It's late November 2009. The PV panels, racks, and inverter have been sitting in the garage since April
The south wall of the house: poles in 7' deep holes filled with concrete, have been waiting since June
The first module catches some rays
The rack manufacturer insisted that the rack we had purchased was compatible with our panels...
...but they neglected to mention the fact that while the dimensions of the structure were fine, the mounting holes in the panels did not match the holes in the racking
but we had techies and tape measures and power tools.....
painting the pole before putting the cap on
assembling the cap to the frame support
and up it goes
day 2, and we have exchanged the ladders for scaffolding
Panel 1 is up!
Now, let's see if the second one fits too. But now that we have fastened it on, it's time to undo all the screws, because...
...the top panel needs to be installed before the centre one
So, let's slide it up and fasten it down.
And we move over to the other pole, so we don't need to disassemble the scaffold
6 panels on one pole - we are 3/4 done!
Just 3 more to go (but it's getting a bit dark)
The sun sets at 4:23 in Ottawa on November 29
Almost done, and lucky we had that worklight in the garage!
2.6kWatts of generation capacity - all we need now is wiring (and some sunshine)
Wiring is complete - just waiting for Ottawa Hydro to install the 2nd meter
Here is the box in the basement where the power from the PV system is connected to the main breaker panel
When it is cold and sunny, this array generates 2.7 kW
The inverter - full view
Close up of the inverter. It's early in the day, and a bit cloudy, so we are not up to full capacity
With the panels tilted to their winter angle, they are visible from the street, peeking out above the cedar hedge.
