Data collection

I've really screwed up the data collection for my power. I was going to put together a nice set of data and comparisons and whatnot for the end of the first year with solar, but it turns out I don't have a baseline. I've just been changing things too fast.

Moved into the house in 2006 and didn't have time or money to do anything for winterizing the house. Nice baseline but that's it.

2007 I had two roommates and did some winterizing. Now way to tell which effects apply to what.

2008 I had one roommate and installed a tankless electric water heater and did some more winterization.

2009 I added a crapload of insulation, had no roommates, installed a hot tub and solar panels.

So...no clue about any of the changes. It appears since I got the insulation done and winterized more this year I'm saving an entire 1 therm at the same average temperature.

Clearly I used more gas and electricity when I had roommates by a tremendous amount and I'm using far fewer therms now that I've got an electric tankless but it's almost impossible to tell if I'm really saving money.

I generated 390kw in December 2009 for a total of 1.52mw since the installation in October. I really wish I could figure out what is required for a monitoring system since REC won't respond to my questions about getting a datalogger installed. Sigh.

1 month of solar 10/7/09-11/8/09

I don't yet have a good monitoring solution so I'm going to just do Monthly Total Generation and Maximum Generation stats. So far it's looking good, even without my tree being trimmed so that the solar array is blocked at least partially every day here is what I generated:
Max Generated: 6686 W
Total Generated: 620KWh

So by my calculations from my records, even in winter with my system not receiving all the light it should because of my tree (getting that fixed next week) I am generating about two times more than I use any month of the year that I live by myself. During the summer I will generate a great deal more, and I haven't yet had a chance to use an energy monitor to get rid of the biggest uses of power. So I should be doing really great once the tree is trimmed and I've reduced my electricity usage even further through efficiency.

One thing this doesn't include is the power usage of the hot tub. I've only had it a month and a half and only 2 weeks of that was before the solar was functional. So I'm not sure how much power it is pulling a month. That is one of the things I want to use the energy monitor for. Even with the hot tub I should be generating more than I use every month of the year, and quite a lot more during the summer months. It looks like this plan is going to work out.

I'm not yet sure how to calculate my total savings, there are some confounding factors and I haven't quite come up with an algorithm that will take everything into account. So I may have to wait until I've had the whole set up for an entire year before I can calculate how long it will take for it to pay for itself.

One Block off the Grid

Hey! I got mentioned in the 1BoG site. Signing up with them was instrumental in getting the price for the array down to the price range I could afford this year. 1BoG

Getting my trees taken care of, including cutting the walnut back so that it doesn't shade the roof is going to cost about 1/2 what I expected just taking care of the walnut was going to cost. So that's making me really happy. Hopefully they'll get around to doing the work soon.

Solar electric installation underway!

The REC installation crew showed up yesterday morning and started my solar installation. I had a quick walk-through with the foreman and then left for work. I got home about 4pm so that they could leave on time without leaving my house unlocked, and they'd put in all the conduit for the main power, and had all of the adjustable mounting brackets attached to the roof.

Today they arrived just as I was leaving for work, in a hurry because I had to go to an All-Staff required meeting...yes, one of THOSE. I expect they'll have all the wiring and a good deal of the racking structure in place today. Tomorrow they are supposed to be finished, then the final inspection will happen either tomorrow or Thursday.

Nows the bad news...then I have to wait UP TO 30 DAYS for Xcel to sign off on it and allow me to actually turn the system on. That is...phenomenally annoying.

Next step, once everything is in place, is to get someone out to take care of my black walnut tree. I really don't want to cut it down, but I just don't see any choice. So...I'll get an expert out to try to help me save the tree, and if we can't then I'll plant other trees to make up for it. Or maybe just trellis with vines on it so I don't have to worry about the height of the trees, then plan trees further from the house.

Oh, speaking of which, another nice piece of news...the guy who is going to do my fence for me told me that he thinks it'll be fine to put clinging vines on the fence. He says pretty much all of the fencing he's dealt with, even the really old stuff, shows surface damage from weather and plants but is almost always solid underneath. So my plans for the house/yard are moving right along!

