Help me understand and make sure this will work

[AJP69]

I am in Kansas so we get a fair bit of sun in the summer. I have awning over my patio that gets full sun all day and it would be perfect to add some solar panels on top, the area is roughly 22' x 12'. My thoughts are this I can fit 9 panels in a 3x3 grid, was looking at the Canadian Solar 400W Bifacial Solar Panel (Silver)| Up to 520W with Bifacial Gain | CS3W-400PB-AG. So in a perfect world that is 4680w and I want to feed that into a Growatt 6kW Grid-Tie Inverter | MIN 6000TL-X. All in I am looking at around $3000 plus wires and connectors.

I would just wire all the panels in series and then run that to the inverter and tie it into my main panel. I would use a licensed electrician to make the connection to the panel and to the grid but otherwise I could do the rest myself. I don't expect this system totally offset my usage but I hope I am correctly assuming it would make a good bit of power and lower my bill a good bit. The plan is for the panels to be totally flat on the patio roof and there is zero obstruction.

So my question is am I correctly understanding what the Growatt unit does and am I missing anything big in the setup, also any idea of expected actual power generation.

 

[SignatureSolarJames]

You will get bifacial benefits with the awning.

a string of 9 is fine

PVwatts online is a good zipcode based simulator to use

 

[sunshine_eggo]

You need some kind of racking that will allow a 4-6" clearance between the roof and panels, or the panels will get too hot, underperform and shorten their lives.

Is your awning a completely separate structure, or is it tied into the roof. If tied into the roof, it may be subjected to NEC2017 requirements where each panel requires it's own separate shutdown module. That's about $50/panel.

You need to check with your Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) (city, country and/or state building codes/permits) and your power company before you do anything. You can't connect to the grid without a contract from your power company, and you will be required to comply with whatever they require.

 

[AJP69]

You need some kind of racking that will allow a 4-6" clearance between the roof and panels, or the panels will get too hot, underperform and shorten their lives.

Is your awning a completely separate structure, or is it tied into the roof. If tied into the roof, it may be subjected to NEC2017 requirements where each panel requires it's own separate shutdown module. That's about $50/panel.

You need to check with your Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) (city, country and/or state building codes/permits) and your power company before you do anything. You can't connect to the grid without a contract from your power company, and you will be required to comply with whatever they require.

Right now the patio has no roof at all I would be building it specifically for this. So I can build it however would best suit the system. I don't plan to buy a single thing prior to speaking to the power company and an electrician, but wanted to make sure before I did that that this is even a plan worth investigating.

 

[SignatureSolarJames]

the electrical inspector is separate from the power company if your city or county has an electrical inspector you need to talk to them too.

 

[AJP69]

You will get bifacial benefits with the awning.

a string of 9 is fine

PVwatts online is a good zipcode based simulator to use

Based on that site I would generate roughly 5,804 kWh/Year, over the last 12 months I have used 14,673kWh. So in theory it would cut my current bill by about 1/3.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Right now the patio has no roof at all I would be building it specifically for this. So I can build it however would best suit the system. I don't plan to buy a single thing prior to speaking to the power company and an electrician, but wanted to make sure before I did that that this is even a plan worth investigating.

I guess I was confused by your statement:

I have awning over my patio that gets full sun all day and it would be perfect to add some solar panels on top, the area is roughly 22' x 12'.

Aside from this inconsistency, you have the concept right. Likely going to be closer to $6K vs. the 3K.

 

[AJP69]

I guess I was confused by your statement:



Aside from this inconsistency, you have the concept right. Likely going to be closer to $6K vs. the 3K.

I currently have a shade cloth on 4x4's so there is no actual roof and it would be built for this. Sorry if that was confusing. Why do you think I am closer to $6k I can buy the panels and growatt inverter right now for $3k. I am not including the cost of building out the awning for this, just the panels, inverter, and wires and connectors.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

I currently have a shade cloth on 4x4's so there is no actual roof and it would be built for this. Sorry if that was confusing. Why do you think I am closer to $6k I can buy the panels and growatt inverter right now for $3k. I am not including the cost of building out the awning for this, just the panels, inverter, and wires and connectors.

When you start talking code compliance, shit gets expensive very quickly.

 

[AJP69]

When you start talking code compliance, shit gets expensive very quickly.

An answer like that doesnt really answer the question. What am I not including that I need to plan for?