The Woody Guthrie song made famous by Peter, Paul and Mary came to mind as I tried to crawl out of bed this morning.
“Where have all the backbones gone, long time passing? Where have all the muscles gone, long time ago……”
Our solar power system needed an upgrade to supply more kilowatts, so DH and I trundled off to our friendly neighborhood solar supply store and bought 21 new panels: each supplies 225 watts and each weighs 45 pounds. They must be screwed into a set of rails which in turn are screwed to the metal roof. DH spent 3 days attaching the 6 rails and after much measuring, bolting, siliconing, we were ready for the panels.
The roof is 25 feet off the ground. The panels weigh 45 pounds each. Each of which must be…..somehow…..gotten from ground level to roof level. Rather than trying to slide them up the side of a 25 foot ladder, DH carried each panel up to the upstairs lanai. He and I then transferred them over the porch rail to the roof over the bedroom,and from there I held them in place till he could climb the 6 feet from the bedroom roof to the main roof, take the panel from me and carry it to the other side where it would be screwed to the rail.
21 times.
THEN the panels have to be hardwired into the main inverter system (which converts the dc solar power to ac house power). Number 2 wire was used so that there would be minimal drop in voltage as power travels 100 feet from house to inverter. Big wire. Tough wire. Stiff wire which had to be wrestled into place .
It was all finished last night.
And today at 7:30 am, 2.4 KW was being produced, more than 5 times what we were producing with the previous system.
Praise God and pass the advil.
Comments & Feedback