Latest News:

CNN 6/2008 video –You tube CNN video

Web cam links require java installed, (www.java.com)

Front of house Live Web cam

B

Installation or Solar panels video –Installation two days condensed into 13 seconds

Hi, my name is Jessie Prado (softekfl@hotmail.com) and I live in Boca Raton FL, located on the east coast in South Florida USA.

System: Grid connected PV System w/ battery backup,  rated power per hour 4320Watts, 24 Evergreen ES-180B solar panels (180Watt)

(2)GVFX3648  Outback Inverters, (2) MX-60 Outback charge controllers & (8) Surrette S-530 solar deep cycle batteries.

Since I have two inverters, my system powers both the 120v and 240v loads.

During the day in normal operation when the grid is fully up my system powers every single electric powered device in the house, including the

Central A/C and  Dryer, which are the biggest power consumers, if I go over what my system is producing it will grab the rest from the grid.

During a power outage, grid down, only the emergency panels have power, and those were strategically selected,

All the lights in the house, tv’s, ceiling fans, coffee maker, pool pump, lawn sprinkler system, electric water heater. (8) 120v breakers

and (3) 240v breakers. 

Stats:

On a really dark rainy day I’ve gotten the panels to produce 10KWh (10,000 watts)

On a sunny day I’ll go from 20KWh up to 26KWh, especially if it’s a cool breeze day. Panels like it cool.

FPL (Florida Power and Light) installed my new digital meter Tuesday morning 3/6/2007, before that my old meter

Just spun around backwards.

Today Saturday 3/10/2007 morning my readings are (meter 1 – 30KWh, meter 2 - 63Kwh) meter 1 is what I used, meter 2 is what I sold.

So I’m averaging 7.5KWh use per day, but I’m selling my excess of over 15KWh per day, so I’m actually selling 8.25 KWh per day to FPL.

So as of this morning FPL owes me 33KWh, so as these credits build up during Winter,Spring and Fall, then during the summer months when I’ll use more than I produce,

I can cash in on those credits.

Steps I took to lower my electricity consumption, well before installing my system:

Installed three skylights, kitchen, pantry and master bathroom. The one in the shower has a dual purpose, before the skylight, the shower had to be bleached

every weekend to get rid of the mold. After the install, we never saw mold again, the UV rays kills any mold, it’s been over a year now.

We replaced all the light bulbs with fluorescent light bulbs, including the recessed lights, also swapped our Christmas lights to LED. Adjusted the Refrigerator temperature using a thermometer to below 40 degreees.

Christmas light consumption went from 1200Wh to about 80Wh, that’s less that one regular light bulb, can’t wait for house LED’s to hit the market at reasonable price.

Set my pool filter pump to run between 10:30-11:30AM every day, that’s 1550Wh.

Placed my electric water heater on a timer (pool timer-home depot) and I only let it run between 12:00-12:30PM, at 4270Watts an hour that’s only 2135 Watts a day,

That’s enough for two AM showers, two PM showers and two more middle of day showers, hot water all around. 

And my panels produce around 4000Wh so they are fully covered.

Because of our water restritions the sprinklers now go on at 4AM for an hour 4 zones at 1660Wh.

We also got a window unit Air conditioner that’s 660Wh compared to the central A/C at 5000Wh, and LED pool light, LCD TV’s and a small air convection oven which uses 1200wh instead of the 5000wh the big overn uses, we leave the computer on standby (uses 6 wh instead of 90 wh) And we try to run big items at different times to maximize the use of the solar power

All these little changes by themselves don’t seem like much but together they add up.

Here’s a picture of my first solar system 2002, 1 MX-60, two surrette S-530 batteries and a vector inverter,

This system powered some lights, small fridge and table fans during the two hurricane  power outages.

The new system is bigger and better, and most importantly, passed city code, very important for the state refund. Thanks to the help from Roger Messenger and crew at vergona/Bowersox Electric who did a great job and they are located right here in Boca Raton who did the electrical work (561)750-8677 WWW.VBENGINEERING.COM, e-mail info@vbengineering.com - I also got all of my parts from Mr.Louis over in Miami (Bayside area) from a distributor www.sunelec.com (Sun Electronics)

We used 4” stainless steel lag bolts into the trusses every 48”, penetration into the wood was 2.25” giving each

Bolt 500lbs of pull force. Used the recycled deck material (Lowes) between the bolt and roof shingle.

Sealed the whole piece with silicone roof sealant (Home Depot).

We used three rails per panel and grouped them in six separate panel groups. Each solar panel had a lift force in 150 mph winds

Of 1000lbs, with six panels that was 6000lbs of potential lift, we used 18 lag bolts (500lbs X18= 9000lbs) well over the 6000lb code.

Torqued the rails to the clamps at the recommended lbs/ft force

Started on a Saturday and ended on a Sunday.

Important- use anti-seize paste on all the aluminum bolt to avoid galling (seizure)- found at car part stores

Completed panels

Extended my emergency loads from the main breaker to the garage where the PS2AC-Outback breaker box resides

Combiner box where 8 pairs of MC cables come down from the solar panels which are wired in series of three.

240v breakers which were extended from their corresponding 240v panels on the side of the house

Main disconnect panels on left (FPL disc.) Main outside breaker- I also had my FPL line buried to the pole.

FPL disconnect – In case of power outage, the inverters automatically stop feeding the grid but this can be used

To manually disconnect, it can be locked in place per code – so not to power the grid while workers are repairing it.

My old FPL meter, it just spun backwards

New FPL digital meter window#1- what I've bought from FPL in Kwh

New FPL meter window #2 What I sold to FPL in Kwh - 63Kwh-30Kwh=33Kwh That would be my credit for 4 days

PS2AC panel with a few breakers, Inverters on the right – each inverter can produce 3640 watts

Complete system, took two days to install –notice the box on top right with two little round cylinders at each end,

Those are lightning arrestors in case of lighting hit

Wiring enclosures pipes, all DC (solar panels to PS2DC goes in metal), all AC can go in PVC.

Battery enclosures, Target tubs, with Outback battery trays (green) they can hold one entire battery spill.

(8) 6volt batteries in series producing 48v- 400Ah = 19200 watts storage (a bit less with conversions, loss)

Notice the white 2” PVC. Once the lids are closed any excess Hydrogen gets vented outside.

The yellow caps are water misers, the recombine the hydrogen and water drips back into the batteries, reducing watering.

Here is the system with my laptop and the WattPlot software monitoring and plotting the solar production

Links to the screens are at the top of this page

Full view of system with open battery bins

Full view of system with closed battery bins

Skylight in kitchen- used to be a dark spot during the day

Skylights outside view, 200mph uv resistant, you can see my old 120watt panel

Solar powered attic fan and the other skylight- keeps my attic cool

Skylight in shower

Switched wife’s  1875Watt hairdryer with this efficient 1200W model, and she was still happy with the drying 

Because my house was built in 1971, I had a structural engineer check on the stress on the trusses, and he recommended adding some support on both the upper trusses and the bottom beams

Thermal blanket around water heater – ACE hardware- timer is right on top

Latest addition- Rain collectors-50 Gal - took 5 mins of rain to fill to the rim These should help watering the lawn dry spots and plants, here in Florida we're down to Phase III watering restrictions of one day a week, this should help

2nd rain barrel

3rd rain barrel

As I get more information and time I will keep updating this web site