The hot tub is full functional and working great. I'm waiting for the hot tub company to finish the configuration of the electronic controls and bring me my top lifter, but those are minor things now that the hot tub is installed and working. Still lots to do to make the shed a more hot tub friendly place, and in fact I may have to get another 2 rows or so of tile put in, but it's coming along nicely.

More progress!

The handyman that did my tile stopped by last night and we decided that he would make the installation look prettier and reseal it a bit which he did this morning. The hot tub install is supposed to happen either tonight or tomorrow night, I'm guessing tomorrow night since I haven't heard from them yet. The electrician is scheduled for tomorrow night. So with any luck, I'll have a useable hot tub on Saturday. Woohoo!

More big news...I finally bitched to REC about how little movement was happening on my installation and how the install time kept getting pushed out against my will, etc etc. I got a response from the sales guy within 30 minutes, then the reworked plan and numbers later that evening, and a call from the project manager just now offering to start the installation next Monday morning. So! I'm getting a 6.7kw installation instead of an 8.4kw, I'm getting about $3000 less back from taxes, but it's costing me about $4000 less for the installation. So that all works out fine, and I should still be generating about twice as much power as the max I ever pull.

Once this is all done and the money has all settled down, etc, I think I'll get a new efficient refrigerator and dishwasher with the difference in the cost of the solar.

Some progress!

Ok, I was on a great relaxing vacation for 10 days. One of the funny things about that was that 2.5 months after ordering my hot tub and getting to work on preparing to install it, the last step that had to be done before hot tub installation was being finished while I was driving the first leg of my vacation. 2.5 months. I got an engineer to evaluate the structure of the shed, then design a plan to reinforce it. I got a construction company to build the structural reinforcement, then fix it when it didn't pass inspection. I got the permit (City of Edgewater was very cooperative and helpful). Got the flooring and the tiling and the plastic sheeting to cover the walls. That was the part being finished the day I took off for vacation, coincidentally the same day the hot tub arrived at the store. Happily they held the hot tub for me and it looks like it'll be installed Thursday or Friday. I'm working with the tiling guy tonight to clear up some details and the excellent electrician I work with will likely be able to make it over when they deliver the hot tub to hook it up. So it's reasonably likely I'll have a functional hot tub installed in my shed by this weekend. YAY! 10 years I've been wanting a hot tub. 2.5 months I've been waiting since I paid for it. Then of course I'll have a bunch of details to work through with getting everything in the shed working the way I want, but those won't be a problem and I'll be doing them myself.

I'm also having the tiling guy (who is the handyman I work with) give me a quote on putting in my fence so I know how much money I'm looking at paying. It's going to be expensive.

In solar news....REC solar is pissing me off. My install was scheduled for this week. They had to change the project plan because they told me incorrectly how many panels they could install on my house. That was 3 weeks ago. They still don't have a new project plan for me and I have to ask a couple of times each time to get any sort of response, which still hasn't included either a new project plan nor a new price. And now they're saying late October for the installation. Man this is getting annoying as fuck. Sure, I unintentionally played the "Hey! I want solar installed as soon as possible! [pause] *PSYCH!*" game on them twice, but that wasn't my fault. I've paid my deposit, I agreed to the original project plan, they should be getting their fucking shit in gear and getting it installed. I'm really quite pissed that I had not one but two full engineering work ups of my roof to make sure the system I wanted would fit and then when it comes down to it they couldn't actually make it work even when I paid the extra money for the smaller more efficient panels. My experience with this company so far is not making me happy. I guess that's what happens when you have to go with the least expensive install.

Some progress!

I know, another post all in the same day...wild!

The construction company finally came over and replaced the columns in the structural support under my shed with treated wood. That is apparently the agreement they came to with the inspector. The inspector is supposed to inspect it again tomorrow, so if he signs off on it, hopefully the tile guy will get started on the tile in the afternoon. Either way it's going to be too late and I'll have to have the hot tub stored for a week or so before I can get it installed. But that just gives the tile more time to really settle and set.

