One MegaWattHour
Today, our solar electric system finished generating it’s first MegaWattHour (MWh). That happened in about a month, given that we turned the panels on for real on June 14 and they had run in test for one week.
Of course, that’s ideal performance. We haven’t had many rainy or cloudy days in the last month and these are the longest days of the year. I’m sure this will be balanced by days where the panels are snow-covered in the winter. However, it’s looking good!
PSE&G Confusion
Our new meter was read on June 21, 2004. When last Friday (July 9) had come without a bill, I got suspicious.
I called PSE&G customer service. It seems that in the change of meters, the system never generated a monthly bill for us. The customer service representative said he’d get one generated.
Moral of the story – watch your utility like a hawk after installing solar panels.
Have Questions?
It occurs to me that some of you who are considering PV solar for their home or office might be a little concerned about bothering us with questions.
Please don’t be. If we have information that can help (especially if we haven’t managed to post it here), please send us a note at markrsmith@gmail.com.
We’ll be glad to help if we can, and I might even do a little digging for your answer if I don’t already know it.
NJ BPU Commissioner Walks the Talk
New Jersey Board of Public Utilities Commissioner Connie Hughes is the first state utility board commissioner in the country to install a solar electric system on her home. (Press Release)
Her home includes a 9.9 kW solar electric system, a thermal solar system for her pool, and passive solar features on the south side of their house. She shares the home with her husband, James – a Dean at Rutgers University (our alma mater!).
I wonder how long it took her to get the various approvals required?
UPDATE: 7/7/2004 – They have pictures up on the NJ BPU Home Page, at least temporarily. It looks like Sharp panels, and almost definately the same inverters that we have (she has 3).
Some Early Numbers
We officially turned our solar electric system on last Monday evening. As of last night, we have some early production numbers.
For the past week, our system produced 210 KWh of electricity. It was a particularly sunny week, including the longest days of the year. Last month while we were in test mode, we produced 183 KWh during a cloudy week.
For June of 2003 (reading on about the 20th of the month), we used 790 KWh. For June of 2002, we used about 900 KWh.
If you multiply the 200 KWh by 4 (for four weeks in the month), we’re due to produced about 750-800 KWh. That is well over the 2/3 of usage estimate, but it’s only one month.
July will be tougher – with the air conditioning requirement last year we used 1460 KWh, against which we’ll probably produce about 750-800 KWh.
Looking good so far!
Meter Confusion
Today is meter reading day. My wife happened to be home and working outside, so when the reader wandered by, she walked over.
Apparently, he was confused as our new meter was not on his list. He made a few phone calls, and that got resolved. Apparently, even though they can read it via the phone line, he still has to record the number as a double-check.
Today will be the end of the first week – tomorrow I’ll post some numbers. I won’t have any real comparison to usage until next month when we get a bill for an entire month with the system active.
Final Approval
We got final verbal approval from PSE&G today! We’ll be turning the inverters on permanently tonight.
Our installer called his PSE&G contact, and was told that we could have turned on the system as soon as the meter was replaced. Of course, that isn’t written anywhere (in fact, the tariffs say you have to wait until your next meter reading after filing as a minimum). We decided to stick with the letter of the rules until we got some communication from PSE&G.
We should be getting the letter from them soon with the signed agreement.
Solar Installation Site Index
On May 25, 2004 the installation of solar panels on our house in Hamilton, NJ was completed.
This index lists all interesting entries for this project. Click the links below to go directly to that article.
The System We Chose (Jan 28, 2004) (NOTE: Some technical details changed later.)
A Little About Us (Jan 28, 2004)
How It Will Work (Jan 29, 2004) (NOTE: We ended up not using a sub-panel.)
Some of The Components (Feb 3, 2004) (NOTE: We ended up with the 175-watt cousin of the 185-watt panels mentioned here)
Switching Panels (“Latest Update”) (Mar 29, 2004)
Permit Delays (“More Delays”) (Apr 8, 2004)
Township Permit Issues (“Yet Another Update”) (Apr 23, 2004)
Permit in Hand! (Apr 29, 2004)
INSTALLATION Day 1 (May 3, 2004) – PICTURES – setup
Homeowner’s Insurance and PV Systems (May 3, 2004)
INSTALLATION Day 2 (May 4, 2004) – PICTURES – rail installation
INSTALLATION Day 3 (May 5, 2004) – PICTURES – roof wiring
INSTALLATION Day 4 (May 6, 2004) – PICTURES – most of the panels
INSTALLATION Day 5 (May 10, 2004) – PICTURES – last panel, wiring conduit
INSTALLATION Day 6 (May 18, 2004) – PICTURES – inside electrical, installation complete
Final Cost Roundup (May 20, 2004) – includes payback information
Inspections (May 25, 2004) – township and NJ Clean Energy Program
Phone Line Installation (Jun 8, 2004)
New Meter Installation (Jun 10, 2004) – PICTURES
Reading the Meter, PSE&G Billing (Aug 4, 2004)
Jersey Solar, LLC – A Review (Aug 27, 2004)
In addition to those entries, there are many other “still waiting” entries, entries about other people’s installations, and entries containing my thoughts on solar energy topics. You can most easily find those by choosing an Archive month link at the left.
New Meter
As I mentioned below, the new phone line was installed for our electronic meter. I called from it to my house the other day, and “PSE&G” came up on caller ID.
Today, I called and a machine answered with a single beep! I think we may have the new meter installed. I won’t know for sure until I get home tonight. If that’s the case, we may be able to turn our solar panels on as soon as tomorrow (or even today).
I’ll try to post pictures tonight, as long as there isn’t a severe thunderstorm going on when I get home (they are calling for one).
UPDATE: They did install the new meter. Here it is:
The meter is a replacement of the old mechanical meter. Also, the box attached to the lower left corner of the meter box is new – I think it includes the modem. It’s locked, so I can’t tell for sure.
This is a close-up of the new meter. I have no idea what the things on the screen mean – I’ll have to do some digging on the net to find out.
We are now waiting for verbal permission (to be obtained – hopefully – by our installer through his contacts tomorrow) to turn the panels on. At some point soon, we should receive the signed interconnection agreement and we can turn them on then anyway.
Phone Line Installed
Verizon installed the phone line yesterday – 1 day shy of 2 weeks after I mailed the PSE&G interconnection agreement, and about 1 week after they cashed my check.
They installed what seems to be a POTS line (normal, dial tone line) with a local phone number. Verizon left a modular station wire attached to the telephone network interface with the phone number written on the baggie.
I guess that this means that PSE&G can install the meter any day. Looking at their tariffs, there’s a chance they might wait until my next meter-reading day – which should be June 20 or thereabouts. Or, maybe I’ll come home tonight and find it done.
Web Stuff
