Solar Installation Case Study
We will walk through each step of the solar installation in this case study. This case study demonstrates the thinking process, designing steps, and the actual installation processes.
This solar job was performed for a client who lives in Claremont, California. The house is 3400 square feet and was built in 1958. Despite using energy efficient appliances and employing energy saving techniques, the electricity bill remained high. The client's electricity usage often entered "Tier 5" of Souther California Edison's tier system. Although the general recommended guideline is to obtain 2 watt per square footage of the house, the client elected to go with a 5000 watt system, instead of a 6800 watt system.
This solar job was performed for a client who lives in Claremont, California. The house is 3400 square feet and was built in 1958. Despite using energy efficient appliances and employing energy saving techniques, the electricity bill remained high. The client's electricity usage often entered "Tier 5" of Souther California Edison's tier system. Although the general recommended guideline is to obtain 2 watt per square footage of the house, the client elected to go with a 5000 watt system, instead of a 6800 watt system.
came to our house a number of times to present the paperwork, as well as to measure the house. For solar panels to be most productive, they should be installed facing south. However, the back of our house faces southeast. made two measurements, one facing southeast and one facing southwest to see where we would get most for our money. He submitted paperwork to Southern California Edison for the reimbursement, as well as to see which direction would be most beneficial for us.
mention leasing to me, but my wife and I decided to go ahead and purchase the panels. Because this would be the most beneficial in the long run. We did drag our feet a little, because this is quite a large investment and I wasn't sure if right now is the time. Solar panels have been dropping in price, as the market is seeing more competition. From my calculation, it'll take about 6-7 years to recover the cost. From purely the financial standpoint, I wasn't too enthusiastic because it takes years to benefit from the panels. But we thought about the environmental impact. We have two small children, what would we want to be the future for them? Eventually, we decided to go for it, for financial and environmental reasons.
pictures of the inverter
Here are pictures of the inverter. It's interesting to see all the inner-working of an inverter... very impressive. Below the inverter is the switch. Turn to "1" for on and "0" for off. How simple can it be? We received the letter from Souther California Edison in one week to confirm out connection and permission to turn it on!
This has been a very easy process, Power Electric and Solar took care of all the paperwork and the legwork for us. The only thing that I really did was signing the contract, that was it. Of course, in order to get the federal tax credit, I'll need to file it with my tax return next year. But overall, I'm impressed, yet again, with team's professionalism and workmanship."