I got a call from the city with some questions about my permit for the solar install. This is news to me, since I haven't even accepted a project plan from the solar company yet because they haven't sent me the new version of the plan. The new version of the plan, of course, being required because they've been bullshitting me all this time about how many panels would fit on my roof. I don't think it was on purpose, but it's still very annoying. So I'm going to end up with 8 fewer panels (an entire "string"). Well that'll save me some money, and it'll still produce far more power than I'll be using, and likely in 15 or 20 years when I replace the panels the new more efficient ones will produce even more power in an even smaller space. So really it's not a big deal. But I haven't seen the new plans, and yet they already have a permit for the job. Neat trick! I'm sure it'll be fine.

I really have to find a tree specialist to get this tree cut back. Ugh...its going to come down to the wire on that one.

Todays fun.

I'm pretty burnt out on studying both for the kung fu pre-test and for the security certification. Very difficult to focus. 2 more days until the pre-test then another 2 to the certification test.

Last night after I got home from work the construction guys showed up and installed the rest of the structural support. At one point while talking to them I got the response "Oh...I thought you had that inspected today." *sigh* So today I called for the inspection and happily it's supposed to happen today. I just hope they won't be too pissed that the contractor didn't get the inspections done at the appropriate times. They could be really strict about it which would mean that all of it would have to be torn out and re-done. That would pretty much ruin the entire thing since I don't have enough money to do that.

I've given up on doing the book indexing for the cert test that I wanted to do. Instead I'm doing a much more basic index and just hoping it's sufficient. I really need to pass this test the first time.

On the positive side...if I fail the cert I can retake. If I somehow fail the pre-test I can retake, I'll just be very very embarrassed.

I wish they'd send me the new version of my solar project...I want to see how bad it's going to be and how much it's going to save me. Still pissed about that being portrayed falsely to me, I have two full mock ups that were 8.4kwh systems and yet now they can't get it to work. Likely I'll be stuck with a 6.8kwh system.

It's starting...

I'm trying to get a hot tub installed and solar installed on my house. I've probably mentioned that. Just to be safe I had a structural engineer take a look at the shed that the hot tub is going in and he determined that it wasn't strong enough so I paid him a crapload of money to draw up plans for how to reinforce it sufficiently.

Plans in hand, I hunted around for a construction company to do the work and ended up using a place recommended by the structural engineer.

Then I started trying to get a permit for the work. The city of edgewater was not only very helpful and fast with the procedure but gave me a great deal on the permit. But it took like a week to get all the stuff together and get the construction company their license to work in edgewater.

Permit in hand, I had the construction company get going on the work. Well...1/2 week later they got going on the work anyway. So Monday as I am trying to get ready to go workout a guy walks into my yard from the back and damned near shits his pants when I step out of the shed and say "Hi." He drops off 800lbs of concrete, an 18'x1'x2" board with 3 other 7' boards bound to it and some hardware. I move all that shit into my shed, getting a really amazingly painful bee sting almost directly on top of a pressure point in the back of my neck, and I let the construction company know that the materials have been delivered 4 days late, but happily the night before the construction is supposed to start.

Next morning (Tuesday) they are supposed to start construction. When I get home from work at 5pm they are just starting. Happily it takes them less than 1.5 hours to build the forms and pour the concrete for the structural bases.

Today they did nothing. Tomorrow they are supposed to get the inspection done and install the actual structural support and then they are done. Hopefully that'll happen.

Unfortunately my tile guy is busy until at least Friday and it's very likely he won't start on the tile install until next Monday. Happily the hot tub isn't here yet, but given that the tile will have to sit and cure/harden for something like 2 days that means that even if the hot tub does get delivered I won't be ready for it until just before I leave for vacation. Even with my unemployed friend house sitting for me I'm not going to fill the hot tub just before I leave the state for 10 days. So...I'll have to wait until the second week of September (assuming the hot tub company really will just store it for me until I'm ready to install without charging me).

So...that's all stressful.

