Rob Erlichman of Sunlight Electric

Here's an brief but interesting August 2008 interview with Rob Erlichman in the Cornell University Chronicle Online. Erlichman is the CEO of Sunlight Electric, a San Francisco-based solar panel producer.

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Aug08/alum.erlichman.aj.html

"Contrary to what one can read in the popular press, we're already at a place where the lines cross between the cost of solar power and the cost of using conventional generated electricity. The reason I say that, although you don't read about it, is because most people don't take into account all of the costs of their use of electricity.

For example, if you're a utility customer and you pay your electric bill for 20 years, what do you have at the end of those 20 years? You have nothing. Your money has gone up in smoke. Wouldn't the more attractive alternative be to invest in your own power plant, and at the end of that 20 years, you own something that generates power?"

Building the System: Day 8

I feel like today was the day that reality hit us in the face. After admiring the beautiful array of panels, we're now looking at a lot of cables, wiring, conduit and junction boxes. R. and D., the electricians, are doing their best to make it look as unintrusive as possible. We may have to plant a new bush and paint some conduit when they're finished but it'll be okay.


R. and D. connecting our system to our meter and to the power grid.


These are the inverters, which will be mounted on the garage wall just above where they're sitting in the picture. Theinverters convert the power generated by the panels from DC (direct current) to AC (alternating current) before passing it through to the electrical panel / electric meter (and out onto the power grid). Energy from half the panels will be routed through each of these.

Building the System: Day 7

After a long day of installing rails on Saturday, E.F. and M. are planning on getting all 36 panels installed on the main roof today.

These guys are the greatest. After installing the first row they didn't like how it was sitting. If you look close (hard to tell from this angle) the panels and the lower roof line were converging from left to right because of an imperfection in the roof. They also noticed a dip in the center of the roof that was throwing the alignment off. Instead of throwing up their hands and saying "it's not our fault the roof is off," they removed the panels and headed off for lunch at McDonalds to plan some adjustments.

The adjustments have probably added three hours to their work day but it looks awesome now. E.F. is a perfectionist: "That first row has to be exactly right."

It's mid-afternoon here and they're working on the last row of panels.

This picture (below) was taken from the top of the ladder. That's M. against the clouds. It's hard to tell where the panels stop and the sky starts.

All 48 panels are installed. I don't think they could have done a neater job. By coincidence, I just painted the trim purple last week and it matches the panels almost as if it had been planned that way.

The electrician will be here tommorow to install inverters, etc. and put the system online.

Building the System: Day 5

E.F. and M. got an early start on this beautiful Jersey Saturday morning. Since they're on the high roof this time, they broke out the safety harnesses.

I sneaked up the ladder when they were out for lunch and snapped off a few bracket closeups.

They're about to achieve the day's goal -- all brackets and rails installed for the remaining thirty-six panels.

Day is done. As always, I was impressed with their concern for aesthetics. E.F. told me with pride that the panels on the main roof would be centered, with 17 inches of roof on each side.

Incidentally, the twelve panels on the garage roof aren't centered because main roof casts a shadow on the side in late afternoon (or mid afternoon in winter).

The project electrician, R., came by this afternoon after a 65 mile bike ride at the Jersey Shore. He was planning his electrical work that will be done early next week. He, too, is very concerned with making the job look as aesthetically pleasing as possible. Can't complain about that.

What a Solar Panel Looks Like

Each panel is 3 feet X 5 feet and weighs about 35 pounds. I was very careful the night I moved them from the yard to the garage (it took two hours) but apparently they're very durable and hard to damage by accident.

Here's a front shot of one:


And here's a back shot:


One of the wires has a male end and the other has a female end so they can be attached in-series.

How the Panels are Attached

Somebody somewhere was asking about the hardware that actually attaches the panels to the roof. At the time I wasn't really certain about it but now I know more from snooping around on the job site.

A series of brackets is screwed into the roof (right through the shingle) using a washer and 3/8" bolt that's 2 1/2 " long. Here is a set uninstalled:

And here is a set installed:


I just went up in the attic to confirm that each of these bolts are screwed into a rafter, not just through the roof plywood.

Each bracket/bolt is gooped up with what E.F. called "thirty year sealer." It looks like tar -- you can see some of it on the brackets in both of the previous pictures.


The rails that the panels will be attached to are screwed onto a row of these brackets:


It ends up looking like this:


That makes this a rather permanent installation. If we decided for some reason to remove the panels and rails from the roof we'd have hundreds of 3/8" holes that go right through the shingle and plywood and into the rafter. That's not going to happen, but yes, theoretically it would be a problem (just answering the question).

Building the System: Day 4

No work done today. The weather looked iffy this morning and E.F. had to drive to Carteret to pick up some copper wiring.