Sunday, January 25, 2009

Both of our solar power systems are live!

Both of our new solar power systems are online & producing power! 

Here are some pictures of the panels and the sensors showing how much is being produced. They were both activated this month. The 4 solar thermal panels by Shuco (a German company) are on the left. The 10 photovoltaic panels are on the right. The PV panels are made by Evergreen of Marlboro, MA. Solectria of North Andover makes the inverter and electronics.



At 10:30AM this morning, the 2kW PV system was producing more than 1400W (see picture of Solectria meter). I checked the regular electric meter and it showed us delivering power back onto the grid! At times like this, we are delivering power for use by everyone.



At 10:30AM today, it was a 16 degree winter morning, but the solar thermal panels were at 131 degrees. When the panels are above 120 degrees, the pump comes on to circulate glycol to the panels to produce our hot water.

The hot water tank is 150 gallons, with a bottom heating loop fed by the solar thermal panels. This loop heats the entire tank. The top heating loop is fed by the high efficiency gas boiler (made by the German company Buderus). 

If there is enough sun, the solar thermal panels will heat the water tank up to 140 degrees, and a mixing valve delivers 120 degree water for use. 

If the water temperature falls below 120 degrees because we have cloudy days or need more hot water water than the panels produce, the gas boiler comes on to keep the hot water tank at 120 degrees. Hot water temperature stratification means that the gas boiler only heats the top half of the tank. 


Both systems were installed by Nexamp, based right here in North Andover. These guys were great. I recommend them highly.

All quite amazing.












Here's the way it looks with the siding completed. Much better look!





1 comment:

  1. Hi Mark! I am so impressed with both your solar power systems and your blog. Thanks for creating energy for us!

    ReplyDelete