I'm taking my first pre-test for 4th black this sunday. I've only been back in kung fu at all since January, I've only really been able to keep up with class and be active for about 3 months. I've only been working toward testing for 2 months. When I started I couldn't remember my lower belt material. I'm pre-testing over 30 long forms, and about 30 short forms of various kinds some of which have up to 30 pieces to them. That's incredibly stressful for me. I don't feel prepared, I haven't lost enough weight, and I don't remember my material well enough.

I'm also studying for a very difficult computer security certification which I'm taking next Tuesday. The studying is causing me headaches and is taking me much longer to do than I'd expected...I'm very likely going to have to study all weekend this weekend in order to be ready by Tuesday. I hate taking my work home with me. The best part is, my boss just turned me down for a reclassification (basically a promotion) because she doesn't think I'm doing enough to qualify for the new classification. The new classification is actually not sufficient to even cover what all I do I work, but I wasn't trying to push for the classification that does cover it which would be two higher than my current classification. I wish I had some idea what the real reason is, but at least she's willing to set up a "development plan" to get me to whatever it is she feels is required for the reclassification . So that's very stressful.

And sometime in the last month my tools and boombox got stolen out of my shed. No signs of forced entry that I could detect, but then the lock would be pretty easy to defeat. Which is why I replaced it with a deadlock last night and I'll be adding more security measures to the shed and the house once I buy new tools. The value of the tools and boombox were about $20 short of my deductible on my house insurance. and of all the dumb things, for probably the first time in my life I didn't have the serial numbers of my tools written down. Somehow I forgot. One of the things I hope to do this weekend is get the serial numbers off of new tools and other stuff to make sure that I have them all someplace safe. Being stolen from makes me stabby.

The "change oil soon" light keeps coming on in my car. I just had it changed 1000 miles ago, so I have to get that looked at before I leave for vacation.

And I'm rapidly running out of project money and even more rapidly running out of my savings and pocket money. Very stressful.

And then today I got the project plan for my solar installation. It included panels on my east facing roof. Those only partially qualify for rebate, and I don't want panels on my east facing roof, and I certainly don't want to have to pay for them. Turns out all these times we've talked about putting panels on my south facing porch roof they've just been blowing smoke up my ass about it working. So...now I have to get a smaller solar installation by about 8 panels which should reduce my power generation by 1680kwh leaving me with a 6.7kwh system. Still more than I really need, and I'm sure it'll cost less, but I really wanted to generate more power than that. But at least this is just annoying, not stressful.

On the positive side...I'm going to see Cirque du Soleil this sunday with Ellie. That should be a great time. Ellie is my not-girlfriend that I go on dates with. Apparently that is "complex" to a lot of people, but it works great for me.

Then I get to go on vacation. A nice relaxing vacation involving about 2000 miles of driving. But I'm going to get to see a huge number of friends and I'll be going to the North American Disc World Convention. First one in the US. I'm going to be volunteering which makes me a bit uncomfortable but should turn out to be fun and a great way to meet people at a convention I don't know anybody at.

Amazing!

http://solardenver.1bog.org/
This site is likely going to allow me to get my solar installed a year sooner than I expected. It's a group of Denver people who are interested in solar and have bargained for better prices.

Solar links

Here's a nice informative website with a great solar calculator. It'll tell you roughly how much potential your roof has for generating solar energy. It doesn't take into account shading, but other than that it's pretty accurate at least for my situation. Roof Ray


And here's a little article about nanoantenna solar collectors which may be a great technology to look into soon.

There's also some great news from MIT about using colored filters to make current PV technology drastically more efficient.

And a great new solar concentrator system that should be much more efficient than the old style systems.

Solar financing

Well. I finally heard back from my mortgage guy. He got me better deals than I could get from anywhere else, but he still was short $9,000 of the minimum I needed to do the solar installation. So...until the housing market goes up again or I somehow drastically increase the equity I have in this house I'll have to wait to get solar installed. It's sad, but it was likely to happen.

