Azurisz
New Member
Hey folks ^^ more of a lurker than a forum participant, but figured it'd be a good time to join the forum to post some pictures and ask questions. Nearing the end of the install and still doing some fine-tuning & cleanup, but I'm finally at the part where I've been utilizing the system for about a month now and comfortable with the operation.
Made a few mistakes along the way (a couple REALLY big ones) which were %100, but its been a really good learning experience. Developed some new skills and learned a lot of great information along the way. Would definitely do things completely differently if I had the chance to do this again (wouldn't we all?
), but I have no regrets taking on the project and getting through it. Should be done with the last few bits to get everything functional and ready for inspection in spring, but super happy with the system!
Here's a few photos of the system.
Arrangement in the basement! The far left gray panel is the original house panel hooked up to grid electric. Installed a sub-panel for the PV and a smaller one to the right for smaller loads, just to have more space in the future for expansion. Off to the far left is a little black box that has a 12VDC power supply for the rapid shutdown. Up above the right inverter is a Raspberry Pi 3 running Solar Assistant and performing data logging. Planning on eventually running some new 1/2" EMT and putting up a small box to dress in those wires. Below the right inverter are my busbars and DC circuit breaker for the batteries (battery rack slightly out of the picture off to the right)
Took this photo yesterday after the big snow storm, accumulated another 12 inches of snow! A good portion of the snow gradually slid off the panels by themselves, but around mid-day when the snow storm stopped, I put on my fall protection harness and climbed up to the roof with a broom to push the rest of the snow off. Love the self-cleaning feature of solar panels!
Running the conduit through the basement crawl space was %100 the worst part of the entire project
Not much clearance, not even enough room to kneel and the insulation, argh! Had to do the entire thing on my sides/back with a pillow to prop my head up from the concrete 
Crawl spaces definitely terrible. But was super happy with the pipework in the end, managed to get a good 4 parallel runs of 3/4" EMT. Each pipe has a single homerun for the PV strings. (8/9 panels per string for under 450VOC).
Outside the back door at ground level are two boxes, top one has the Tigo RSS Transmitter rapid-shutdown and bottom box has the DC disconnects for the PV strings. I bought outdoor rated DC disconnects, but wanted to put everything inside enclosures to give them more rain resistance and keeps them out of the sunlight so there won't be any UV light exposure and fading to the type face.
Made a few mistakes along the way (a couple REALLY big ones) which were %100, but its been a really good learning experience. Developed some new skills and learned a lot of great information along the way. Would definitely do things completely differently if I had the chance to do this again (wouldn't we all?
), but I have no regrets taking on the project and getting through it. Should be done with the last few bits to get everything functional and ready for inspection in spring, but super happy with the system!Here's a few photos of the system.
Arrangement in the basement! The far left gray panel is the original house panel hooked up to grid electric. Installed a sub-panel for the PV and a smaller one to the right for smaller loads, just to have more space in the future for expansion. Off to the far left is a little black box that has a 12VDC power supply for the rapid shutdown. Up above the right inverter is a Raspberry Pi 3 running Solar Assistant and performing data logging. Planning on eventually running some new 1/2" EMT and putting up a small box to dress in those wires. Below the right inverter are my busbars and DC circuit breaker for the batteries (battery rack slightly out of the picture off to the right)
Took this photo yesterday after the big snow storm, accumulated another 12 inches of snow! A good portion of the snow gradually slid off the panels by themselves, but around mid-day when the snow storm stopped, I put on my fall protection harness and climbed up to the roof with a broom to push the rest of the snow off. Love the self-cleaning feature of solar panels!
Running the conduit through the basement crawl space was %100 the worst part of the entire project
Not much clearance, not even enough room to kneel and the insulation, argh! Had to do the entire thing on my sides/back with a pillow to prop my head up from the concrete Crawl spaces definitely terrible. But was super happy with the pipework in the end, managed to get a good 4 parallel runs of 3/4" EMT. Each pipe has a single homerun for the PV strings. (8/9 panels per string for under 450VOC).Outside the back door at ground level are two boxes, top one has the Tigo RSS Transmitter rapid-shutdown and bottom box has the DC disconnects for the PV strings. I bought outdoor rated DC disconnects, but wanted to put everything inside enclosures to give them more rain resistance and keeps them out of the sunlight so there won't be any UV light exposure and fading to the type face.
First time bending any serious amount of conduit and the 1" conduit for the inverter to grid panel was a complete nightmare to bend offsets and 90s. Fell on my ass so many times because I had to jump on the pipe bender just to get enough leverage to start bends 
