Putting on Solar Panels

In 2011 Massachusetts initiated the SolarizeMass program and our town was one of the first 4 selected to participate that year. The program offered tax credits, subsidized installation costs, and other incentives if you purchased the system.

SunRun was the leasing company and Alteris/Real Good Solar was the installers. They had 2 Town Meetings that were videotaped. We didn’t know about them at the time but were able to view the videos later. From viewing the videos, it seemed like a no-brainer to get a system.

The first estimate/agreement in August 2011

We managed to get into the program before the deadline and they came out to evaluate our property. Originally we wanted to put the entire system on the barn roof. When we built we put in the largest cable available, but the distance from the house to the barn was too much for that size cable to carry the 10Kw load of the entire system.

Construction diagram for the 2 systems

So we had to split the system between the house and the barn to keep the 10Kw system. Fortunately we had built the passive solar house with excellent orientation and the 150 year old tobacco shed had been built with due East-West orientation for drying capability for tobacco. This gave us a rating of 98%.

When they did the estimate in August the estimator used our July electric bill of $125 and we were running 4 old freezers and 2 or 3 old fridges at that time. This determined the 10Kw system they would install. It was not big enough to cover all the usage but was the biggest system they were allowed to install.

New roof on October 2011

My husband had replaced the barn roof in 2000 - 2001 with metal. We had bought 50 year shingles a couple years back but had not yet installed them on the house. My husband had to do this before they could install the panels.

This was the last major project he would do on the farm due to his chronic illness and disability. A job that would normally have been a 2 day project for a healthy person took him 3 weeks to do. One half of the roof, with a 12/12 pitch, had to be torn off before re-roofing. But he got lucky and it didn’t rain during that period.

Roof with 12/12 pitch

There was a HUGE amount of paperwork we had to read and sign, for the installers, SunRun leasing, and our electric company. Once we got through all that they could put us on the list for the installation.

They started the installing at the barn in December 2011. Our barn electrical panel had been installed in what was a grain room but had been converted to a chicken coop. It was a 60 amp panel and it was not big enough. They decided to put in a 150 amp panel and move it into another non-livestock area in the barn. The inverter was installed on the northwest corner of the outside of the barn.

Barn installation December 2011

They ran some of our electrical into conduit and all of their wiring was in conduit. This was to make the electrical inspector happy. They really went far above and beyond in installing this system.

New 150 amp panel in the barn

Inverter and meter at the barn

Barn finished

They installed the panels on the barn and did an excellent job. No leaks to date and no dents in the metals. They then moved up to do the house in January 2012.

Because we had used heavier shingles, they had to use special flashing. The installation on the house was straight forward and again, no leaks or shingle damage.

Inverter in the rod shop

We had put in a sub-panel when we put the addition on the house and it was plenty large enough for the install. The inverter went into the cellar on the new side in what was my husband’s custom rod building shop (http://www.turnerscustomrods.com/). He wasn’t able to work down there for about a week during the install.

House meter

House install finished

The install was perfect; they had no reason to return for anything. Real Good Solar was an excellent outfit to work with. (If you should decide to have a system installed by Real Good Solar or SunRun, please mention we told you about them as we get an award if you install a system.)

The first year, 2012, we were eligible to replace the freezers through Fuel Assistance with new ones. This caused our usage to drop and by the end of the year 2012 we had a credit of $774. By the end of 2014 the credit had grown to $1200.

Two years ago SunRun changed out the meters, updating them. The inverters are good for about 7 years so sometime in the next 2 years SunRun will be replacing them. None of this costs us anything. The system cost $44,000 to install. We just have an electric bill of $78.38/mo. for 20 years.