Finished product

All 18 panels are up and generating up to 3600 watts/h of power. Stay tune for the next project, the wind turbine. Our maximum output has been 3400 watts/h and we have an average of 20 Kw/

day on sunny days and 10 Kw /day on cloudy days.

In order to get credit from Ameren for the surplus electricity that we can't consume, we had to sign an Interconnect Agreement. Our local Ameren web site will give you details of who to contact and requirements needed. http://www.ameren.com/ENVIRONMENT/ADC_EV_WindSystemsRequirements.asp

We also went to the Depatement of Commerce and Economic Opportunity for information on the solar energy rebate program.

http://www.illinoisbiz.biz/NR/rdonlyres/10C37851-6A33-492C-A8BC-88FE356CACCA/0/FY07SolarEnergyRebateGuidelines.pdf

Everything wired and ready to generate power

Sunny Boy connections were made by Dave. I recommend either a proffesional installer or certified electition perform this step. We only had one positive and one negative coming in from the combiner box. But if we were going to have only 3 stings of 7 or less panel the Sunny Boy could have accomodated it this way. The power out on the Sunny Boy has two wires coming from the L1 and L2 to the A/C disconnect box, then to a 30 amp breaker in the breaker panel. The neutral and ground go through the A/C disconnect and into the breaker panel to the grounding/neutral bus bar.

Combiner box and panel up

Here is Jarred (Dave son), getting ready to place the combiner box and wire all the panels together. He also added grounding lugs to each of the rails and grounded it to the combiner box. There are three fuses in the combiner box with each string(row of panels) wired to each of the fuses. All the power is still D/C and combines all the strings to one single power line that runs down the side of the house into the D/C disconnect and in to the sunnyboy. The wires that are used to connect the panels to the combiner box are 10 gauge outdoor rated. There are wire clips that can be attached to the underside of the panels that hold the wires off the roof if needed. The wires have a male (+) side and Female (-)side that are easily connected and water tight.

Sunnyboy placed and wired

Sunny Boy inverter:

( http://www.sma-america.com/) is mounted on an exterior wall next to the meter and DC disconnect box. The Sunny Boy is a 6000 kw system and weights in at 84 lbs. The Sunny Boy has directions with it to show how to mount it. It has a T bracket that mounts to a wall stud, then the Sunny Boy is hoisted and placed onto the tab of the T bracket. A lag bolt is screwed into the bottom hole of the Sunny Boy and T bracket. The DC disconnect has a wider space between the wire connections to prevent arcing. The positive wire goes to the disconnect and the negative and ground go directly into the Sunny Boy.

first row of panels are up.

We're finished with the first row of panels. The wiring of the panels is pretty simple. The panels have a positive and negative end that have male/ female connectors. One panel's negative end connects to the next panel's positive end until reaching the end or the 7th panel which ever comes first. The negative end connects into the combiner box to the ground bus bar. The positive end will go into the combiner box and connect to the fuse. If you are only using up to 3 series of panel rows, you can connect directly to the Sunny Boy inverter. There is a small grounding clip that goes between each of the panels that fits on the top mounting clamp. At the end of the panel a grounding clamp needs to be placed to fasten the grounding wire that goes into the combiner box and clamp onto the grounding bus bar. Each panel has 4 top mounting clamps, two on each side of the panels that a nut is secured onto the the bolt that is in a channel on the top of the rail. The first and last panels on the outsides are only holding the one panel on, but all the ones in the middle secure adjacent to each other.

Panels going up

Here I am taking up one of the Sanyo panels and handing it to Dave. We have 18 panels that are rated at 200 watts per panel that are wired in series to the combiner box that will be attached to the roof. Each of the panels weight in at about 35 lbs. We first got all the panels up on the roof for the first row before they started to bolt them on. The panels can go into a series up to a maximum of 7, we only did 6 due to the length of our roof and the rail that we purchased. These rails can be joined together to make a long continuous row or cut if needed.

Solar panel rails.

June 8th, (while were having a garage sale!) Dave Merrill and his son came to install the solar array. Since our roof is a 10/12 pitch, (approximately 42 degrees), they used ropes tied onto the trees on the opposite side of the house and then to themselves to place all the rails and solar panels on the South side of the roof. I had to go into the attic to make sure all the rafters were at the correct distances. They place all the L brackets into the roof and sealed them with caulk. This picture shows the solar panel rails going up. The Uni-Rack system has a bolt that slides into the rail and a nut secures the rail to the L bracket. Each of our rails are 18 feet long which will accommodate 6 panels across. The rails are spaced with 1/4 of the length to the top and bottom of the rail and 1/2 the length between the rails in the middle.