OFF GRID PERMIT?

[Hedges]

Once Google and Facebook aggregate all the data on you, and your power consumption isn't sufficient to cook the rice and chicken you bought or power your EV for the distance GPS navigation logged, you're busted!

Certainly we need to tax you on photons used. Only rich people can afford solar, and it isn't fair poor people have to pay an electric bill.

I'm sometimes able to spot things in data, malfunction of equipment or other anomalies, based on understanding.
I heard a keynote talk from a Googler. He described AI being taught to examine photographs of retina, became able to detect diabetes damage better than an average eye doctor, then better than a specialist. Then given subject gender info to learn from, it also could determine gender to high 90's percentage, compared to eye doctors who were no better than a coin toss. Teaching vision systems to guide a car down the lane or a blind Boston Marathoner to follow a painted line worked similarly. Just train with examples, and it most of the time does a remarkably good job (without any understanding.)

All the power company or law enforcement would have to do is feed consumption patterns for many people and identify which were various types of violators, and AI could then rat you out. Whether someone has a grow house, guerilla solar, or conscientiously turns out the lights upon leaving a room, Big Brother can know all. (or at least think he does, and be correct with some statistical probability.)

 

[WYtreasure]

yes California is expensive in many ways. However, I do like that my house appreciates 50 to 100k almost every year, good news for my heirs anyway. I have only had experience with 200 watt panels, and they are light. If you are talking about 350w or bigger panels would the weight per foot be significantly greater?

Hopefully the portion of the thread which remained ON TOPIC has convinced you to stay off the roof and ask the authorities what you can and can't do while avoiding permitting.

T answer your question, I am a man without a clue, never have calculated the pounds per square foot. I'm happy to guess that there would only be significant differences if panels were manufactured 1) with some special features which would make them heavier or 2) made to be lightweight intentionally. My panels are 100 watts, easy for an old man to move. It has been a few years since I have been on a "normal" roof & I don't ever plan to either.
Flexible panels are on a whole different planet as far as this subject goes.

 

[tomy2]

when all is said and done, this has to be the worst time to start a solar project. Supply constraints, shipping backups and soaring prices. I think i'll take a year off and maybe there will be a better and cheaper battery then!

 

[Zil]

The local people issuing the "permit" don't know their proverbial rear end from a hole in the ground. It's just a tax. Nobody can really advise you what to do but I don't ask elected dweebs for permission to do any work on my house.

In my area of the world, the people issuing the permits and doing the inspections are not the elected people. They are professionals and simi-professionals. They have usually a code book such as National Building Code with all the answers.

 

[Zil]

What a train wreck. I hope OP can sort out the few answers to their questions and sift some decent advice. Call the EMTs.

 

[copec]

I worked in IT for a title company for years, installing panels on your roof in itself is considered personal property, like window blinds. So unless there is already an ordinance restricting solar panels due to how they look, they legally have no say on just the panels existing on the roof. However, they do have say on the electrical safety. In my municipality the threshold for needing a permit seems to be penetrating the roof and running the lines through the attic. I talked to the inspector via phone call ahead of time, and he was really antagonistic towards any self-install solar, so I ended up just doing it anyways attempting to follow NEC and basic structural requirements.

I don't have RSD, but my Deye inverter does have GFCI and AFD and the connection is through EMT up through the roof, and my array is grounded properly. The state has a law that officially said every municipality should abide by NEC 2017, but mine still goes by 2011 ?‍.

I looked around and since everybody has had occupied RV's and buildings they throw up not within the setbacks, I figured the city probably doesn't pay attention. I put up my panels like five years ago and nobody has noticed.

I think if someone wanted to challenge it, the way it is phrased for most municipalities, you could get away with solar on the roof, connected around the outside of the house with some sort of outdoor rated DC connection system, and have a separate solar generator rig that isn't permanently connected. It is really up to the inspector and the city bullying people into submission based on an arbitrary set of beliefs though.

 

[WYtreasure]

when all is said and done, this has to be the worst time to start a solar project. Supply constraints, shipping backups and soaring prices. I think i'll take a year off and maybe there will be a better and cheaper battery then!

I wonder how much money you will be giving the electric company over the next year. Investing in your own energy production seems like a better idea, but that's just me.

 

[copec]

I started out about five years ago with a bunch of used panels connected to a LV5048 and a battery made from Nissan Leaf cells, but then put two GTIL2's connected directly to the battery to do zero-export for my whole household. It worked really well, and the LV5048 was actually plenty for critical circuits, but then it became a weird hobby to me and kept growing from there

 

[DerpsyDoodler]

I started out about five years ago with a bunch of used panels connected to a LV5048 and a battery made from Nissan Leaf cells, but then put two GTIL2's connected directly to the battery to do zero-export for my whole household. It worked really well, and the LV5048 was actually plenty for critical circuits, but then it became a weird hobby to me and kept growing from there

View attachment 92980

Are...are those antennae? Are you trying to contact extra terrestrial life now? Is that where the weird part comes in? ??

