Solar, where do I get started?

First, get a design. Now I had a design in my last article, but I have not vetted it with any standards. I think I have little or no room to physically walk around on the roof, which you need – so I might need to augment my design to 2 less panels etc. You have to have all your equipment known and their certifications checked for your area – so you need to have your money on the table so to speak if you are going to do this. I am not quite there yet, but if I was… keep reading.

But, here are some links if you live in Calgary, AB, Canada. My WSP (wire service provider) is ENMAX and here is their Residential Renewable Generator Checklist. In that checklist are other sources for the organizations that govern all this for safety and orderly conduct (in my case the Alberta Utilities Commission micro-generator application guideline.

AutoCad and .Net – I have to take the plunge out of VBA/Active X sadly

Active X and VBA (from Excel from example) are SOOOOO cheap to design and debug, but on a more corporate level, VBA is shunned by IT as “impossible to manage” … and, it can be but I am using git to manage everything and it works fine. Agreed though, all the cool people are using .NET so I will too. Here is a custom list of my own resources I used to re-aquaint myself. I did this once before and noticed that it would cost the customer much more to do .NET and they advised me that VBA would be just fine. Alas … I get paid to do what I am told. I will be using c# (the only thing cooler would be node … but that is there too:-)) Continue reading

Ripping Word snibbets apart and storing them in a database

Here are some links for ripping Word Docs apart and storing bits here and there in a sql database to be later retrieved and re-glued.

Some similar systems

An initial design for Solar on the Roof

etiennes-house-pptxSo, a friend has gotten the $150 CDN survey done on his house, but I wanted to take a crack at it on my own being an engineer. However, I have already booked a master electrician doing an analysis of how large or small a system I can put in and he will look at my Electrical Panel and do the fnal tie-in (see my city’s permit checklist). This will help me know how many solar panels I can get, even if I don’t buy them all but buy a few a year. Using the Solar Handbook from my previous article, I used those formula and tables to calculate a real live solar installation on MY HOUSE. Here a pdf with all the math and discussion – my own engineering analysis.I am publishing a draft of it as it is the discussion point and my notes to write on tomorrow with the electrician..

There was a calculation missing from the handbook, that is the efficiency Continue reading

Going Solar? Here are some links to get started …

Lets put some context on this article as I live in Calgary, however, I live somewhere and so do you and it does matter. For example, I am doing a Grid Tie because that is what the power companies will allow me to do with permits etc. That totally affects the price. I will organize the links in the order that matters to get designing.

Books you should read

First Analysis Steps

  • Get you energy bills and look at the chart or get the last 12 of them.
  • pay a master electrician to tell you how big of a system you can build
  • one company in calgary, you pay $150 (CDN) and they come out and do an assessment. The cost of that is 100% refundable IF YOU GO WITH THEM – but is $150 that expensive for education of the $5000-$15000 you will be paying?

Continue reading