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I did not say checking connections which as you assume if probably not a long task but lugging and bolting panels in place on a flat roof on sunny day takes a lot longer. Many folks doing it are apprentices and day laborers and they are not paid for quality only quantity. I know numerous...

That is what I meant. If the equipment is rated for 1000 watts my guess is best effciency point would be somewhere in the 800 watt range plus or minus 100 watts.

I designed and managed the building of small (1 to 8 MW) combined heat and power projects for several years for hospitals and manufacturers in Mass. In most cases, they were designed to cover the load in the facilities from on site generation (usually a natural gas engine or turbine) with the...

Hard to factor in sweat equity in the equation. I am a recently retired engineer that did most of my work from my home office at a desk. Doing my own solar designs and installs from scratch was a hobby I enjoyed as it gave me a chance to keep my hands dirty. At one point in my career the...

My 14 year old Evergreen panels will still exceed the panels ratings on my pole mount with adjustable angle in winter. The combination needs to be fresh snow on ground, no clouds, some wind and the colder the better. I also gain some early morning and late afternoon generation as I do have...

The quick look I did does not say what type of pump this is, my guess is its centrifugal. You want a positive displacement pump like Grunfos SQ flex Grundfos has a free on line courses on off grid pumping This one may be of interest...

The panel not flat with the rail is a big issue. Definitely worth experimenting with a panel and piece of rail flat against each other and see if there is still an issue. It also could be just a bad run of rails, they are an aluminum extrusions dependent on the quality of the materials and...

Sad to say our town has a transfer station for waste and recycling with strict no picking rule that is enforced. I see a lot of old cast iron (mostly very old craftsman) cast iron power tools in the metals pile. There is local "antique"/junk shop that has a basement section full of old hand...

My system is very similar except I built a pivot into it rather than the pipe clamps. The weight is quite well balanced. When I change my angle I use one hand to push the panel up or down and use the other hand to change the location of support strut. It takes a 7/16" and a 3/4" wrench and...

There you go, fresh out of the barn (I havent cleaned them). Note despite model numbers the same as shown in the picutres above, the wafer layout it a bit different. I would guess they are an earlier version. Note these were sold as specifically designed for battery charging, no charge...

I think its simpler, firemen want something that might survive an ax blow. PVC gives off toxic smoke and cuts pretty easy with an ax.

NH is cheap on RECS, usually $25 a REc after I pay a broker. I use a retired utility meter that I bought on Ebay in standard base. My utility required a PV disconnect on the outside wall so I just wired the meter above it. I have to submit my KWs every month to a third party verifier and swear...

I am up in the mountains of NH but grew up along the Maine Coast before moving north after college. PV Watts does not handle snow cover well, but snow cover has its pluses and minuses. Contrary to what a solar salesman says, snow may not melt off quickly until there is sustained stretch of...

My 20 year old installation has aluminum panel rails on Unistrut (the gold electroplated variety versus the dipped) and I see some staining and loss of zinc on the strut that is in direct contact. I used stainless fasteners between the panels and racking. On my newer pole mount I bought a sheet...

My area of NH is solid granite. Most wells are deep and low yielding. They are also major radon sources. The choices to remove it are air scrubbing or activated carbon filters on the incoming water (if the radon levels are relatively low). Its a major secondary cause for lung cancer. Homes built...

As long as its physically big enough and you have a five gallon pail of wire lube and paintbrush on one end and an appropriate tugger on the other you should be all set. BTW. there is lot to be said for pulling the old wires out and pulling in new pulling rope, then blasting the line with...

I briefly worked with a form in VT Northern Power that designed and built wind small wind turbines (Northwind 100s). Long before the company built the HR2 and HR3s that were popular. Many of the engineers were off grid at one point and many had tried wind. Across the board they all were of the...

UV is the killer of any sealant. Ideally a "T" shaped aluminum spline set in the gap with Sikaflex would last a very long time. In my climate I would run the panel out from the lower wall. Water flowing down can sometimes ignore gravity and stick to the surface. I would probably put a lower...

That is my understanding and the understanding of the two electrical engineers (one also was master electrician). Only one bond between Neutral and ground at the main panel with the subpanels keeping a separated neutral and ground (no bond screw). There would be still be 4 wires going back to...

Sounds like the Solar City connector fiasco that Tesla inherited. Many of the "compatible" MC4 connectors are reportedly not necessarily tested if they truly are compatible.

I briefly worked for a long term maker of wind turbines in VT, they started out in the sixties salvaging old Jacobs type 1930s style turbines and eventually started building them including the first turbine near the South Pole. They kept at it and with government funds built winterized turbines...

One of the best deals out there if you are willing to do your own repairs are the government surplus Special Emplacement Excavators (SEE) otherwise known as FLU 419s. Its a wheeled loader with Case backhoe in the back. The US military had 3000 of them made by Mercedes based on their Unimog 406...

Do not forget the old standby for off gridders and folks who wanted a forever washer, the Staber, a top load horizontal washer. Hard to beat the power consumption. https://www.staber.com/pdfs/staber-washer-model-HXW2305.pdf. Mine has been running for 30 years. Not very pretty but few moving...

Ledge and Rock is NH renewable resource ;) . Dig anywhere in NH and rocks are going to appear it is just how big they are. I think my new house lot may have ledge under it and thus goes any plans for full basement. Odds are radon will come along for the ride. The mill I worked at in Northern NH...

I think a lot of litigation on these fires is sealed. One report I read indicated it was combination of trash/leaves being ignited by arcing connectors. Its unpleasant work to say the least hanging out on a roof to install hundreds if not thousands of solar panels and I expect that not everyone...

I have both a pole mount, wall mount and roof mount. The pole mount has an adjustable angle so snow is not a major issue. The wall mount is the same, its adjustable for angle so snow is not an issue and the bottom edge is quite high off the ground. The roof mount is a PITA in winter. I can keep...

Expenses for third party assistance over 25 years of solar have been few as I was one of the early adopters in my area. I paid someone with a backhoe to dig a hole for my pole mount and I guess I could count my annual subscription to Home Power. At one point I needed an electrician sign off on...

Consumer grade fuses are commodities and there can be variations in quality. That said a crappy/corroded connection somewhere in the system can draw more amperage as the system ages causing a fuse to blow. A thermal camera is real handy to look for hot spots. The factory MC4s usually are pretty...

Do some research on zero energy homes or Passive Homes. If built right, they use no energy to heat or cool. Get rid of heating and cooling demand and power usage goes way down.

https://www.fieldmag.com/articles/wood-fired-hot-tub-guide