 

[WYtreasure]

Are...are those antennae? Are you trying to contact extra terrestrial life now? Is that where the weird part comes in? ??

They are eye pokers. @copec, put sumpin on them before I loose an eyeball.

 

[copec]

They are eye pokers. @copec, put sumpin on them before I loose an eyeball.

The plan was to stack more batteries, but I eventually cut them off and made a plywood box around it. They did inflict some serious damage on my arm before I cut them off!

I got a Deye 8k a couple of years ago, I have 36x250W used panels, and this was a 100 degree day, but this is pretty typical of almost filling out the full curve of available yield. Running the electric drier, dishwasher and AC during the day. I also have my bro-in-law's miner that takes ~1200 watts 24/7. I need to add more battery, I cycle it 10kw/h (50% but I limit the top to 56ish volts, and keep 10kw/h in reserve for my critical circuits).

Edit: If you are interested in Deye, PM @the_colorist he has been pretty good for me.

 

[copec]

off-topic (I can't help myself)

Once Google and Facebook aggregate all the data on you, and your power consumption isn't sufficient to cook the rice and chicken you bought or power your EV for the distance GPS navigation logged, you're busted!

Certainly we need to tax you on photons used. Only rich people can afford solar, and it isn't fair poor people have to pay an electric bill.

I'm sometimes able to spot things in data, malfunction of equipment or other anomalies, based on understanding.
I heard a keynote talk from a Googler. He described AI being taught to examine photographs of retina, became able to detect diabetes damage better than an average eye doctor, then better than a specialist. Then given subject gender info to learn from, it also could determine gender to high 90's percentage, compared to eye doctors who were no better than a coin toss. Teaching vision systems to guide a car down the lane or a blind Boston Marathoner to follow a painted line worked similarly. Just train with examples, and it most of the time does a remarkably good job (without any understanding.)

All the power company or law enforcement would have to do is feed consumption patterns for many people and identify which were various types of violators, and AI could then rat you out. Whether someone has a grow house, guerilla solar, or conscientiously turns out the lights upon leaving a room, Big Brother can know all. (or at least think he does, and be correct with some statistical probability.)

I use this same argument about people afraid of a federal list of firearm holders. I'm generally pro-firearms, but have accepted that with all the thousands if not millions of points of information accumulated on almost every single person, a list could easily be generated on who has the firearms. It might not be who has exactly what, but it could certainly be to a high degree of accuracy that they would have something of a certain class (FWIW I think they should simultaneously open up what types of firearms you can own, but simply have more stringent requirements in proportion for the potential danger of the weapon to the public, note NFA class III are virtually never used in crime). It's not that I want a list, it's just people are afraid it's the first step to being rounded up and taken away, and they could do that now with the data out there if they wanted to.

 

[Zil]

copec

I started out about five years ago with a bunch of used panels connected to a LV5048 and a battery made from Nissan Leaf cells, but then put two GTIL2's became

Curious. What protection do you have for, or from, the cells?

 

[copec]

[mistake post]

 

[copec]

copec

Curious. What protection do you have for, or from, the cells?

I started with just a DC breaker and a JK balancer, but setup a Nuvation shortly after:

 

[sunshine_eggo]

I started out about five years ago with a bunch of used panels connected to a LV5048 and a battery made from Nissan Leaf cells, but then put two GTIL2's connected directly to the battery to do zero-export for my whole household. It worked really well, and the LV5048 was actually plenty for critical circuits, but then it became a weird hobby to me and kept growing from there

View attachment 92980

Bro... Show and Tell that shit!

 

[12VoltInstalls]

_

 

[copec]

agreed, and they should also charge a domestic tariff for the automobiles that are most likely to cause people to drive drunk, as well as fine the purveyors of condoms most likely to cause men to rape women

I asked my friend once who is highway patrol, and he seemed to pull over drunk people in a Lexus more than any other brand.

 

[Hedges]

I also have my bro-in-law's miner that takes ~1200 watts 24/7. I need to add more battery, I cycle it 10kw/h (50% but I limit the top to 56ish volts, and keep 10kw/h in reserve for my critical circuits).

I would suggest that turning the miner on/off, or preferably throttling its performance to serve as a variable dump load, would be a better alternative to battery storage.

 

[12VoltInstalls]

I asked my friend once who is highway patrol, and he seemed to pull over drunk people in a Lexus more than any other brand.

I was being antithetically sarcastic and off topic. Never mind. Cars apparently do cause drunken driving; condoms cause rape.