Solar Power Day 14

Two days have past since my last post but today’s appearance by the solar crew actually came as a surprise, especially considering they arrived around 3PM. After waking up and not seeing anyone during the morning hours, I just assumed they would be coming either tomorrow (Friday) or sometime next week. If memory serves, according to them what had happened was they were sent out to another jobsite, well over two hours away, and weren’t informed that the homeowners had gone on vacation. It is frequently said that communication is the key to every relationship and today is proof that this extends FAR beyond just dating and marriage. But I digress. As aggravating and unfortunate as this was for the crew, it was still good for both of us since that means more progress here and I got to nerd out with the crew whenever they had a free moment.

The first order of business was getting the wires pulled through the buried conduit from the Enphase combiner to the pergola disconnect box. After a little bit of struggle (the conduit is about 75 feet after all), with some help the electrician got his fish tape pulled through the conduit.

I actually have a roll of metal fish tape but after seeing how well the plastic version works I think a change is in order

I believe 8-gauge wire was pulled since that would meet the current flow requirements and the run is under 100 feet , but it could also be 6-gauge.

While this was going on most of the remaining microinverters were installed and another row of five panels was mounted to the pergola roof.

Ten down, eight more to go. It’s getting there!

Since there were only three crew members today including the electrician there was no work done on my house roof, but that’s fine with me. My understanding is they need at least three people on the house roof to install a panel safely, and of course as Bill Nighy said “safety first, Shaun”. So the remaining rigging from the panels relocated away from my kitchen skylights still remains, some patchwork will need to be done once the rigging is removed, and there’s one more panel to mount on the house roof, and then they’re going to pain the conduits black (which may or may not happen prior to a full inspection). The plan is also to finally shut the power off to my house for an hour or so to complete the interconnection to my house mains. I’m told if the crew shows up in the morning with a full complement then they should be able to complete everything by the end of the day. My fingers are crossed that we get to cross the finish line tomorrow.