PE stamps for permit

[J.P.M.]

they provide stamped engineering structural drawings and do wind load calcs for s5! connectors from what I have read.

That may be, as well as a bunch of other calcs, drawings and documents, but they do not approve anything. They provide what gets submitted to the authority responsible (the AHJ) for review, approval and oversight of designs and constructions within that AHJ's jurisdiction. If the submittal is acceptable it is then approved by the AHJ.

[awright2009]

So good news: https://ibb.co/gZY50Z7solar_install.jpg

[awright2009]

So I ended up not having enough space for the last row, I mean, I could have forced it but aesthetically it would have been bad. I could have went 8 wide and did it that way, but I didnt want to kill both of my trees. So I have 6 extra panels, inverters, etc and can use those if one breaks or ceases to function or something. I still need to rent a trencher from home depot and dig the trench, run the 10 AWG cable from the panels to the combiner box and disconnect switch which are already mounted near the electric meter. And get a hammer drill rented to go from the disconnect through the wall to the circuit breakers in the garage. But I might hire an electrician to help with that part. Have a permit and HOA approval (HOA was less trouble, but took a lot longer than it should have) I view putting the panels up as the hard part, but with a flat surface the ecofoot2's work out pretty well, need to move the bricks over onto the trays still though

[J.P.M.]

So good news: https://ibb.co/gZY50Z7solar_install.jpg

Looks like you've got some shading issues there.

[awright2009]

Yeah, picture is taken pretty late in the day so the shadow of the house starts to hit it a bit, but morning through most of the afternoon it’s good. One solar company wanted to put a lot of panels on a north facing roof in their quote, which had me a bit disappointed. I put on a new roof already just in case I wanted to add panels up there, but after getting it up and seeing that it’s a $25,000 roof I’m reluctant to put any up. I’ll have to see what my production ends up being given some clipping, angles from south, shading etc, but hopefully it’ll be enough to bank credit in net metering for most of the year

[awright2009]

Hate to keep bumping my own thread, but figure I'll keep everything in the same post. Yesterday I dug the trench from the panels to the electric meter. I rented a 24" trencher from Home Depot, it comes on a trailer that doubles as a ramp. You could probably load/unload the thing by yourself without too much trouble, but I had help just in case. On this one you have to lock/unlock the wheels to get it to turn (both spin mean straight, one free means it pivots on the free wheel, both free means you aren't moving )

There is a slight learning curve to it, but take it slow and be sure to get deep cause that what you got it for. My biggest issues were that when the boom was down it would lift up the trencher (wheel off the ground and blades clogged with clay mud) and that the wheels would spin in the mud unless I had both locked. There is a slightly bigger 36" trencher that has tank tracks which I think would probably be worth upgrading to, and if you can find one with independent wheel controls instead of the locks you'll have a better time, cause locking and unlocking the wheels all the time kind of sucks

Pretty sure I had the BARRETO E924 24 IN TRENCHER

$200 to rent for me for the day, but again probably should have paid $20 more and got a bigger one with tank tracks.

Currently dealing with the power company to get permission to operate on december 1st and need to finish a few odds and ends, but getting pretty close to being operational

[awright2009]

power.png

So I filled everything like I was a company installer with Oncor's web page, the power "backend" company here in DFW, filled up a bunch of paper work and finally got permission to operate Tuesday, turned the switch on that night and had a pretty sunny day on Wednesday. My IQ Envoy is broken I've determined (no lights) so the only data I have is from my smart meter consumption above. Usually my house eats about 100 watts when I'm not home (as seen above) but during the day my usage went to *ZERO* so it's working.

Already talking with enphase and they are going to send me a replacement envoy here pretty soon. Mine was dead on arrival. I bought it on ebay, so no doubt they knew it was dead and sold it anyway, but it's been so long since the month of May when I bought it, so I dont have much recourse other than taking advantage of the 5 year warranty.

Very happy now, worst part of the whole process was dealing with the City permitting (huge ass holes at the permitting office) Hopefully when I get the envoy up I can be sure each panel is operating fine individually, and I still need a few odds and ends before getting the final inspection done, but I have until April so no rush there (tempted to just not do it, but having the permit inspection done with will definitely be a good thing to have in the future)

Think this will be my last post here, as there are tons of Envoy data charts on the internet already. Installing Solar yourself is possible, but not for the faint of heart. Get your permitting figured out before buying *any* equipment would be my best tip. The panel dimensions are all standardized so you shouldn't really need any equipment before getting a permit


Happy Thanksgiving!

[akwright2009]

power.png

https://ibb.co/Zgv2b7C

So I filled everything like I was a company installer with Oncor's web page, the power "backend" company here in DFW, filled up a bunch of paper work and finally got permission to operate Tuesday, turned the switch on that night and had a pretty sunny day on Wednesday. My IQ Envoy is broken I've determined (no lights) so the only data I have is from my smart meter consumption above. Usually my house eats about 100 watts when I'm not home (as seen above) but during the day my usage went to *ZERO* so it's working.

Already talking with enphase and they are going to send me a replacement envoy here pretty soon. Mine was dead on arrival. I bought it on ebay, so no doubt they knew it was dead and sold it anyway, but it's been so long since the month of May when I bought it, so I dont have much recourse other than taking advantage of the 5 year warranty.

Very happy now, worst part of the whole process was dealing with the City permitting (huge ass holes at the permitting office) Hopefully when I get the envoy up I can be sure each panel is operating fine individually, and I still need a few odds and ends before getting the final inspection done, but I have until April so no rush there (tempted to just not do it, but having the permit inspection done with will definitely be a good thing to have in the future)

Think this will be my last post here, as there are tons of Envoy data charts on the internet already. Installing Solar yourself is possible, but not for the faint of heart. Get your permitting figured out before buying *any* equipment would be my best tip. The panel dimensions are all standardized so you shouldn't really need any equipment before getting a permit


Happy Thanksgiving!

[nsgoldberg]

Looks great!

FYI, I used yoursolarplans.com. Very happy with their service. There were corrections required by the AHJ, and they turned them around on the same day. Good prices too. I'd use them again.