In November there will be a vote in congress to continue the solar incentives. If that fails then it's likely I won't be getting solar installed for a very long time, but everybody seems to think that it's a shoe in. I'm just so used to be ridiculously disappointed by all politicians that I can't really bring myself to believe it'll continue.

solar and roof readiness

I had a roofer come out and check out my roof. He said it is 2 roofs, and that the newest one was in a really good shape and pretty new. He also mentioned I should get an extra downspout in my huge long north roof. Probably a good idea. So that means that as far as my house and everything go, I'm set to get solar installed.

Confirmed that REC Solar installs their systems on posts which are flashed to the roof, so when the roof needs to be re-done they can just take the panel frames down, re-roof, then put them right back on the same mounting poles they were on in the first place. Good to know. The roof will likely need to be replaced before the solar.

I still need to figure out what to do with the black walnut tree next to the house, so I'm going to try to get a tree specialist to come take a look at it and let me know how much it would cost to move it, trim it, cut it down, whatever.

I was discussing with a friend what I should do for shading on the south side of the house, especially if I have to cut the tree down. One of the things we came up with is to put in trellis mounted to the outside eave facing. Then I'd have trellis and some sort of vine growing along that side of the house. It has the disadvantage of blocking the house somewhat from sunlight during the winter, but in the summer it would work great. Another option is putting solar water heating along the wall, but while I'd like to have solar water heat also it wouldn't really do what I want it to do for shading the whole wall. For either solution (or some combination of both) I still need some sort of shading arrangement for the windows so that they are shaded all summer, but receive sunlight all winter. I'm not sure what I'm going to about it. Either way...those aren't on this year or probably next years agendas...unless I suddenly become very wealthy.

Solar estimates

I finally got through the final analysis of the current estimates last night. Here are the results:
One company came out and did an evaluation but never got back to me with an estimate. One company had a rep come out and basically told me that my roof needed work before the solar could be installed and even then they could only get a 2kw system installed even though I mentioned trimming back the tree next to the house. I'm getting the roof inspected as soon as I can to make sure that isn't correct. And I still need to verify a couple of things but this looks to be the end result.

Of the three companies that have been cooperative and helpful these are the numbers:
Rec Solar 8000W $25,000 including all fees and taxes but not including tax rebate.

IPS 9900W $38,115 plus taxes and fees (~3% of total) not including tax rebate

SRE 8000W $30,174 including all fees and taxes but not including tax rebate

So the question is still how much financing I can afford, but it's unlikely I'll decide to spend roughly $14,000 in order to get an additional 1.9kW of power. I'd love to have the additional power, but the payoff just isn't worth the expense, especially with all the great solar technology that is being invented right now.

I don't think I've mentioned the problem with the tree here, so here's a bit of info about that.
I have a black walnut tree about 10' from my south facing roof. It's not huge, but it does shade the roof where I want there to be solar panels. So it'll have to be trimmed severely, cut down or moved before I get the solar installed. I'd really rather not kill a tree that I don't have to kill, and I don't think I can afford to have it moved, so I'm hoping the amount it needs to be trimmed won't kill it and won't make it completely idiotic looking. However...black walnet isn't really a tree I'd have chosen to put in my yard. They don't provide enough shade for how big they are, they don't have leaves enough of the year, and they drop annoying nuts in the yard. On the other hand, it's kind of fun having squirrels running across the roof. That would annoy most people, but I think it's funny.

Shade is a tricky thing with solar panels. Each panel is made up of groups of chips. And then the panels are in groups like the chips. So, if you get a spot of complete darkness that covers enough chips it will shut down not just the chip that is covered but the group of chips it is in. If enough groups shut down, then the panel shuts down. If enough panels shut down, the the whole group of panels will shut down. So if you have even a small amount of very deep shade on the panels, there is a chance that from that chunk of deep shadow you could get a pretty significant percentage of your solar array to stop producing energy.

The reason this happens is that each subset has to produce a certain amount of power in order to trigger it's connection to the others. If the chip doesn't produce enough power to get beyond that threshold it never turns on and so no power flows out of it. That scales up in the same way all the way up to the entire array.

So now I am waiting for verification of a couple of things, then I have to start trying to get the financing and hope that the estimates don't change much or at all, and that they are accurate and I can afford to pay for solar. Otherwise...time to start saving up significant amounts of money.