Notify Ripely! County Approves Solar Installation.

[LowGear]

Yep!

The county electrical inspector just left this morning and will not be returning for a while.  Thank Goodness!

We put up 15 SolarWorld 240 watt panels connected to a Sunny Boy 6000 inverter.  And it has peaked a couple of times at over 3000 watts.

The next step is HELCO, Hawaii Electrical Company, applying for a net grid tie agreement.  You all cross your fingers - Ya Hear.

Casey

[rcavictim]

Casey,

You da'Man!   

BTW, you might want to check the spelling of Ripley.  Yes believe it or not! 

What are those modules in the wooden box on the left of the inverter? 

[mbryner]

Very nice, Casey!

[Tom Reed]

It is nice to finally achieve their blessings on your project. My inspector breezed through the inspection so fast I'm still not quite sure every thing is right, but it does work well. Welcome to the solar club, where you get a real charge of a sunny day!

[LowGear]

Hi rcavictim,

The small boxes to the left are remote water meter read-outs from the previous Menehune Energy Lab, MEL, two years back.  Stored water is energy.  They're called Read-O-Matics and can be wired for 10s of feet with 18 gauge bell wire or cat 5 for a few feet as I did.  Its some sort of pulse DC program.  I scored a bunch of them on Ebay.  The meter heads have to be compatible and the system is manufactured by Badger.  Mounted on the erasable note board makes short term tracking really easy.  I spotted a left on hose bib day before yesterday.

http://cgi.ebay.com/BADGER-WATER-METER-READ-O-MATIC-cubic-ft-58550-002-/250652343461?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a5c0b3ca5 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Water-Meter-Made-Badger-Meter-Read-O-Matic-WORKING-/260697574436?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cb2c94c24

When I start spelling two syllable words correctly that aren't in my Firefox spell check then someone should notify Ripley.  This challenge to my academic prosperity has been an ass kicker since the third grade.  Just ask any of my principles. 

Casey

[rcavictim]

Hi rcavictim,

The small boxes to the left are remote water meter read-outs from the previous Menehune Energy Lab, MEL, two years back.  Stored water is energy.  They're called Read-O-Matics and can be wired for 10s of feet with 18 gauge bell wire or cat 5 for a few feet as I did.  Its some sort of pulse DC program.  I scored a bunch of them on Ebay.  The meter heads have to be compatible and the system is manufactured by Badger.  Mounted on the erasable note board makes short term tracking really easy.  I spotted a left on hose bib day before yesterday.

http://cgi.ebay.com/BADGER-WATER-METER-READ-O-MATIC-cubic-ft-58550-002-/250652343461?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a5c0b3ca5 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Water-Meter-Made-Badger-Meter-Read-O-Matic-WORKING-/260697574436?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cb2c94c24

When I start spelling two syllable words correctly that aren't in my Firefox spell check then someone should notify Ripley.  This challenge to my academic prosperity has been an ass kicker since the third grade.  Just ask any of my principles. 

Casey

Water meters?  So that would be hydro then!    Here in most of Canada the electrical provider is called Hydro.  I guess then the water utility ought to be called electric.  Morons!

I know what you mean about spell chekerz.  The one in my googlemail is absolutely useless.

[Carlb]

Since you went with the Sb 6000 inverters you now have to add more panels to take advantage of the extra capacity of the inverter.  Wasn't it fun lifting that monster on to its mounting bracket?

[LowGear]

rcavictim:

The people of the United States of America decided Camp Aloha should have an improved irrigation system - our hydro project.  So we put in a catchment tank and irrigation lines from one end of the farm to the other.  The National Resource Conservation Service, NRCS, has many community help and support programs.  The irrigation one was limited by 75% or a fixed estimate cost.  Spend as much as you want but the buck stops here.  As a few astronauts have pondered as they wait for The "0", "Nice stuff costs more."   So damn the torpedoes and build exactly what you want.  I did the math and figured that the Feds got most of their money back in taxes by the third rotation when you include the taxes on our intended cost over-runs.  And less pressure on the wells of South Kona is a good thing especially when you consider the water is just going to be poured on the ground.

This solar thing was a simple fixed grant.  Prove you spent this amount and we'll give you this check.  My neighbor put up 6 panels at a final out of pocket cost of about $100 per panel.

