Installing our Photovoltaic System, part V

Inspections.  There are three inspections.  When scheduling the inspections,  thou shalt count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceedest on to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then you are done.

The inspections satisfy some needed safety concern.  The first inspection is the electrical inspection.  I know the local inspection agency from several other projects and they are familiar with my work, so this one usually goes pretty easily.  I hand him the three line drawing, he looks it over, we catch up on things, he peers into the disconnect switches, shakes the ground wire, looks at the service entrance panels, asks how I like these new inverters, etc.  It usually ends with “nice work, that will be $120.00, certificate is in the mail” and he is off.

The next one is the utility company inspector.  They already have the paper work that was submitted with the application for a net metering account.  Generally, they come out and verify the inverters shut down during a power outage, then proceed to write every scrap of information down that they can find, disconnect switch ratings and model numbers, inverter power factors, breaker ratings, etc.  They stand in the yard and peer up and the panels, point and mumble amongst themselves.  Fortunately, there is no charge for this inspection.

The final, final inspection is with the town building code enforcement officer.  He comes out, looks at it, asks for and receives a copy of the electrical inspection certificate.  Asks if everything is installed the way the manufacture specifies, looks at it some more from a different angle, then knocks it twice with the heal of his hand and says “Yup, that isn’t going anywhere.”

A few days later the certificate of use arrives in the mail and the project is done!  Yay!

So, now for a few exciting things, first of all, if you have never witnessed a power meter turning backwards, here is a little video:

This is a video of the panels in action, generating power:

Finally, this is a monitoring page from my solar company website.  It shows how much power each panel is generating, how much power the system has generated and what the peak power output is on any given day.

Catskillhouse PV system

Or

www.sun-volt.com/pages/pvmonitor.html

That site has pictures of the system and a three line diagram.