plus disconnect switches. The inverters will probably mount on the wall to the right of this (which has plenty of room).

Other Solar Power/Alternative Energy Blogs

Here are a few other Solar Power/Alternative Energy Blogs for you to peruse:

Bird in the Bush - The Renewable Energy Blog

PowerFrontiers

Piedmont Biofuels

That's all I've got today in 30 minutes of searching. There are lots of blog pages that talk about solar power - search Google on "solar", "power", "photovoltaic" and "blog" to see them.

Some of the Components

It'll be a few weeks before we get the permits. I'll try to provide interesting information in the meantime to keep you interested.

Sharp's JH-3500U is the inverter that we are using (we'll have 2 of them). This inverter has been in use for 8 years in Japan, and was recently introduced to the US. This is a grid-connected inverter with no backup capabilities - if utility power fails it shuts down. Here is the PDF spec sheet.

Sharp's NT-185U1 is the solar panel that we are using (we'll have 36 of them). This panel is also new, and is the top of the Sharp line at the moment. This is the PDF spec sheet for the panels.

Been There - Done That

Here are a few websites of people who have already installed home solar power systems:

Michael MacFaden's System in San Jose

Maine Solar House

Phil Karn's System