After two sub-panels and 180' of conduit ditch we didn't do so well.  But back when we were supplying MEL with 10-3 W/grd the compressor wouldn't start.  It now starts.  But the ditch damn near buried us. 

Carlb:

You're absolutely right about that puppy being a heavy dude - 153 pounds.  My neighbor and I barely got it up.    Actually we used the tractor to get it close and then just grunted it over about two feet into place.  Dropping was not an alternative.

The fifteen panels have delivered more than 3000 watts many times so that would suggest if we put another bank of 15 panels up the inverter might go into stand-by.  We'll need 8 more feet on MEL before that question becomes relevant.  What's your opinion?  Another 15 or another 13 and have two banks of 14 each.  The 15th panel probably pulls in an extra 30 minutes or so of low wattage energy in the morning and evening.

Casey

[Carlb]

I put 5600 watts into each of my two sb5000 inverters and have never had them go offline because of too much power.  The most I have seen produced from each of my sb5000 inverters was 5115 watts.  You can go to SMA Americas site and see which option would be best for the sb6000.  I would go for 28@240 with 14 per string for a total input of 6720. That will give you good performance and pretty much max out that inverter. You will not be able to get away with #10 wire and I suspect #8 or even #6 depending on the distance from the inverter to the load center.

[LowGear]

Hi CarlB,

At two strings of 14 I'd only have to buy 13 more.  I'll let you know what SMA and Art Russel, the system designer, think about 7200 VS. 6720.  I did question Russel about the 15 because the SMA array optimizer site (something like that) considered 15 as too many.  I think this isn't about wattage maximums but rather DC voltage to the SB 6000.  But when I look at the specs for the 6000, below, the maximum wattage is 7500 and voltage is 600 with a MPP voltage range of 250 to 480.  I think that start voltage of 300 is the interesting number and the one that calls for maximum panels and the earliest possible start each morning and the minimum voltage of 250 suggesting when the end of the collection day is going to occur.  The more panels you have the easier it is to get to or maintain these gateway values.  Russel answered that I should start to worry about the extra panel when the panels drop to 50 F or less and are in perfect aligned with the sun at Summer solstice.  Ain't gonna happen in Kona.

http://www.sma-america.com/en/products/solar-inverters/sunny-boy/sunny-boy-5000-us-6000-us-7000-us-8000-us.html 

Of course if I could go 13 and 14 (27 total) I could cut 40 inches off my roof extension.  The array is 3 panels portrait vertical so 28 panels is the same width as 30 but 27 is a full column shorter.  "Too, too, too, too much is usually just enough."

Russel required #6 for both runs.  Those would be the main breaker panel to the first sub-panel (80 feet) and from the first sub-panel to the second (200 feet).  We learned that too much wire lube is a lot better than almost not enough.  Words that should fall upon the beginners ears - loudly!

Casey

[mike90045]

I put 5600 watts into each of my two sb5000 inverters and have never had them go offline because of too much power.  ... 

MPPT stuff just limits its output, thermal sensor, or wattage in the firmware.  You could hook up to 15KW of panels, and it will just self-limit for the 3 hours or so you have excess PV capacity.

[mike90045]

#6 for both runs.  Those would be the main breaker panel to the first sub-panel (80 feet) and from the first sub-panel to the second (200 feet).  We learned that too much wire lube is a lot better than almost not enough.  Words that should fall upon the beginners ears - loudly ! 

Amen !  I broke my 950' run into 4 sections to be able to pull it.  A puller and pusher at each site, along with 8 quarts of lube (2 per site) and a "finger cuff" puller on a mule tape got it done, and each spool had about 20' left on it - I forgot to calculate the risers (and fallers) at each pull station (4' deep trench)

[LowGear]

Ya All be careful who's in the room when you google "finger cuff"! 

We had a puller and a pusher as well.  We used "poly-something-or-rather" line that we had for binding packages as our mule line.  That is some strong stuff.  Next time we'll use two quarts too.  The first quart just in the conduit all by itself before the wire even starts.  I think the small rag that was saturated with the lube stuff put on the front of the pull did help.  Too much lube would be an awful lot.

Casey

[mike90045]

and a "finger cuff" puller on a mule tape got it done

say what

common biaxial braid

[rcavictim]

I know that 'finger cuff puller' as a Chinese finger puzzle.  The doodad shown that goes on the end of a cable is called a Kellam's Grip.