Interesting, nice project. I have PV panels since 2013 (3,12 kW in 12
panels on a flat roof). From my limited experience (but I did quite a bit
of reading before buying and installing them). Isn't it fairly easy to do
it yourself?
Just make sure the PV panels are well ventilated, as higher temperatures
will lower efficiency. This is a slightly 'counter intuitive' mechanism,
but the reason that higher solar-radiation figures don't translate linear
to higher revenues.
Also, if some panels get more shadow then others, plan to buy converters
per panel. Panels in a string (per converter) are as efficient as the least
productive among them...
You could share a picture of your roof? Just curious.
2016-03-08 18:05 GMT+01:00 Ken Norton <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx>:
> OK, so, a question to the collective.
>
> It looks like we might be staying put for a while yet. At least that
> is our current rumor. :)
>
> The house needs a new roof. (and repainting, and some windows...). We
> are in a good location for solar, and the house was actually designed
> and built as a passive solar home and was state-of-the-art, back in
> the '80s. Double wall construction, thermal mass, window setbacks for
> summer shading, heat exchanger, yada yada... Also, the roof was
> designed for the eventual inclusion of solar panels, that were never
> installed. It's time to get new roofing because the existing shingles
> have outlived their usefulness.
>
> So, the north half of the roof will obviously be shingled, but the
> south half would be well served by converting it to solar. Instead of
> shingles and panels added, I would prefer to go with integrated solar
> roofing. We have no restrictions on roofing in this neighborhood and
> the house is already of a contemporary (nerdy) design, so I don't have
> to hide the fact that the roof isn't like the neighbors' roofs. (10%
> of houses in our neighborhood are built solar).
>
> At issue is the fact that the integrated roofs aren't as efficient as
> the panels. This would not necessarily be a problem because I have
> enough roof area to make up for whatever short-falls. By doing a
> roofing replacement simultaneously, I have about $5000 in roofing cost
> recovery to work with to put towards solar. The south face roof has
> three segments. With panels, the center (highest) segment is able to
> provide energy neutral for all of our electrical needs. With two
> segments of panels, we would be able to be energy neutral for all
> electrical and heating needs. If all three segments were covered, we
> would be energy neutral for all house energy needs and power two
> plug-in hybrid vehicles. With integrated roofing, the lower efficiency
> would offset the cost of the system.
>
> The majority of the companies that make integrated roofing materials
> have gone out of business, but not all. The companies in Iowa selling
> solar roofs are not doing integrated, but the add-on panels. However,
> there are companies in the Kansas City area, which is near enough to
> us to work with.
>
> While I would really like to have a fully integrated PV solar roof
> (south face), I'm not finding the vendor jump out at me yet. And it
> also begs the question of whether or not I should even try going
> integrated or should I just do the PV panels over the roofing?
>
> Our location is good and our kWh/m /day numbers are about the same as
> Kansas City. KC is a little farther south, but we're just a little
> more out of the gulf flow.
>
> From a resale value perspective, we'll be OK with selling the house,
> as long as we can get the first year credits. We purchased our house
> way below market value and have about $100K upward mobility.
>
> I don't want to mess with anything other than PV. The house, already
> being passive solar, and the furnace/air still original and needing
> replacement, we can convert everything to electric.
>
> Suggestions? Thoughts?
>
> While we're at it, as some things need replacing and upgrading,
> anyway, and the house was state of the art when it was built in
> 1983-4, I'm tempted to pursue Passive House certification.
>
> --
> Ken Norton
> ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
> http://www.zone-10.com
> --
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