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March Banter 2021


George BM
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11 hours ago, vastateofmind said:

Bringing over from obs thread. I've seen what looks like older solar systems on several roofs in the neighborhood over the years, but know nothing about them (nor whether those neighbors have been happy/unhappy with them). Legit question though -- realizing that installs vary based on the size of the roof/home, do solar panels add a lot of extra weight to your roof? Or have manufacturers slimmed them down a lot over the years?

The weight isn't a factor with a properly installed rail system that's anchored to roof trusses. There are skirts at the bottom to help with wind.  Strong southerly winds could definitely get some pull away force going if they got beneath the panels.  Common sense just as you wouldn't keep a garage door open during a bad storm! ;) The biggest issue is shingle age and type.  I've never liked 3 tab shingles.  And shoddy roofers that don't tear off old shingles and install another 15-20 year roof on those!  That weight adds up fast!  And any contractor that wants to put new dimensional/architectural shingles over old!  Run don't walk away from those guys!

Most lease/PPAs will allow temp shutdown/removal/reinstall for a very reasonable price.  The contracts are 20 years and if your roof is new (ours needed replacing so my system was installed over a new roof) you should not have to worry about it outside storm damage, et al.  But if the roof is OK but still near EOL within the system contract / life expectancy paying a $500 fee for them to take it down and store for up to a month and then reinstall is a bargain!  The only thing you lose is (up to) a month of production.  Maybe do that in January haha.

Solar efficiency has gone up, way up as well as component prices come down.  We have two arrays on the house and a third on a shop building with two inverters.  51 300W panels total.  They use optimizers and the ABB inverters are 98% efficient.  The 4.2kW inverter on the shop doesn't even have a fan!  The 12kW main inverter does.  It's a grid tie system so it does NOT produce electricity if the utility power goes off.  We do have several backup sources as we cannot be without power due to livestock and other things.  I've looked into storage and whole facility line interactive systems but they are prohibitively expensive.  We have 3 phase power on the street, I'd love to have a 500kVA 13.2k to 480 pad transformer here but again $$$!

Everything's digital/smart with net metering, too bad as I'd love to have a traditional electromagnetic meter (spinning disc).  On sunny spring days with no AC or heat that sucker would be spinning backwards like my Love Over Gold CD in my Sony discman (back in 1988). ;)  The meter does have a segmented LCD indicator that provides that function but nothing beats a 'real' meter!

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Goodbye to the most disappointing wx headline in human history.  Nothing worse than an Advisory.    It's like the Great Value brand of headlines.   Or Mountain Drop instead of Mountain Dew.   It's like when you were young and you asked your mom for McDonalds and she'd say..."well, I got McDonalds right here.....and proceeds to get some ground beef out of the fridge and make it into a patty and put on plain white bread.   

I was abused as a child.  

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9 minutes ago, stormtracker said:

Goodbye to the most disappointing wx headline in human history.  Nothing worse than an Advisory.    It's like the Great Value brand of headlines.   Or Mountain Drop instead of Mountain Dew.   It's like when you were young and you asked your mom for McDonalds and she'd say..."well, I got McDonalds right here.....and proceeds to get some ground beef out of the fridge and make it into a patty and put on plain white bread.   

I was abused as a child.  

Same here. I remember well the hamburgers on what my grandparents called “light bread”.

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26 minutes ago, stormtracker said:

Goodbye to the most disappointing wx headline in human history.  Nothing worse than an Advisory.    It's like the Great Value brand of headlines.   Or Mountain Drop instead of Mountain Dew.   It's like when you were young and you asked your mom for McDonalds and she'd say..."well, I got McDonalds right here.....and proceeds to get some ground beef out of the fridge and make it into a patty and put on plain white bread.   

I was abused as a child.  

It was always was a kick in the nuts when you have a Winter Storm Watch then it goes to an advisory.  

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8 minutes ago, yoda said:

Big earthquake in the Pacific... M8.0... Tsunami Watch issued for Hawaii.  Tsunami Warnings for parts of NZ

third one today in the same area. def thought the most recent one was a repeat tweet from this mornings. oof.

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Happy hour from earlier?? My job sucks...unless you like beer fresh off a Laverne and Shirley canning line at 1:00pm on a random Thursday in March (I mean Morch). 
 

PS—so mad they hand me beer at the start of the most useless run of the Euro this year. :lol::lol:

41F75F68-976D-4984-9843-A9FBF3362C72.jpeg

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